Did Franklin Pierce do anything bad?

Answer 1

Pierce had a good cabinet and he was honest, although he drank too much. There was an international incident that leaked out over attempts to buy Cuba and a veiled threat to take it by force if it could not be bought.

Answer 2

If you divide US presidents into two equal-sized groups and label one as bad and the other as good. Pierce would go into the bad group, I think. He was put into a bad situation and he was not enough of a genius to master it. The country was falling apart over slavery and Pierce put into power by leaders of Congress with the expectation that they would make the decisions and he would rubber stamp them.

He also had unusual personal problems, since his last remaining son was tragically killed just before he took office and his wife who had hated Washington in past and had a weak psyche anyway virtually cracked up. Pierce weakness for alcohol did not help.

Answer 3

Pierce did nothing that I would call bad except, maybe drink too much. He made mistakes as President but I think he did the best he could.