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LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 BY 
 
 NATHANIEL HJ.WTHORNE, 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 TICKNOR, REED, AND FIELDS. 
 
 M DCCC LII. 
 
 O 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by 
 Nathaniel Hawthorne, 
 
 In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 STEREOTYPED AT THE 
 
 BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 
 
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 PREF ACE. 
 
 The author of this memoir — being so little of a poli- 
 tician that he scarcely feels entitled to call himself a mem- 
 ber of any party — would not voluntarily have undertaken 
 the work here offered to the public. Neither can he flatter 
 himself that he has been remarkably successful in the per- 
 formance of his task, viewing it in the light of a political 
 biography, and as a representation of the principles and 
 acts of a public man, intended to operate upon the minds 
 of multitudes, during a presidential canvass. This species 
 of writing is too remote from his customary occupations 
 
 — and, he may add, from his tastes — to be very satisfac- 
 torily done, without more time and practice than he would 
 be willing to expend for such a purpose. If this little 
 biography have any value, it is probably of another kind 
 
 — as the narrative of one who knew the individual of 
 whom he treats, at a period of life when character could 
 be read with undoubting accuracy, and who, consequently, 
 in judging of the motives of his subsequent conduct, has 
 an advantage over much more competent observers, whose 
 knowledge of the man may have commenced at a later 
 date. Nor can it be considered improper, (at least the 
 author will never feel it so, although some foolish delicacy 
 be sacrificed in the undertaking,) that when a friend, dear 
 to him almost from boyish days, stands up before his coun- 
 try, misrepresented by indiscriminate abuse, on the one 
 
4 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 hand, and by aimless praise, on the other, lie should be 
 sketched by one who has had opportunities of knowing 
 him well, and who is certainly inclined to tell the truth. 
 
 It is perhaps right to say, that while this biography is 
 so far sanctioned by General Pierce, as it comprises a 
 generally correct narrative of the principal events of his 
 life, the author does not understand him as thereby neces- 
 sarily indorsing all the sentiments put forth by himself, 
 in the progress of the work. These are the author’s own 
 speculations upon the facts before him, and may, or may 
 not, be in accordance with the ideas of the individual 
 whose life he writes. That individual’s opinions, however, 
 — so far as it is necessary to know them, — may be read, 
 in his straightforward and consistent deeds, with more 
 certainty than those of almost any other man now before 
 the public. 
 
 The author, while collecting his materials, has received 
 liberal aid from all manner of people — whigs and demo- 
 crats, congressmen, astute lawyers, grim old generals of 
 militia, and gallant young officers of the Mexican war — 
 most of whom, however, he must needs say, have rather 
 abounded in eulogy of General Pierce, than in such anec- 
 dotical matter as is calculated for a biography. Among 
 the gentlemen to whom he is substantially indebted, he 
 would mention Hon. C. G. Atherton, Hon. S. H. Ayer, 
 Hon. Joseph Hall, Chief Justice Gilchrist, Isaac O. Barnes, 
 Esq., Col. T. J. Whipple, and Mr. C. J. Smith. He has 
 likewise derived much assistance from an able and accurate 
 sketch, that originally appeared in the Boston Post, and 
 was drawn up, as he believes, by the junior editor of that 
 journal. 
 
 Concord, (Mass.,) August 27, 1852. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 HIS PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS SERVICES IN THE STATE AND NATIONAL LEGISLA- 
 TURES, 19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIS SUCCESS AT THE BAR, 49 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MEXICAN WAR.— HIS JOURNAL OF THE MARCH 
 
 FROM VERA CRUZ, ,66 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HIS SERVICES IN THE VALLEY OF MEXICO 95 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COMPROMISE AND OTHER MATTERS, 109 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HIS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY, 128 
 
 NOTE A, 139 
 
 NOTE B, 140 
 
 1 * 
 
 223943 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HIS PARENTAGE AND EARLY LIFE. 
 
 Franklin Pierce was bom at Hillsborough, in 
 the State of New Hampshire, on the 23d of No- 
 vember, 1804. His native county, at the period 
 of his birth, covered a much more extensive ter- 
 ritory than at present, and might reckon among 
 its children many memorable men, and some illus- 
 trious ones. General Stark, the hero of Benning- 
 ton, Daniel Webster, Levi Woodbury, Jeremiah 
 Smith, the eminent jurist, and governor of the 
 state, General James Miller, General McNeil, Sen- 
 ator Atherton, were natives of old Hillsborough 
 county. 
 
 General Benjamin Pierce, the father of Frank- 
 lin, was one of the earliest settlers in the town 
 of Hillsborough, and contributed as much as any 
 other man to the growth and prosperity of the 
 county. He was born in 1757, at Chelmsford, 
 now Lowell, in Massachusetts. Losing his parents 
 
8 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 early, he grew up under the care of an uncle, amid 
 such circumstances of simple fare, hard labor, and 
 scanty education as usually fell to the lot of 
 a New England yeoman’s family some eighty or 
 a hundred years ago. On the 19th of April, 1775, 
 being then less than eighteen years of age, the strip- 
 ling was at the plough, when tidings reached him 
 of the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord. He 
 immediately loosened the ox chain, left the plough 
 in the furrow, took his uncle’s gun and equipments, 
 and set forth towards the scene of action. From 
 that day, for more than seven years, he never 
 saw his native place. He enlisted in the army, 
 was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, and after 
 serving through the whole revolutionary war, and 
 fighting his way upward from the lowest grade, 
 returned, at last, a thorough soldier, and com- 
 mander of a company. He was retained in the 
 army as long as that body of veterans had a 
 united existence ; and, being finally disbanded, 
 at West Point, in 1784, was left with no other 
 reward, for nine years of toil and danger, than 
 the nominal amount of his pay in the Continental 
 currency — then so depreciated as to be almost 
 worthless. 
 
 In 1785, being employed as agent to explore a 
 tract of wild land, he purchased a lot of fifty acres 
 in what is now the town of Hillsborough. In the 
 spring of the succeeding year, he built himself a 
 log hut, and began the clearing and cultivation of 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 9 
 
 his tract. Another year beheld him married to his 
 first wife, Elizabeth Andrews, who died within a 
 twelvemonth after their union, leaving a daughter, 
 the present widow of General John McNeil. In 
 1789, he married Anna Kendrick, with whom he 
 lived about half a century, and- who bore him 
 eight children, of whom Franklin was the sixth. 
 
 Although the revolutionary soldier had thus be- 
 taken himself to the wilderness for a subsistence, 
 his professional merits were not forgotten by those 
 who had witnessed his military career. As early 
 as 1786, he was appointed brigade major of the 
 militia of Hillsborough county, then first organized 
 and formed into a brigade. And it was a still 
 stronger testimonial to his character as a soldier, 
 that, nearly fifteen years afterwards, during the 
 presidency of John Adams, he was offered a high 
 command in the northern division of the army 
 which was proposed to be levied in anticipation 
 of a war with the French republic. Inflexibly 
 democratic in his political faith, however, Major 
 Pierce refused to be implicated in a policy which 
 he could not approve. “ No, gentlemen,” said he 
 to the delegates, who urged his acceptance of the 
 commission, “ poor as I am, and acceptable as 
 would be the position under other circumstances, 
 I would sooner go to yonder mountains, dig me 
 a cave, and five on roast potatoes, than be instru- 
 mental in promoting the objects for which that 
 army is to be raised ! ” This same fidelity to his 
 
10 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 principles marked every public, as well as private, 
 action of his life. 
 
 In his own neighborhood, among those who 
 knew him best, he early gained an influence that 
 was never lost nor diminished, but continued to 
 spread wider during the whole of his long life. In 
 1789, he was elected to the state legislature, and 
 retained that position for thirteen successive years, 
 until chosen a member of the council. During 
 the same period, he was active in his military 
 duties, as a field officer, and finally general, of the 
 militia of the county ; and Miller, McNeil, and 
 others, learned of him, in this capacity, the soldier- 
 like discipline which was afterwards displayed on 
 the battle fields of the northern frontier. 
 
 The history, character, and circumstances of 
 General Benjamin Pierce, though here but briefly 
 touched upon, are essential parts of the biography 
 of his son, both as indicating some of the native 
 traits which the latter has inherited, and as show- 
 ing the influences amid which he grew up. At 
 Franklin Pierce’s birth, and for many years sub- 
 sequent, his father was the most active and public- 
 spirited man within his sphere ; a most decided 
 democrat, and supporter of Jefferson and Madison ; 
 a practical farmer, moreover, not rich, but inde- 
 pendent, exercising a liberal hospitality, and noted 
 for the kindness and generosity of his character; 
 a man of the people, but whose natural qualities 
 inevitably made him a leader among them. From 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 11 
 
 infancy upward, the boy had before his eyes, as the 
 model on which he might instinctively form him- 
 self, one of the best specimens of sterling New 
 England character, developed in a life of simple 
 habits, yet of elevated action. Patriotism, such 
 as it had been in revolutionary days, was taught 
 him by his father, as early as his mother taught 
 him religion. He became early imbued, too, with 
 the military spirit which the old soldier had re- 
 tained from his long service, and which was kept 
 active by the constant alarms and warlike prep- 
 arations of the first twelve years of the present 
 century. If any man is bound, by birth and 
 youthful training, to show himself a brave, faith- 
 ful, and able citizen of his native country, it is the 
 son of such a father. 
 
 At the commencement of the war of 1812, 
 Franklin Pierce was a few months under eight 
 years of age. The old general, his father, sent 
 two of his sons into the army ; and, as his eldest 
 daughter was soon afterwards married to Major 
 McNeil, there were few families that had so large 
 a personal stake in the war as that of General 
 Benjamin Pierce. He himself, both in his public 
 capacity as a member of the council, and by his 
 great local influence in his own county, lent a 
 strenuous support to the national administration. 
 It is attributable to his sagacity and energy, that 
 New Hampshire — then under a federal governor 
 — was saved the disgrace of participation in the 
 
12 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 questionable, if not treasonable, projects of the 
 Hartford Convention. He identified himself with 
 the cause of the country, and was doubtless as 
 thoroughly alive with patriotic zeal, at this event- 
 ful period, as in the old days of Bunker Hill, and 
 Saratoga, and Yorktown. The general not only 
 took a prominent part at all public meetings, but 
 was ever ready for the informal discussion of po- 
 litical affairs at all places of casual resort, where — 
 in accordance with the custom of the time and 
 country — the minds of men were made to operate 
 effectually upon each other. Franklin Pierce was 
 a frequent auditor of these controversies. The in- 
 tentness with which he watched the old general, 
 and listened to his arguments, is still remembered ; 
 and, at this day, in his most earnest moods, there 
 are gesticulations and movements that bring up 
 the image of his father to those who recollect the 
 latter on those occasions of the display of homely, 
 native eloquence. No mode of education could 
 be conceived, better adapted to imbue a youth 
 with the principles and sentiment of democratic 
 institutions ; it brought him into the most familiar 
 contact with the popular mind, and made his own 
 mind a part of it. 
 
 Franklin’s father had felt, through life, the dis- 
 advantages of a defective education ; although, in 
 his peculiar sphere of action, it might be doubted 
 whether he did not gain more than he lost, by be- 
 ing thrown on his own resources, and compelled 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 13 
 
 to study men and their actual affairs, rather than 
 books. But he determined to afford his son all 
 the opportunities of improvement, which he him- 
 self had lacked. Franklin, accordingly, was early 
 sent to the academy at Hancock, and afterwards 
 to that of Francestown, where he was received into 
 the family of General Pierce’s old and steadfast 
 friend, Peter Woodbury, father of the late eminent 
 judge. It is scarcely more than a year ago, at the 
 semi-centennial celebration of the academy, that 
 Franklin Pierce, the mature and distinguished man, 
 paid a beautiful tribute to the character of Madam 
 Woodbury, in affectionate remembrance of the 
 motherly kindness experienced at her hands by the 
 schoolboy. 
 
 The old people of his neighborhood give a very 
 delightful picture of Franklin at this early age. 
 They describe him as a beautiful boy, with blue 
 eyes, light curling hair, and a sweet expression of 
 face. The traits presented of him indicate moral 
 symmetry, kindliness, and a delicate texture of sen- 
 timent, rather than marked prominences of char- 
 acter. His instructors testify to his propriety of 
 conduct, his fellow-pupils to his sweetness of dis- 
 position and cordial sympathy. One of the latter, 
 being older than most of his companions, and less 
 advanced in his studies, found it difficult to keep 
 up with his class ; and he remembers how perse- 
 veringly, while the other boys were at play, Frank- 
 lin spent the noon recess, for many weeks together, 
 2 
 
14 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 in aiding him in his lessons. These attributes, 
 proper to a generous and affectionate nature, have 
 remained with him through life. Lending their 
 color to his deportment, and softening his man- 
 ners, they are, perhaps, even now, the character- 
 istics by which most of those who casually meet 
 him would be inclined to identify the man. But 
 there are other qualities, not then developed, but 
 which have subsequently attained a firm and 
 manly growth, and are recognized as his leading 
 traits among those who really know him. Frank- 
 lin Pierce’s development, indeed, has always been 
 the reverse of premature ; the boy did not show 
 the germ of all that was in the man, nor, perhaps, 
 did the young man adequately foreshow the ma- 
 ture one. 
 
 In 1820, at the age of sixteen, he became a stu- 
 dent of Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine. 
 It was in the autumn of the next year, that the 
 author of this memoir entered the class below him ; 
 but our college reminiscences, however interesting 
 to the parties concerned, are not exactly the material 
 for a biography. He was then a youth, with the 
 boy and man in him, vivacious, mirthful, slender, 
 of a fair complexion, with light hair that had a curl 
 in it : his bright and cheerful aspect made a kind 
 of sunshine, both as regarded its radiance and its 
 warmth ; insomuch that no shyness of disposition, 
 in his associates, could well resist its influence. 
 We soon became acquainted, and were more 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 15 
 
 especially drawn together as members of the same 
 college society. There were two of these institu- 
 tions, dividing the college between them, and typi- 
 fying, respectively, and with singular accuracy of 
 feature, the respectable conservative, and the pro- 
 gressive or democratic parties. Pierce’s native ten- 
 dencies inevitably drew him to the latter. 
 
 His chum was Zenas Caldwell, several years 
 elder than himself, a member of the Methodist 
 persuasion, a pure-minded, studious, devoutly re- 
 ligious character ; endowed thus early in life with 
 the authority of a grave and sagacious turn of 
 mind. The friendship between Pierce and him 
 appeared to be mutually strong, and was of itself 
 a pledge of correct deportment in the former. His 
 chief friend, I think, was a classmate named Little, 
 a young man of most estimable qualities, and high 
 intellectual promise ; one of those fortunate char- 
 acters whom an early death so canonizes in the 
 remembrance of their companions, that the perfect 
 fulfilment of a long life would scarcely give them a 
 higher place. Jonathan Cilley, of my own class, — 
 whose untimely fate is still mournfully remem- 
 bered, — a person of very marked ability and great 
 social influence, was another of Pierce’s friends. 
 All these have long been dead. There are others, 
 still alive, who would meet Franklin Pierce, at this 
 day, with as warm a pressure of the hand, and the 
 same confidence in his kindly feelings, as when 
 they parted from him, nearly thirty years ago. 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 Pierce’s jplass was small, but composed of indi- 
 viduals seriously intent on the duties and studies 
 of their college life. They were not boys, but, for 
 the most part, well advanced towards maturity ; 
 and, having wrought out their own means of edu- 
 cation, were little inclined to neglect the opportu- 
 nities that had been won at so much cost. They 
 knew the value of time, and had a sense of the re- 
 sponsibilities of their position. Their first scholar 
 — the present Professor Stowe — has long since 
 established his rank amoim the first scholars of the 
 
 o 
 
 country. It could have been no easy task to hold 
 successful rivalry with students so much in earnest 
 as these were. During the earlier part of his col- 
 lege course, it may be doubted whether Pierce was 
 distinguished for scholarship. But, for the last 
 two years, he appeared to grow more intent on the 
 business in hand, and, without losing any of his 
 vivacious qualities as a companion, was evidently 
 resolved to gain an honorable elevation in his class. 
 His habits of attention, and obedience to qollege 
 discipline, were of the strictest character ; he rose 
 progressively in scholarship, and took a highly 
 creditable degree. 
 
 The first civil office, I imagine, which Franklin 
 Pierce ever held, was that of chairman of the 
 standing committee of the Athenasan Society, of 
 which, as above hinted, we were both members ; 
 and, having myself held a place on the commit- 
 tee, I can bear testimony to his having discharged 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 17 
 
 not only his own share of the duties, but that of 
 his colleagues. I remember, likewise, that the 
 only military service of my life was as a private 
 soldier in a college company, of which Pierce was 
 one of the officers. He entered into this latter 
 business, or pastime, with an earnestness with 
 which I could not pretend to compete, and at 
 which, perhaps, he would now be inclined to smile. 
 His slender and youthful figure rises before my 
 mind’s eye, at this moment, with the air and step 
 of a veteran of the school of Steuben ; as well 
 became the son of a revolutionary hero, who had 
 probably drilled under the old baron’s orders. In- 
 deed, at this time, and for some years afterwards, 
 Pierce’s ambition seemed to be of a military cast. 
 Until reflection had tempered his first predilec- 
 tions, and other varieties of success had rewarded 
 his efforts, he would have preferred, I believe, the 
 honors of the battle field to any laurels more peace- 
 fully won. And it was remarkable how, with all 
 the invariable gentleness of his demeanor, he per- 
 fectly gave, nevertheless, the impression of a high 
 and fearless spirit. His friends were as sure of his 
 courage, while yet untried, as now, when it has 
 been displayed so brilliantly in famous battles. 
 
 At this early period of his life, he was distin- 
 guished by the same fascination of manner that 
 has since proved so magical in winning him an 
 unbounded personal popularity. It is wronging 
 him, however, to call this peculiarity a mere effect 
 2 * B 
 
18 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 of manner ; its source lies deep in the kindliness 
 of his nature, and in the liberal, generous, catholic 
 sympathy, that embraces all who are worthy of it. 
 Few men possess any thing like it; so irresistible 
 as it is, so sure to draw forth an undoubting con- 
 fidence, and so true to the promise which it gives. 
 This frankness, this democracy of good feeling, 
 has not been chilled by the society of politicians, 
 nor polished down into mere courtesy, by his inter- 
 course with the most refined men of the day. It 
 belongs to him at this moment, and will never 
 leave him. A little while ago, after his return from 
 Mexico, he darted across the street to exchange a 
 hearty gripe of the hand with a rough countryman 
 upon his cart — a man who used to “live with his 
 father,” as the general explained the matter to his 
 companions. Other men assume this manner, more 
 or less skilfully; but with Frank Pierce it is an 
 innate characteristic ; nor will it ever lose its charm 
 unless his heart should grow narrower and colder 
 — a misfortune not to be anticipated, even in the 
 dangerous atmosphere of elevated rank, whither 
 he seems destined to ascend. 
 
 There is little else that it is worth while to relate, 
 as regards his college course, unless it be, that, 
 during one of his winter vacations, Pierce taught 
 a country school. So many of the statesmen of 
 New England have performed their first public ser- 
 vice in the character of pedagogue, that it seems 
 almost a necessary step on the ladder of advance- 
 ment. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 19 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 HIS SERVICES IN THE STATE AND NATIONAL LEGISLA- 
 TURES. 
 
 After leaving college, in the year 1824, Frank- 
 lin Pierce returned to Hillsborough. His father, 
 now in a green old age, continued to take a prom- 
 inent part in the affairs of the day, but likewise 
 made his declining years rich and picturesque with 
 recollections of the heroic times through which he 
 had lived. On the 26th of December, 1825, it be- 
 ing his sixty-seventh birthday, General Benjamin 
 Pierce prepared a festival for his comrades in arms, 
 the survivors of the revolution, eighteen of whom, 
 all inhabitants of Hillsborough, assembled at his 
 house. The ages of these veterans ranged from 
 fifty-nine up to the patriarchal venerableness of 
 nearly ninety. They spent the day in festivity, in 
 calling up reminiscences of the great men whom 
 they had known, and the great deeds which they had 
 helped to do, and in reviving the old sentiments 
 of the era of seventy-six. At nightfall, after a 
 manly and pathetic farewell from their host, they 
 separated — “ prepared,” as the old general ex- 
 pressed it, “ at the first tap of the shrouded drum, 
 to move and join their beloved Washington, and 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 the rest of their comrades, who fought and bled at 
 their sides.” A scene like this must have been 
 profitable for a young man to witness, as being 
 likely to give him a stronger sense, than most of 
 us can attain, of the value of that Union which 
 these old heroes had risked so much to consolidate 
 — of that common country which they had sacri- 
 ficed every thing to create ; and patriotism must 
 have been communicated from their hearts to his, 
 with somewhat of the warmth and freshness of a 
 new-born sentiment. No youth was ever more 
 fortunate than Franklin Pierce, through the whole 
 of his early life, in this most desirable species of 
 moral education. 
 
 Having chosen the law as a profession, Franklin 
 became a student in the office of Judge Wood- 
 bury, of Portsmouth. Allusion has already been 
 made to the friendship between General Benjamin 
 Pierce and Peter Woodbury, the father of the 
 judge. The early progress of Levi Woodbury 
 towards eminence had been facilitated by the pow- 
 erful influence of his father’s friend. It was a 
 worthy and honorable kind of patronage, and be- 
 stowed only as the great abilities of the recipient 
 vindicated his claim to it. Few young men have 
 met with such early success in life, or have de- 
 served it so eminently, as did Judge Woodbury. 
 At the age of twenty-seven, he was appointed to 
 the bench of the Supreme Court of the state, on 
 the earnest recommendation of old General Pierce. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 21 
 
 The opponents of the measure ridiculed him as 
 the “ baby judge ; ” but his conduct in that high 
 office showed the prescient judgment of the friend 
 who had known him from a child, and had seen 
 in his young manhood already the wisdom of 
 ripened age. It was some years afterwards when 
 Franklin Pierce entered the office of Judge Wood- 
 buxy as a student. In the interval, the judge had 
 been elected governor, and, after a term of office 
 that thoroughly tested the integrity of his demo- 
 cratic principles, had lost his second election, and 
 returned to the profession of the law. 
 
 The last two years of Pierce’s preparatory studies 
 were spent at the law school of Northampton, in 
 Massachusetts, and in the office of Judge Parker 
 at Amherst. In 1827, being admitted to the bar, 
 he began the practice of his profession at Hills- 
 borough. It is an interesting fact, considered in 
 reference to his subsequent splendid career as an 
 advocate, that he did not, at the outset, give prom- 
 ise of distinguished success. His first case was a 
 failure, and perhaps a somewhat marked one. But 
 it is remembered that this defeat, however mortify- 
 ing at the moment, did but serve to make him 
 aware of the latent resources of his mind, the full 
 command of which he was far from having yet 
 attained. To a friend, an older practitioner, who 
 addressed him with some expression of condolence 
 and encouragement, Pierce replied, — and it was a 
 kind of self-assertion which no triumph would 
 
22 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 have drawn out, — “ I do not need that. I will try 
 nine hundred and ninety-nine cases, if clients will 
 continue to trust me, and, if I fail just as I have 
 to-day, will try the thousandth. I shall live to ar- 
 gue cases in this court house in a manner that will 
 mortify neither myself nor my friends.” It is in 
 such moments of defeat that character and ability 
 are most fairly tested ; they would irremediably 
 crush a youth devoid of real energy, and being 
 neither more nor less than his just desert, would 
 be accepted as such. But a failure of this kind 
 serves an opposite purpose to a mind in which the 
 strongest and richest qualities lie deep, and, from 
 their very size and mass, cannot at once be ren- 
 dered available. It provokes an innate self-confi- 
 dence, while, at the same time, it sternly indicates 
 the sedulous cultivation, the earnest effort, the 
 toil, the agony, which are the conditions of ulti- 
 mate success. It is, indeed, one of the best modes 
 of discipline that experience can administer, and 
 may reasonably be counted a fortunate event in 
 the life of a young man vigorous enough to over- 
 come the momentary depression. 
 
 Pierce’s distinction at the bar, however, did not 
 immediately follow ; nor did he acquire what we 
 may designate as positive eminence until some 
 years after this period. The enticements of politi- 
 cal life — so especially fascinating to a young law- 
 yer, but so irregular in its tendencies, and so inimi- 
 cal to steady professional labor — had begun to 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 23 
 
 operate upon him. His father’s prominent position 
 in the politics of the state made it almost impos- 
 sible that the son should stand aloof. In 1827, the 
 same year when Franklin began the practice of the 
 law, General Benjamin Pierce had been elected 
 governor of New Hampshire. He was defeated in 
 the election of 1828, but was again successful in 
 that of the subsequent year. During these years, 
 the contest for the presidency had been fought with 
 a fervor that drew almost every body into it, on 
 one side or the other, and had terminated in the 
 triumph of Andrew Jackson. Franklin Pierce, in 
 advance of his father’s decision, though not in op- 
 position to it, had declared himself for the illustri- 
 ous man, whose military renown was destined to 
 be thrown into the shade by a civil administration 
 the most splendid and powerful that ever adorned 
 the annals of our country. I love to record of the 
 subject of this memoir, that his first political faith 
 was pledged to that great leader of the democracy. 
 
 I remember meeting Pierce, about this period, 
 and catching from him some faint reflection of the 
 zeal with which he w r as now stepping into the po- 
 litical arena. My sympathies and opinions, it is 
 true, — so far as I had any in public affairs, — had, 
 from the first, been enlisted on the same side with 
 his own. But I w r as now made strongly sensible 
 of an increased development of my friend’s mind, 
 by means of w T hich he possessed a vastly greater 
 power, than heretofore, over the minds with which 
 
24 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 he came in contact. This progressive growth has 
 continued to be one of his remarkable character- 
 istics. Of most men you early know the mental 
 gauge and measurement, and do not subsequently 
 have much occasion to change it. Not so with 
 Pierce : his tendency was not merely high, but 
 towards a point which rose higher and higher, as 
 the aspirant tended upward. Since we parted, 
 studious days had educated him ; life, too, and his 
 own exertions in it, and his native habit of close 
 and accurate observation, had likewise begun to 
 educate him. 
 
 The town of Hillsborough, in 1829, gave Frank- 
 lin Pierce his first public honor, by electing him 
 its representative in the legislature of the state. 
 His whole service in that body comprised four 
 years, in the two latter of which he was elected 
 speaker by a vote of one hundred and fifty-five, 
 against fifty-eight for other candidates. This over- 
 powering majority evinced the confidence which 
 his character inspired, and which, during his whole 
 career, it has invariably commanded, in advance 
 of what might be termed positive proof, although 
 the result has never failed to justify it. I still 
 recollect his description of the feelings with which 
 he entered on his arduous duties — the feverish 
 night that preceded his taking the chair — the 
 doubt, the struggle with himself— all ending in 
 perfect calmness, full self-possession, and free pow- 
 er of action, when the crisis actually came. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 25 
 
 He had all the natural gifts that adapted him 
 for the post ; courtesy, firmness, quickness and ac- 
 curacy of judgment, and a clearness of mental per- 
 ception that brought its own regularity into the 
 scene of confused and entangled debate ; and to 
 these qualities he added whatever was to be at- 
 tained by laborious study of parliamentary rules. 
 His merit as a presiding officer was universally 
 acknowledged. It is rare that a man combines so 
 much impulse with so great a power of regulating 
 the impulses of himself and others as Franklin 
 Pierce. The faculty, here exercised and improved, 
 of controlling an assembly while agitated by tu- 
 multuous controversy, was afterwards called into 
 play upon a higher field ; for, during his congres- 
 sional service, Pierce was often summoned to pre- 
 side in committee of the whole, when a turbulent 
 debate was expected to demand peculiar energy in 
 the chair. 
 
 He was elected a member of Congress in 1833 ; 
 being young for the station, as he has always been 
 for every public station that he has filled. A 
 different kind of man — a man conscious that 
 accident alone had elevated him, and therefore 
 nervously anxious to prove himself equal to his 
 fortunes — would thus have been impelled to spas- 
 modic efforts. He would have thrust himself for- 
 ward in debate, taking the word out of the mouths 
 of renowned orators, and thereby winning notori- 
 ety, as at least the glittering counterfeit of true 
 3 
 
26 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 celebrity. Had Pierce, with his genuine ability, 
 practised this course, had he possessed even an 
 ordinary love of display, and had he acted upon it 
 with his inherent tact and skill, taking advantage 
 of fair occasions to prove the power and substance 
 that were in him, it would greatly have facilitated 
 the task of his biographer. 
 
 To aim at personal distinction, however, as an 
 object independent of the public service, would 
 have been contrary to all the foregone and subse- 
 quent manifestations of his life. He was never 
 wanting to the occasion ; but he waited for the 
 occasion to bring him inevitably forward. When 
 he spoke, it was not only because he was fully 
 master of the subject, but because the exigency 
 demanded him, and because no other and older 
 man could perform the same duty as well as him- 
 self. Of the copious eloquence — and some of it, 
 no doubt, of a high order — which Buncombe has 
 called forth, not a paragraph, nor a period, is attrib- 
 utable to Franklin Pierce. He had no need of 
 these devices to fortify his constituents in then 
 high opinion of him ; nor did he fail to perceive 
 that such was not the method to acquire real 
 weight in the body of which he was a member. 
 In truth, he has no fluency of words, except when 
 an earnest meaning and purpose supply their own 
 expression. Every one of his speeches in Con- 
 gress, and, we may say, in every other hall of ora- 
 tory, or on any stump that he may have mounted, 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 27 
 
 was drawn forth by the perception that it was 
 needed, was directed to a full exposition of the 
 subject, and (rarest of all) was limited by what he 
 really had to say. Even the graces of the orator 
 were- never elaborated, never assumed for their own 
 sake, but were legitimately derived from the force 
 of his conceptions, and from the impulsive warmth 
 which accompanies the glow of thought. Owing 
 to these peculiarities, — for such, unfortunately, 
 they may be termed, in reference to what are usu- 
 ally the characteristics of a legislative career, — his 
 position before the country was less conspicuous 
 than that of many men, who could claim nothing 
 like Pierce’s actual influence in the national coun- 
 cils. His speeches, in their muscular texture and 
 close grasp of their subject, resembled the brief 
 but pregnant arguments and expositions of the 
 sages of the Continental Congress, rather than the 
 immeasurable harangues which are now the order 
 of the day. 
 
 His congressional life, though it made compara- 
 tively so little show, was full of labor, directed to 
 substantial objects. He was a member of the 
 judiciary and other important committees ; and 
 the drudgery of the committee room, where so 
 much of the real public business of the country is 
 transacted, fell in large measure to his lot. Thus, 
 even as a legislator, he may be said to have been 
 a man of deeds, not words ; and when he spoke 
 upon any subject with which his duty, as chair- 
 
28 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 man or member of a committee, had brought him 
 in relation, his words had the weight of deeds, from 
 the meaning, the directness, and the truth, that he 
 conveyed into them. His merits made themselves 
 known and felt in the sphere where they were ex- 
 ercised ; and he was early appreciated by one who 
 seldom erred in his estimate of men, whether in 
 their moral or intellectual aspect. His intercourse 
 with President Jackson was frequent and free, and 
 marked by friendly regard on the part of the latter. 
 In the stormiest periods of his administration, 
 Pierce came frankly to his aid. The confidence 
 then established was never lost ; and when Jackson 
 was on his death bed, being visited by a gentle- 
 man from the north, (himself formerly a democratic 
 member of Congress,) the old hero spoke with en- 
 ergy of Franklin Pierce’s ability and patriotism, 
 and remarked, as if with prophetic foresight of his 
 young friend’s destiny, that “ the interests of the 
 country would be safe in such hands.” 
 
 One of President Jackson’s measures, which had 
 Pierce’s approval and support, was his veto of the 
 Maysville Road bill. This bill was part of a sys- 
 tem of vast public works, principally railroads and 
 canals, which it was proposed to undertake at the 
 expense of the national treasury — a policy not then 
 of recent origin, but which had been fostered by 
 John Quincy Adams, and had attained a gigantic 
 growth at the close of his presidency. The esti- 
 mate of works undertaken, or projected, at the com- 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 29 
 
 mencement of Jackson’s administration, amounted 
 to considerably more than a hundred millions of 
 dollars. The expenditure of this enormous sum, 
 and doubtless of other incalculable amounts, in 
 progressive increase, was to be for purposes often 
 of unascertained utility, and was to pass through 
 the agents and officers of the federal government — 
 a means of political corruption not safely to be 
 trusted even in the purest hands. The peril to the 
 individuality of the states, from a system tending 
 so directly to consolidate the powers of govern- 
 ment towards a common centre, was obvious. The 
 result might have been, with the lapse of time and 
 the increased activity of the disease, to place the 
 capital of our federative Union in a position resem- 
 bling that of imperial Rome, where each once in- 
 dependent state was a subject province, and all the 
 highways of the world were said to meet in her 
 forum. It was against this system, so dangerous 
 to liberty, and to public and private integrity, that 
 Jackson declared war, by the famous Maysville 
 veto. 
 
 It would be an absurd interpretation of Pierce’s 
 course, in regard to this and similar measures, to 
 suppose him hostile either to internal or coastwise 
 improvements, so far as they may legitimately be 
 the business of the general government. He was 
 aware of the immense importance of our internal 
 commerce, and was ever ready to vote such appro- 
 priations as might be necessary for promoting it, 
 3 * 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 when asked for in an honest spirit, and at points 
 where they were really needed. He doubted, in- 
 deed, the constitutional power of Congress to un- 
 dertake, by building roads through the wilderness, 
 or opening unfrequented rivers, to create commerce 
 where it did not yet exist ; but he never denied or 
 questioned the right and duty to remove obstruc- 
 tions in the way of inland trade, and to afford it 
 every facility, when the nature and necessity of 
 things had brought it into genuine existence. And 
 he agreed with the best and wisest statesmen in 
 believing that this distinction involved the true 
 principle on which legislation, for the purpose here 
 discussed, should proceed. 
 
 While a member of the House of Representa- 
 tives, he delivered a forcible speech against the bill 
 authorizing appropriations for the Military Acad- 
 emy at West Point. He was decidedly opposed 
 to that institution, as then and at present organized. 
 We allude to the subject in illustration of the gen- 
 erous frankness with which, years afterwards, when 
 the battle smoke of Mexico had baptized him also 
 a soldier, he acknowledged himself in the wrong, 
 and bore testimony to the brilliant services which 
 the graduates of the Academy, trained to soldier- 
 ship from boyhood, had rendered to their country. 
 And if he has made no other such acknowledg- 
 ment of past error, committed in his legislative 
 capacity, it is but fair to believe that it is because 
 his reason and conscience accuse him of no other 
 
 wrong. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 31 
 
 It was while in the lower house of Congress, 
 that Franklin Pierce took that stand on the slavery- 
 question, from which he has never since swerved a 
 hair’s breadth. < He fully recognized, by his votes 
 and by his voice, the rights pledged to the south 
 by the constitution. This, at the period when he 
 so declared himself, was comparatively an easy 
 thing to do. But when it became more difficult, 
 when the first imperceptible movement of agitation 
 had grown to be almost a convulsion, his course 
 was still the same. Nor did he ever shun the ob- 
 loquy that sometimes threatened to pursue the 
 northern man, who dared to love that great and 
 sacred reality — his whole, united, native coun- 
 try' — better than the mistiness of a philanthropic 
 theory. 
 
 He continued in the House of Representatives 
 four years. If, at this period of his life, he ren- 
 dered unobtrusive, though not unimportant, ser- 
 vices to the public, it must also have been a time 
 of vast intellectual advantage to himself. Amidst 
 great national affairs, he was acquiring the best of 
 all educations for future eminence and leadership. 
 In the midst of statesmen, he grew to be a states- 
 man. Studious, as all his speeches prove him to 
 be, of history, he beheld it demonstrating itself 
 before his eyes. As regards this sort of training, 
 much of its good or ill effect depends on the nat- 
 ural force and depth of the man. Many, no doubt, 
 by early mixture with politics, become the mere 
 
32 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 politicians of the moment, — a class of men suffi- 
 ciently abundant among us, — acquiring only a 
 knack and cunning, which guide them tolerably 
 well through immediate difficulties, without in- 
 structing them in the great rules of higher policy. 
 But when the actual observation of public meas- 
 ures goes hand in hand with study, when the mind 
 is capable of comparing the present with its anal- 
 ogies in the past, and of grasping the principle 
 that belongs to both, this is to have history for a 
 living tutor. If the student be fit for such instruc- 
 tion, he will be seen to act afterwards with the 
 elevation of a high ideal, and with the expediency, 
 the sagacity, the instinct of what is fit and prac- 
 ticable, which make the advantage of the man of 
 actual affairs over the mere theorist. 
 
 And it was another advantage of his being 
 brought early into the sphere of national interests, 
 and continuing there for a series of years, that it 
 enabled him to overcome any narrow and sectional 
 prejudices. Without loving New England less, he 
 loved the broad area of the country more. He 
 thus retained that equal sentiment of patriotism 
 for the whole land, with which his father had im- 
 bued him, and which is perhaps apt to be impaired 
 in the hearts of those who come late to the na- 
 tional legislature, after long training in the nar- 
 rower fields of the separate states. His sense of 
 the value of the Union, which had been taught 
 him at the fireside, from earliest infancy, by the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 33 
 
 stories of patriotic valor that he there heard, was 
 now strengthened by friendly association with 
 its representatives from every quarter. It is this 
 youthful sentiment of Americanism, so happily 
 developed by after circumstances, that we see oper- 
 ating through all his public life, and making him 
 as tender of what he considers due to the south, 
 as of the rights of his own land of hills. 
 
 Franklin Pierce had scarcely reached the legal 
 age for such elevation, when, in 1837, he was 
 elected to the Senate of the United States. He 
 took his seat at the commencement of the pres- 
 idency of Mr. Van Buren. Never before nor since 
 has the Senate been more venerable for the array 
 of veteran and celebrated statesmen, than at that 
 time. Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, had lost noth- 
 ing of their intellectual might. Benton, Silas 
 Wright, Woodbury, Buchanan, and Walker, were 
 members ; and many even of the less eminent 
 names were such as have gained historic place — 
 men of powerful eloquence, and worthy to be lead- 
 ers of the respective parties which they espoused. 
 To this dignified body (composed of individuals 
 some of whom were older in political experience 
 than he in his mortal life) Pierce came as the 
 youngest member of the Senate. With his usual 
 tact, and exquisite sense of propriety, he saw that 
 it was not the time for him to step forward prom- 
 inently on this highest theatre in the land. He 
 beheld these great combatants doing battle before 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 the eyes of the nation, and engrossing its whole 
 regards. There was hardly an avenue to reputa- 
 tion save what was occupied by one or another of 
 those gigantic figures. 
 
 Modes of public service remained, however, re- 
 quiring high ability, but with which few men of 
 competent endowments would have been content 
 to occupy themselves. Pierce had already demon- 
 strated the possibility of obtaining an enviable po- 
 sition among his associates, without the windy 
 notoriety which a member of Congress may read- 
 ily manufacture for himself by the lavish expendi- 
 ture of breath that had been better spared. In the 
 more elevated field of the Senate, he pursued the 
 same course as while a representative, and with 
 more than equal results. 
 
 Among other committees, he was a member of 
 that upon revolutionary pensions. Of this subject 
 he made himself thoroughly master, and was rec- 
 ognized by the Senate as an unquestionable au- 
 thority. In 1840, in reference to several bills for 
 the relief of claimants under the pension law, he 
 delivered a speech which finely illustrates as well 
 the sympathies as the justice of the man, showing 
 how vividly he could feel, and, at the same time, 
 how powerless were his feelings to turn him aside 
 from the strict line of public integrity. The mer- 
 its and sacrifices of the people of the revolution 
 have never been stated with more earnest grati- 
 tude than in the following passage : — 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 35 
 
 “ I am not insensible, Mr. President, of the advan- 
 tages with which claims of this character always 
 come before Congress. They are supposed to be 
 based on services for which no man entertains a 
 higher estimate than myself — services beyond all 
 praise, and above all price. But, while warm and 
 glowing with the glorious recollections which a 
 recurrence to that period of our history can never 
 fail to awaken ; while we cherish with emotions 
 of pride, reverence, and affection the memory of 
 those brave men who are no longer with us ; while 
 we provide, with a liberal hand, for such as sur- 
 vive, and for the widows of the deceased ; while 
 we would accord to the heirs, whether in the sec- 
 ond or third generation, every dollar to which they 
 can establish a just claim, — I trust we shall not, in 
 the strong current of our sympathies, forget what 
 becomes us as the descendants of such men. They 
 would teach us to legislate upon our judgment, 
 upon our sober sense of right, and not upon our 
 impulses or our sympathies. No, sir ; we may act 
 in this way, if we choose, when dispensing our 
 own means, but we are not at liberty to do it 
 when dispensing the means of our constituents. 
 
 “ If we were to legislate upon our sympathies — 
 yet more I will admit — if we were to yield to 
 that sense of just and grateful remuneration which 
 presses itself upon every man’s heart, there would 
 be scarcely a limit for our bounty. The whole ex- 
 chequer could not answer the demand. To the 
 
36 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 patriotism, the courage, and the sacrifices of the 
 people of that day, we owe, under Providence, all 
 that we now most highly prize, and what we shall 
 transmit to our children as the richest legacy they 
 can inherit. The war of the revolution, it has 
 been justly remarked, was not a war of armies 
 merely — it was the war of nearly a whole people, 
 and such a people as the world had never before 
 seen, in a death struggle for liberty. 
 
 “ The losses, sacrifices, and sufferings of that 
 period were common to all classes and conditions 
 of life. Those who remained at home suffered 
 hardly less than those who entered upon the ac- 
 tive strife. The aged father and mother under- 
 went not less than the son, who would have been 
 the comfort and stay of their declining years, now 
 called to perform a yet higher duty — to follow 
 the standard of his bleeding country. The young 
 mother, with her helpless children, excites not less 
 deeply our sympathies, contending with want, and 
 dragging out years of weary and toilsome days 
 and anxious nights, than the husband in the field, 
 following the fortunes of our arms without the 
 common habiliments to protect his person, or the 
 requisite sustenance to support his strength. Sir, 
 I never think of that patient, enduring, self-sacri- 
 ficing army, which crossed the Delaware in De- 
 cember, 1777, marching barefooted upon frozen 
 ground to encounter the foe, and leaving bloody 
 footprints for miles behind them — I never think 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 37 
 
 of their sufferings during that terrible winter with- 
 out involuntarily inquiring, Where then were their 
 families ? Who lit up the cheerful fire upon their 
 hearths at home ? Who spoke the word of com- 
 fort and encouragement ? Nay, sir, who furnished 
 protection from the rigors of winter, and brought 
 them the necessary means of subsistence ? 
 
 “ The true and simple answer to these questions 
 would disclose an amount of suffering and an- 
 guish, mental and physical, such as might not 
 have been found in the ranks of the armies — not 
 even in the severest trial of that fortitude which 
 never faltered, and that power of endurance which 
 seemed to know no limit. All this no man feels 
 more deeply than I do. But they were common 
 sacrifices in a common cause, ultimately crowned 
 with the reward of liberty. They have an ever- 
 lasting claim upon our gratitude, and are destined, 
 as I trust, by their heroic example, to exert an abid- 
 ing influence upon our latest posterity.” 
 
 With this heartfelt recognition of the debt of 
 gratitude due to those excellent men, the senator 
 enters into an analysis of the claims presented, 
 and proves them to be void of justice. The whole 
 speech is a good exponent of his character ; full 
 of the truest sympathy, but, above all things, just, 
 and not to be misled, on the public behalf, by those 
 impulses that would be most apt to sway the 
 private man. The mere pecuniary amount, saved 
 to the nation by his scrutiny into affairs of this 
 4 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 kind, though great, was, after all, but a minor con- 
 sideration. The danger lay in establishing a cor- 
 rupt system, and placing a wrong precedent upon 
 the statute book. Instances might be adduced, on 
 the other hand, which show him not less scrupu- 
 lous of the just rights of the claimants, than care- 
 ful of the public interests. 
 
 Another subject upon which he came forward 
 was the military establishment, and the natural 
 defences of the country. In looking through the 
 columns of the Congressional Globe, we find 
 abundant evidences of Senator Pierce’s laborious 
 and unostentatious discharge of his duties — re- 
 ports of committees, brief remarks, and, here and 
 there, a longer speech, always full of matter, and 
 evincing a thoroughly-digested knowledge of the 
 subject. Not having been written out by himself, 
 however, these speeches are no fair specimens of 
 his oratory, except as regards the train of argu- 
 ment and substantial thought ; and adhering very 
 closely to the business in hand, they seldom present 
 passages that could be quoted, without tearing 
 them forcibly, as it were, out of the context, and 
 thus mangling the fragments which we might offer 
 to the reader. As we have already remarked, he 
 seems, as a debater, to revive the old type of the 
 Revolutionary Congress, or to bring back the noble 
 days of the Long Parliament of England, before 
 eloquence had become what it is now, a knack, 
 and a thing valued for itself. Like those strenuous 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 39 
 
 orators, he speaks with the earnestness of honest 
 conviction, and out of the fervor of his heart, and 
 because the occasion and his deep sense of it con- 
 strain him. 
 
 By the defeat of Mr. Van Buren, in the presi- 
 dential election of 1840, the administration of gov- 
 ernment was transferred, for the first time in twelve 
 years, to the whigs. An extra session of Congress 
 was summoned to assemble in June, 1841, by 
 President Harrison, who, however, died before it 
 came together. At this extra session, it was the 
 purpose of the whig party, under the leadership of 
 Henry Clay, to overthrow all the great measures 
 which the successive democratic administrations 
 had established. The sub-treasury was to be de- 
 molished ; a national bank was to be incorporated ; 
 a high tariff of duties was to be imposed, for pur- 
 poses of protection and abundant revenue. The 
 whig administration possessed a majority, both in 
 the Senate and the House. It was a dark period 
 for the democracy, so long unaccustomed to de- 
 feat, and now beholding all that they had won for 
 the cause of national progress, after the arduous 
 struggle of so many years, apparently about to be 
 swept away. 
 
 The sterling influence which Franklin Pierce 
 now exercised is well described in the following 
 remarks of the Hon. A. O. P. Nicholson : — 
 
 “ The power of an organized minority was never 
 more clearly exhibited than in this contest. The 
 
40 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 democratic senators acted in strict concert, meeting 
 night after night for consultation, arranging their 
 plan of battle, selecting their champions for the 
 coming day, assigning to each man his proper 
 duty, and looking carefully to the popular judg- 
 ment for a final victory. In these consultations, 
 no man’s voice was heard with more profound re- 
 spect than that of Franklin Pierce. His counsels 
 were characterized by so thorough a knowledge of 
 human nature, by so much solid common sense, 
 by such devotion to democratic principles, that, 
 although among the youngest of the senators, it 
 was deemed important that all their conclusions 
 should be submitted to his sanction. 
 
 “ Although known to be ardent in his tempera- 
 ment, he was also known to act with prudence and 
 caution. His impetuosity in debate was only the 
 result of the deep convictions which controlled his 
 mind. He enjoyed the unbounded confidence of 
 Calhoun, Buchanan, Wright, Woodbury, Walker, 
 King, Benton, and indeed of the entire democratic 
 portion of the Senate. When he rose in the Senate 
 or in the committee room, he was heard with the 
 profoundest attention ; and again and again was 
 he greeted by these veteran democrats as one of 
 our ablest champions. His speeches, during this 
 session, will compare with those of any other sena- 
 tor. If it be asked, why he did not receive higher 
 distinction, I answer, that such men as Calhoun, 
 Wright, Buchanan, and Woodbury, were the ac- 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 41 
 
 knowledged leaders of the democracy. The eyes 
 of the nation were on them. The hopes of their 
 party were reposed in them. The brightness of 
 these luminaries was too great to allow the bril- 
 liancy of so young a man to attract especial atten- 
 tion. But ask any one of these veterans how 
 Franklin Pierce ranked in the Senate, and he will 
 tell you, that, to stand in the front rank f<5r talents, 
 eloquence, and statesmanship, he only lacked a few 
 more years.” 
 
 In the course of this session, he made a very 
 powerful speech in favor of Mr. Buchanan’s res- 
 olution, calling on the president to furnish the 
 names of persons removed from office since the 
 4th of March, 1841. The whigs, in 1840, as in 
 the subsequent canvass of 1848, had professed a 
 purpose to abolish the system of official removals 
 on account of political opinion, but, immediately 
 on coming into power, had commenced a proscrip- 
 tion infinitely beyond the example of the demo- 
 cratic party. This course, with an army of office 
 seekers besieging the departments, was unques- 
 tionably difficult to avoid, and perhaps, on the 
 whole, not desirable to be avoided. But it was 
 rendered astounding by the sturdy effrontery with 
 which the gentlemen in power denied that their 
 present practice had falsified any of their past pro- 
 fessions. A few of the closing paragraphs of Sen- 
 ator Pierce’s highly effective speech, being more 
 easily separable than the rest, may here be cited. 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 “One word more, and I leave this subject — 
 a painful one to me, from the beginning to the 
 end. The senator from North Carolina, in the 
 course of his remarks, the other day, asked, ‘ Do 
 gentlemen expect that their friends are to be re- 
 tained in office against the will of the nation ? 
 Are they so unreasonable as to expect what the 
 circumstances and the necessity of the case for- 
 bid ? ’ What our expectations were is not the 
 question now; but what were your pledges and 
 promises before the people. On a previous occa- 
 sion, the distinguished senator from Kentucky made 
 a similar remark : 1 An ungracious task, but the na- 
 tion demands it ! ’ Sir, this demand of the nation, 
 — this plea of state necessity, — let me tell 
 gentlemen, is as old as the history of wrong and 
 oppression. It has been the standing plea, the 
 never-failing resort of despotism. 
 
 “ The great Julius found it a convenient plea 
 when he restored the dignity of the Roman Sen- 
 ate, but destroyed its independence. It gave coun- 
 tenance to, and justified, all the atrocities of the 
 Inquisition in Spain. It forced out the stifled 
 groans that issued from the Black Hole of Cal- 
 cutta. It was written in tears upon the Bridge of 
 Sighs in Venice, and pointed to those dark recesses 
 upon whose gloomy thresholds there was never seen 
 a returning footprint. 
 
 “ It was the plea of the austere and ambitious 
 Strafford, in the days of Charles I. It filled the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 43 
 
 Bastile of France, and lent its sanction to the ter- 
 rible atrocities perpetrated there. It was this plea 
 that snatched the mild, eloquent, and patriotic 
 Camille Desmoulins from his young and beautiful 
 wife, and hurried him to the guillotine, with thou- 
 sands of others, equally unoffending and innocent. 
 It was upon this plea that the greatest of generals, 
 if not men, — you cannot mistake me, — I mean 
 him, the presence of whose very ashes, within the 
 last few months, sufficed to stir the hearts of a 
 continent, — it was upon this plea that he abjured 
 the noble wife who had thrown light and gladness 
 around his humbler days, and, by her own lofty 
 energies and high intellect, had encouraged his 
 aspirations. It was upon this plea that he com- 
 mitted that worst and most fatal act of his event- 
 ful life. Upon this, too, he drew around his person 
 the imperial purple. It has in all times, and in 
 every age, been the foe of liberty, and the indis- 
 pensable stay of usurpation. 
 
 “ Where were the chains of despotism ever 
 thrown around the freedom of speech and of the 
 press, but on this plea of state necessity ? Let 
 the spirit of Charles X. and of his ministers an- 
 swer. 
 
 “ It is cold, selfish, heartless, and has always 
 been regardless of age, sex, condition, services, or 
 any of the incidents of life that appeal to patriot- 
 ism or humanity. Wherever its authority has 
 been acknowledged, it has assailed men who stood 
 
44 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 by their country when she needed strong arms and 
 bold hearts, and has assailed them when, maimed 
 and disabled in her service, they could no longer 
 brandish a weapon in her defence. It has afflicted 
 the feeble and dependent wife for the imaginary 
 faults of the husband. It has stricken down Inno- 
 cence in its beauty, Youth in its freshness, Man- 
 hood in its vigor, and Age in its feebleness and 
 decrepitude. Whatever other plea or apology may 
 be set up for the sweeping, ruthless exercise of this 
 civil guillotine at the present day, in the name of 
 Liberty let us be spared this fearful one of state 
 necessity, in this early age of the republic, upon 
 the floor of the American Senate, in the face of a 
 people yet free ! ” 
 
 In June, 1842, he signified his purpose of retir- 
 ing from the Senate. 
 
 It was now more than sixteen years since the 
 author of this sketch had been accustomed to meet 
 Frank Pierce (that familiar name, which the nation 
 is adopting as one of its household words) in hab- 
 its of daily intercourse. Our modes of life had 
 since been as different as could well be imagined ; 
 our culture and labor were entirely unlike ; there 
 was hardly a single object or aspiration in common 
 between us. Still we had occasionally met, and 
 always on the old ground of friendly confidence. 
 There were sympathies that had not been suffered 
 to die out. Had we lived more constantly togeth- 
 er, it is not impossible that the relation might have 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 45 
 
 been changed by the various accidents and attri- 
 tions of life ; but having no mutual events, and 
 few mutual interests, the tie of early friendship re- 
 mained the same as when we parted. The modi- 
 fications which I saw in his character were those 
 of growth and development; new qualities came 
 out, or displayed themselves more prominently, but 
 always in harmony with those heretofore known. 
 Always I was sensible of progress in him ; a char- 
 acteristic — as, I believe, has been said in the fore- 
 going pages — 'more perceptible in Franklin Pierce 
 than in any other person with whom I have been 
 acquainted. He widened, deepened, rose to a high- 
 er point, and thus ever made himself equal to the 
 ever-heightening occasion. This peculiarity of in- 
 tellectual growth, continued beyond the ordinary 
 period, has its analogy in his physical constitution 
 — it being a fact that he continued to grow in 
 stature between his twenty-first and twenty-fifth 
 years. 
 
 He had not met with that misfortune, which, it 
 is to be feared, befalls many men who throw their 
 ardor into politics. The pursuit had taken nothing 
 from the frankness of his nature ; now, as ever, he 
 used direct means to gain honorable ends ; and his 
 subtlety — for, after all, his heart and purpose were 
 not such as he that runs may read — had the depth 
 of wisdom, and never any quality of cunning. In 
 great part, this undeteriorated manhood was due 
 to his original nobility of nature. Yet it may not 
 
46 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 be unjust to attribute it, in some degree, to the sin- 
 gular good fortune of his life. He had never, in all 
 his career, found it necessary to stoop. Office had 
 sought him ; he had not begged it, nor manoeuvred 
 for it, nor crept towards it — arts which too fre- 
 quently bring a man, morally bowed and degraded, 
 to a position which should be one of dignity, but 
 in which he will vainly essay to stand upright. 
 
 In our earlier meetings, after Pierce had begun 
 to come forward in public life, I could discern 
 that his ambition was aroused. He felt a young 
 man’s enjoyment of success, so early and so dis- 
 tinguished. But as years went on, such motives 
 seemed to be less influential with him. He was 
 cured of ambition, as, one after another, its objects 
 came to him unsought. His domestic position, 
 likewise, had contributed to direct his tastes and 
 wishes towards the pursuits of private life. In 
 1834, he had married Jane Means, a daughter of 
 the Rev. Dr. Appleton, a former president of Bow- 
 doin College. Three sons, the first of whom died 
 in early infancy, were born to him ; and, having 
 hitherto been kept poor by his public service, he no 
 doubt became sensible of the expediency of making 
 some provision for the future. Such, it may be 
 presumed, were the considerations that induced his 
 resignation of the senatorship, greatly to the regret 
 of all parties. The senators gathered around him, 
 as he was about to quit the chamber ; political op- 
 ponents took leave of him as of a personal friend ; 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 47 
 
 and no departing member has ever retired from 
 that dignified body amid warmer wishes for his hap- 
 piness than those that attended Franklin Pierce. 
 
 His father had died three years before, in 1839, 
 at the mansion which he built, after the original 
 log cabin grew too narrow for his rising family and 
 fortunes. The mansion was spacious, as the liberal 
 hospitality of the occupant required, and stood on 
 a little eminence, surrounded by verdure and abun- 
 dance, and a happy population, where, half a cen- 
 tury before, the revolutionary soldier had come alone 
 into the wilderness, and levelled the primeval for- 
 est trees. After being spared to behold the distinc- 
 tion of his son, he departed this life at the age of 
 eighty-one years, in perfect peace, and, until within 
 a few hours of his death, in the full possession of 
 his intellectual powers. His last act was one of 
 charity to a poor neighbor — a fitting close to a life 
 that had abounded in such deeds. Governor Pierce 
 was a man of admirable qualities — brave, active, 
 public-spirited, endowed with natural authority, 
 courteous yet simple in his manners ; and in his 
 son we may perceive these same attributes, modi- 
 fied and softened by a finer texture of character, 
 illuminated by higher intellectual culture, and 
 polished by a larger intercourse with the world, 
 but as substantial and sterling as in the good old 
 patriot. 
 
 Franklin Pierce had removed from Hillsborough 
 in 1838, and taken up his residence at Concord, the 
 
48 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 capital of New Hampshire. On this occasion, the 
 citizens of his native town invited him to a public 
 dinner, in token of their affection and respect. In 
 accordance with his usual taste, he gratefully ac- 
 cepted the kindly sentiment, but declined the pub- 
 lic demonstration of it. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 49 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 HIS SUCCESS AT THE BAR. 
 
 Franklin Pierce’s earliest effort at the bar, as 
 we have already observed, was an unsuccessful 
 one ; but instead of discouraging him, the failure 
 had only served to awaken the consciousness of 
 latent power, and the resolution to bring it out. 
 Since those days, he had indeed gained reputation 
 as a lawyer. So much, however, was the tenor of 
 his legal life broken up by the months of public 
 service subtracted from each year, and such was 
 the inevitable tendency of his thoughts towards 
 political subjects, that he could but very partially 
 avail himself of the opportunities of professional 
 advancement. But on retiring from the Senate, he 
 appears to have started immediately into full prac- 
 tice. Though the people of New Hampshire already 
 knew him well, yet his brilliant achievements as 
 an advocate brought him more into their view, and 
 into closer relations with them, than he had ever 
 before been. He now met his countrymen, as rep- 
 resented in the jury box, face to face, and made 
 them feel what manner of man he was. Their sen- 
 timent towards him soon grew to be nothing short 
 of enthusiasm ; love, pride, the sense of brother- 
 5 D 
 
50 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 hood, affectionate sympathy, and perfect trust, all 
 mingled in it. It was the influence of a great heart 
 pervading the general heart, and throbbing with it 
 in the same pulsation. 
 
 It has never been the writer’s good fortune to 
 listen to one of Franklin Pierce’s public speeches, 
 whether at the bar or elsewhere ; nor, by diligent 
 inquiry, has he been able to gain a very definite 
 idea of the mode in which he produces his effects. 
 To me, therefore, his forensic displays are in the 
 same category with those of Patrick Henry, or any 
 other orator whose tongue, beyond the memory of 
 man, has mouldered into dust. His power results, no 
 •doubt, in great measure, from the earnestness with 
 which he imbues himself with the conception of 
 his client’s cause ; insomuch that he makes it en- 
 tirely his own, and, never undertaking a case which 
 he believes to be unjust, contends with his whole 
 heart and conscience, as well as intellectual force, 
 for victory. His labor in the preparation of his 
 cases is said to be unremitting; and he throws him- 
 self with such energy into a trial of importance, as 
 wholly to exhaust his strength. 
 
 Few lawyers, probably, have been interested in 
 a wider variety of business than he ; its scope com- 
 prehends the great causes where immense pecuni- 
 ary interests are concerned — from which, however, 
 he is always ready to turn aside, to defend the 
 humble rights of the poor man, or give his pro- 
 tection to one unjustly accused. As one of my 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 51 
 
 correspondents observes, “ When an applicant has 
 interested him by a recital of oppression, fraud, or 
 wrong, General Pierce never investigates the man’s 
 estate before engaging in his business ; neither does 
 he calculate whose path he may cross. I have been 
 privy to several instances of the noblest independ- 
 ence on his part, in pursuing, to the disrepute of 
 those who stood well in the community, the weal 
 of an obscure client with a good cause.” 
 
 In the practice of the law, as Pierce pursued it, 
 in one or another of the court houses of New Hamp- 
 shire, the rumor of each successive struggle and 
 success resounded over the rugged hills, and per- 
 ished without a record. Those mighty efforts, into 
 which he put all his strength, before a county court, 
 and addressing a jury of yeomen, have necessarily 
 been, as regards the evanescent memory of any 
 particular trial, like the eloquence that is sometimes 
 poured out in a dream. In other spheres of action, 
 with no greater expenditure of mental energy, words 
 have been spoken that endure from age to age — 
 deeds done that harden into history. But this, per- 
 haps the most earnest portion of Franklin Pierce’s 
 life, has left few materials from which it can be 
 written. There is before me only one report of a 
 case in which he was engaged — the defence of the 
 "Wentworths, at a preliminary examination, on a 
 charge of murder. His speech occupied four hours 
 in the delivery, and handles a confused medley of 
 facts with masterly skill, bringing them to bear one 
 
52 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 upon another, and making the entire mass, as it 
 were, transparent, so that the truth may be seen 
 through it. The whole hangs together too closely 
 to permit the quotation of passages. 
 
 The writer has been favored with communica- 
 tions from two individuals, who have enjoyed the 
 best of opportunities to become acquainted with 
 General Pierce’s character as a lawyer. The fol- 
 lowing is the graceful and generous tribute of a 
 gentleman, who, of late, more frequently than any 
 other, has been opposed to him, at the bar : — 
 
 “ General Pierc§ cannot be said to have com- 
 menced his career at the bar, in earnest, until after 
 his resignation of the office of senator, in 1842. 
 And it is a convincing proof of his eminent pow- 
 ers, that he at once placed himself in the very first 
 rank at a bar so distinguished for ability as that of 
 New Hampshire. It is confessed by all, who have 
 the means of knowledge and judgment on this 
 subject, that in no state of the Union are causes 
 tried with more industry of preparation, skill, per- 
 severance, energy, or vehement effort to succeed. 
 
 “ During much of this time, my practice in our 
 courts was suspended ; and it is only within three 
 or four years that I have had opportunities of inti- 
 mately knowing his powers as an advocate, by be- 
 ing associated with him at the bar ; and, most of 
 all, of appreciating and feeling that power, by 
 being opposed to him in the trial of causes before 
 juries. Far more than any other man, whom it 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 53 
 
 has been my fortune to meet, he makes himself 
 felt by one who tries a case against him. From 
 the first, he impresses on his opponent a conscious- 
 ness of the necessity of a deadly struggle, not only 
 in order to win the victory, but to avoid defeat. 
 
 “ His vigilance and perseverance, omitting noth- 
 ing in the preparation and introduction of testi- 
 mony, even to the minutest details, which can be 
 useful to his clients ; his watchful attention, seizing 
 on every weak point in the opposite case ; his 
 quickness and readiness ; his sound and excellent 
 judgment ; his keen insight into character and mo- 
 tives, his almost intuitive knowledge of men ; his 
 ingenious and powerful cross examinations ; his 
 adroitness in turning aside troublesome testimony, 
 and availing himself of every favorable point ; his 
 quick sense of the ridiculous ; his pathetic appeals 
 to the feelings ; his sustained eloquence, and re- 
 markably energetic declamation, — all mark him 
 for a 1 leader.’ 
 
 “ From the beginning to the end of the trial of 
 a case, nothing with him is neglected, which can 
 by possibility honorably conduce to success. His 
 manner is always respectful and deferential to the 
 court, captivating to the jury, and calculated to 
 conciliate the good will even of those who would 
 be otherwise indifferent spectators. In short, he 
 plays the part of a successful actor ; successful, 
 because he always identifies himself with his part, 
 and in him it is not acting. 
 
 5 * 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 “ Perhaps, as would be expected by those who 
 know his generosity of heart, and his scorn of 
 every thing like oppression or extortion, he is most 
 powerful in his indignant denunciations of fraud or 
 injustice, and his addresses to the feelings in be- 
 half of the poor and lowly, and the sufferers under 
 wrong. I remember to have heard of his extraor- 
 dinary power on one occasion, when a person, who 
 had offered to procure arrears of a pension for 
 revolutionary services, had appropriated to himself 
 a most unreasonable share of the money. General 
 Pierce spoke of the frequency of these instances, and, 
 before the numerous audience, offered his aid, freely 
 and gratuitously, to redress the wrongs of any 
 widow or representative of a revolutionary officer 
 or soldier, who had been made the subject of such 
 extortion. 
 
 “ The reply of the poor man, in the anecdote 
 related by Lord Campbell, of Harry Erskine, would 
 be applicable, as exhibiting a feeling kindred to 
 that with which General Pierce is regarded : 
 ‘ There’s no a puir man in a’ Scotland need to 
 want a friend or fear an enemy, sae lang as Harry 
 Erskine lives ! ’ ” 
 
 We next give his aspect as seen from the bench, 
 in the following carefully-prepared and discrim- 
 inating article, from the chief justice of New 
 Hampshire : — 
 
 “ In attempting to estimate the character and 
 qualifications of Mr. Pierce as a lawyer and an 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 55 
 
 advocate, we undertake a delicate, but, at the same 
 time, an agreeable task. The profession of the law, 
 practised by men of liberal and enlightened minds, 
 and unstained by the sordidness which more or less 
 affects all human pursuits, invariably confers honor 
 upon, and is honored by its followers. An integ- 
 rity above suspicion, an eloquence alike vigorous 
 and persuasive, and an intuitive sagacity have 
 earned for Mr. Pierce the reputation that always 
 follows them.. 
 
 “ The last case of paramount importance in 
 which he was engaged as counsel was that of 
 Morrison v. Philbrick, tried in the month of Feb- 
 ruary, 1852, at the Court of Common Pleas for the 
 county of Belknap. There was on both sides an array 
 of eminent professional talent, Messrs. Pierce, Bell, 
 and Bellows appearing for the defendant, and Messrs. 
 Atherton and Whipple for the plaintiff. The case 
 was one of almost unequalled interest to the pub- 
 lic generally, and to the inhabitants of the country 
 lying around the lower part of Lake Winnipise- 
 ogee. A company, commonly called the Lake 
 Company, had become the owners of many of the 
 outlets of the streams supplying the lake, and by 
 means of their works at such places, and at Union 
 Bridge, a few miles below, were enabled to keep 
 back the waters of the lake, and to use them, as 
 occasion should require, to supply the mills at Low- 
 ell. The plaintiff alleged that the dam at Union 
 Bridge had caused the water to rise higher than 
 
56 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 was done by the dam that existed in the year 1828 , 
 and that he was essentially injured thereby. The 
 case had been on trial nearly seven weeks. Evi- 
 dence equivalent to the testimony of one hundred 
 and eighty witnesses had been laid before the jury. 
 Upon this immense mass of facts, involving a 
 great number of issues, Mr. Pierce was to meet his 
 most formidable opponent in the state, Mr. Ather- 
 ton. In that gentleman are united many of the 
 rarest qualifications of an advocate. Of inimita- 
 ble self-possession ; with a coolness and clearness 
 of intellect which no sudden emergencies can dis- 
 turb ; with that confidence in his resources which 
 nothing but native strength, aided by the most 
 thorough training, can bestow ; with a felicity and 
 fertility of illustration, the result alike of an ex- 
 quisite natural taste and a cultivation of those 
 studies which refine while they strengthen the mind 
 for forensic contests, — Mr. Atherton’s argument 
 was listened to with an earnestness and interest 
 which showed the conviction of his audience that 
 no ordinary man was addressing them. 
 
 “ No one who witnessed that memorable trial will 
 soon forget the argument of Mr. Pierce on that oc- 
 casion. He was the counsel for the defendant, and 
 was therefore to precede Mr. Atherton. He was 
 to analyze and unfold to the jury this vast body 
 of evidence under the. watchful eyes of an oppo- 
 nent at once enterprising and cautious, and before 
 whom it was necessary to be both bold and skilful. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 57 
 
 He was to place himself in the position of the jury, 
 to see the evidence as they would be likely to re- 
 gard it, to understand the character of their minds, 
 and what views would be the most likely to impress 
 them. He was not only to be familiar with his 
 own case, but to anticipate that of his opponent, 
 and answer as he best might the argument of the 
 counsel. And most admirably did he discharge 
 the duties he had assumed on behalf of his client. 
 Eminently graceful and attractive in his manner at 
 all times, his demeanor was then precisely what it 
 should have been, showing a manly confidence in 
 himself and his case, and a courteous deference to the 
 tribunal he was addressing. His erect and manly 
 figure, his easy and unembarrassed air, bespoke 
 the favorable attention of his audience. His ear- 
 nest devotion to his cause, his deep emotion, evi- 
 dently suppressed, but for that very reason all the 
 more interesting, diffused themselves like electricity 
 through his hearers. And when, as often happened, 
 in the course of his argument, his clear and musi- 
 cal accents fell upon the ear in eloquent and pointed 
 sentences, gratifying the taste while they satisfied 
 the reason, no man could avoid turning to his 
 neighbor, and expressing by his looks that pleasure 
 which the very depth of his interest forbade him to 
 express in words. And when the long trial was 
 over, every one remembered with satisfaction that 
 these two distinguished gentlemen had met each 
 other during a most exciting and exhausting trial 
 
58 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 of seven weeks, and that no unkind words, or cap- 
 tious passages, had occurred between them, to di- 
 minish their mutual respect, or that in which they 
 were held by their fellow-citizens, 
 
 “ In the above remarks, we have indicated a few 
 of Mr. Pierce’s characteristics as an advocate ; but 
 he possesses other endowments, to which we have 
 not alluded. In the first place, as he is a perfectly 
 fearless man, so he is a perfectly fearless advocate ; 
 and true courage is as necessary to the civilian as 
 to the soldier, and smiles and frowns Mr. Pierce 
 disregards alike in the undaunted discharge of his 
 duty. He never fears to uphold his client, how- 
 ever unpopular his cause may seem to be for the 
 moment. It is this courage which kindles his elo- 
 quence, inspires his conduct, and gives direction 
 and firmness to his skill. This it is which impels 
 him onward, at all risks, to lay bare every ‘ mystery 
 of iniquity ’ which he believes is threatening his 
 case. He does not ask himself whether his oppo- 
 nent be not a man of wealth and influence, of 
 whom it might be for his interest to speak with 
 care and circumspection, but he devotes himself 
 with a ready zeal to his cause, careless of aught 
 but how he may best discharge his duty. His ar- 
 gumentative powers are of the highest order. He 
 never takes before the court a position which he 
 believes untenable. He has a quick and sure per- 
 ception of his points, and the power of enforcing 
 them by apt and pertinent illustrations. He sees 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 59 
 
 the relative importance and weight of different 
 views, and can assign to each its proper place, and 
 brings forward the main body of his reasoning in 
 prominent relief, without distracting the attention 
 by unimportant particulars. And above all, he has 
 the good sense, so rarely shown by' many, to stop 
 when he has said all that is necessary for the elu- 
 cidation of his subject. With a proper confidence 
 in his own perceptions, he states his views so per- 
 tinently, and in such precise and logical terms, that 
 they cannot but be felt and appreciated. He never 
 mystifies ; he never attempts to pervert words from 
 then proper and legitimate meaning, to answer a 
 temporary purpose. 
 
 “ His demeanor at the bar may be pronounced 
 faultless. His courtesy in the court house, like his 
 courtesy elsewhere, is that which springs from self- 
 respect, and from a kindly heart, disposing its 
 owner to say and do kindly things. But he would 
 be a courageous man, who, presuming upon the 
 affability of Mr. Pierce’s manner, would venture a 
 second time to attack him ; for he would long re- 
 member the rebuke that followed his first attack. 
 There is a ready repartee and a quick and cutting 
 sarcasm in his manner when he chooses to display 
 it, which it requires a man of considerable nerve to 
 ■withstand. He is peculiarly happy in the exami- 
 nation of witnesses — that art in which so few excel. 
 He never browbeats, he never attempts to terrify. 
 He is never rude or discourteous. But the equiv- 
 
60 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 ocating witness soon discovers that his falsehood 
 is hunted out of its recesses with an unsparing de- 
 termination. If he is dogged and surly, he is met 
 by a spirit as resolute as his own. If he is smooth 
 and plausible, the veil is lifted from him by a firm 
 but graceful hand. If he is pompous and vain, no 
 ridicule was ever more perfect than that to which 
 he listens with astonished and mortified ears. 
 
 “ The eloquence of Mr. Pierce is of a character 
 not to be easily forgotten. He understands men, 
 their passions, and their feelings. He knows the 
 way to their hearts, and can make them vibrate to 
 his touch. His language always attracts the hearer. 
 A graceful and manly carriage, bespeaking him at 
 once the gentleman and the true man, a manner 
 warmed by the ardent glow of an earnest belief, 
 an enunciation ringing, distinct, and impressive be- 
 yond that of most men, a command of brilliant 
 and expressive language, and an accurate taste, 
 together with a sagacious and instinctive insight 
 into the points of his case, are the secrets of his 
 success. It is thus that audiences are moved, and 
 truth ascertained ; and he will ever be the most suc- 
 cessful advocate who can approach the nearest to 
 this lofty and difficult position. 
 
 “ Mr. Pierce’s views as a constitutional lawyer are 
 such as have been advocated by the ablest minds 
 of America. They are those which, taking their 
 rise in the heroic age of the country, were trans- 
 mitted to him by a noble father, worthy of the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 61 
 
 times in which he lived, worthy of that revolution 
 which he assisted in bringing about. He believes 
 that the constitution was made, not to be subverted, 
 but to be sacredly preserved ; that a republic is per- 
 fectly consistent with the conservation of law, of 
 rational submission to right authority, and of true 
 self-government. Equally removed from that ma- 
 lignant hostility to order which characterizes the 
 demagogues who are eager to rise upon the ruins 
 even of freedom, and from that barren and bigoted 
 narrowness which would oppose all rational free- 
 dom of opinion, he is, in its loftiest and most enno- 
 bling sense, a friend of that Union, without which 
 the honored name of American citizen would be- 
 come a by-word among the nations. And if, as 
 we fervently pray and confidently expect he will, 
 Mr. Pierce shall display before the great tribunals 
 of the nation the courage, the consistency, the sa- 
 gacity, and the sense of honor, which have already 
 secured for him so many thousands of devoted 
 friends, and which have signalized both his private 
 and professional life, his administration will long 
 be held in grateful remembrance as one of which 
 the sense of right and the sagacity to perceive it, a 
 clear insight into the true destinies of the country, 
 and a determination to uphold them at whatever 
 sacrifice, were the predominant characteristics.” 
 
 It may appear singular that Franklin Pierce has 
 not taken up his residence in some metropolis, 
 where his great forensic abilities would so readily 
 6 
 
62 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 find a more conspicuous theatre, and a far richer 
 remuneration than heretofore. He himself, it is 
 understood, has sometimes contemplated a removal, 
 and, two or three years since, had almost deter- 
 mined on settling in Baltimore. But his native 
 state, where he is known so well, and regarded 
 with so much familiar affection, which he has 
 served so faithfully, and which rewards him so gen- 
 erously with its confidence, New Hampshire, with 
 its granite hills, must always be his home. He 
 will dwell there, except when public duty, for a 
 season, shall summon him away ; he will die there, 
 and give his dust to its soil. 
 
 It was at his option, in 1846, to accept the high- 
 est legal position in the country, setting aside the 
 bench, and the one which, undoubtedly, would 
 most have gratified his professional aspirations. 
 President Polk, with whom he had been associated 
 on the most friendly terms in Congress, now offered 
 him the post of attorney general of the United 
 States. “ In tendering to you this position in my 
 cabinet,” writes the president, “ I have been gov- 
 erned by the high estimate which I place upon 
 your character and eminent qualifications to fill 
 it.” The letter, in which this proposal is declined, 
 shows so much of the writer’s real self that we 
 quote a portion of it. 
 
 “Although the early years of my manhood were 
 devoted to public life, it was never really suited to 
 my taste. I longed, as I am sure you must often 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 63 
 
 have done, for the quiet and independence that 
 belong only to the private citizen ; and now, at 
 forty, I feel that desire stronger than ever. 
 
 “ Coming so unexpectedly as this offer does, it 
 would be difficult, if not impossible, to arrange the 
 business of an extensive practice, between this and 
 the first of November, in a manner at all satisfac- 
 tory to myself, or to those who have committed 
 their interests to my care, and who rely on my ser- 
 vices. Besides, you know that Mrs. Pierce’s health, 
 while at "Washington, was very delicate. It is, I 
 fear, even more so now ; and the responsibilities 
 which the proposed change would necessarily im- 
 pose upon her ought, probably, in themselves, to 
 constitute an insurmountable objection to leaving 
 our quiet home for a public station at Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 “ When I resigned my seat in the Senate in 1842, 
 I did it with the fixed purpose never again to be 
 voluntarily separated from my family for any con- 
 siderable length of time, except at the call of my 
 country in time of war ; and yet this consequence, 
 for the reason before stated, and on account of 
 climate, would be very likely to result from my 
 acceptance. 
 
 “ These are some of the considerations which 
 have influenced my decision. You will, I am sure, 
 appreciate my motives. You will not believe that 
 I have weighed my personal convenience and ease 
 against the public interest, especially as the office 
 
64 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 
 is one which, if not sought, would be readily ac- 
 cepted by gentlemen who could bring to your aid 
 attainments and qualifications vastly superior to 
 mine.” 
 
 Previous to the offer of the attorney generalship, 
 the appointment of United States senator had been 
 tendered to Pierce by Governor Steele, and declined. 
 It is unquestionable that, at this period, he hoped 
 and expected to spend a life of professional toil in 
 a private station, undistinguished except by the 
 exercise of his great talents in peaceful pursuits. 
 But such was not his destiny. The contingency to 
 which he referred in the above letter, as the sole 
 exception to his purpose of never being separated 
 from his family, was now about to occur. Nor did 
 he fail to comport himself as not only that intima- 
 tion, but the whole tenor of his character, gave 
 reason to anticipate. 
 
 During the years embraced in this chapter, — 
 between 1842 and 1847, — he had constantly taken 
 an efficient interest in the politics of the state, 
 but had uniformly declined the honors which New 
 Hampshire was at all times ready to confer upon 
 
 him. A democratic convention nominated him for 
 
 % 
 
 governor, but could not obtain his acquiescence. 
 One of the occasions on which he most strenuously 
 exerted himself was in holding the democratic party 
 loyal to its principles, in opposition to the course * 
 of John P. Hale. This gentleman, then a repre- 
 sentative in Congress, had broken with his party 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 65 
 
 on no less important a point than the annexation 
 of Texas. He has never since acted with the de- 
 mocracy, and has long been a leader of the free soil 
 party. 
 
 In 18-44 died Frank Robert, son of Franklin 
 Pierce, aged four years, a little boy of rare beauty 
 and promise, and whose death was the greatest 
 affliction that his father has experienced. His only 
 surviving child is a son, now eleven years old. 
 
 6 * E 
 
66 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE MEXICAN WAR HIS JOURNAL OF THE MARCH FROM 
 
 VERA CRUZ. 
 
 "When Franklin Pierce declined the honorable 
 offer of the attorney generalship of the United 
 States, he intimated that there might be one con- 
 tingency in which he would feel it his duty to give 
 up the cherished purpose of spending the remain- 
 der of his life in a private station. That exceptional 
 case was brought about, in 1847, by the Mexi- 
 can war. He showed his readiness to redeem the 
 pledge by enrolling himself as the earliest volun- 
 teer of a company raised in Concord, and went 
 through the regular drill, with his fellow-soldiers, 
 as a private in the ranks. On the passage of the 
 bill for the increase of the army, he received the ap- 
 pointment of colonel of the Ninth Regiment, which 
 was the quota of New England towards the ten 
 that were to be raised. And shortly afterwards, — 
 in March, 1847, — he was commissioned as briga- 
 dier general in the army ; his brigade consisting 
 of regiments from the extreme north, the extreme 
 west, and the extreme south of the Union. 
 
 There is nothing in any other country similar 
 to what we see in our own, when the blast of the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 67 
 
 trumpet at once converts men of peaceful pursuits 
 into warriors. Every war in which America has 
 been engaged has done this ; the valor that wins 
 our battles is not the trained hardihood of veter- 
 ans, but a native and spontaneous fire ; and there 
 is surely a chivalrous beauty in the devotion of the 
 citizen soldier to his country’s cause, which the 
 man who makes arms his profession, and is but 
 doing his regular business on the field of battle, 
 cannot pretend to rival. Taking the Mexican war 
 as a specimen, this peculiar composition of an 
 American army, as well in respect to its officers as 
 its private soldiers, seems to create a spirit of ro- 
 mantic adventure which more than supplies the 
 place of disciplined courage. 
 
 The author saw General Pierce, in Boston, on 
 the eve of his departure for Vera Cruz. He had 
 been intensely occupied, since his appointment, in 
 effecting the arrangements necessary on leaving his 
 affairs, as well as by the preparations, military and 
 personal, demanded by the expedition. The trans- 
 ports were waiting at Newport to receive the troops. 
 He was now in the midst of bustle, with some of 
 the officers of his command about him, mingled 
 with the friends whom he was to leave behind. 
 The severest point of the crisis was over, for he 
 had already bidden his family farewell. His spirits 
 appeared to have risen with the occasion. He was 
 evidently in his element ; nor, to say the truth, dan- 
 gerous as was the path before him, could it be 
 
68 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 regretted that his life was now to have the oppor- 
 - tunity of that species of success which — in his 
 youth, at least — he had considered the best worth 
 struggling for. He looked so fit to be a soldier, 
 that it was impossible to doubt — not merely his 
 good conduct, which was as certain before the event 
 as afterwards, but — his good fortune in the field, 
 and his fortunate return. 
 
 He sailed from Newport on the 27th of May, 
 in the bark Kepler, having on board three com- 
 panies of the Ninth Regiment of Infantry, to- 
 gether with Colonel Ransom, its commander, and 
 the officers belonging to the detachment. The 
 passage was long and tedious, with protracted 
 calms, and so smooth a sea that a sail boat might 
 have performed the voyage in safety. The Kepler 
 arrived at Vera Cruz in precisely a month after 
 her departure from the United States, without 
 speaking a single vessel from the south during her 
 passage, and, of course, receiving no intelligence 
 as to the position and state of the army which 
 these reenforcements were to join. 
 
 From a journal kept by General Pierce, and 
 intended only for the perusal of his family and 
 friends, we present some extracts. They are mere 
 hasty jottings-down in camp, and at the intervals 
 of weary marches, but will doubtless bring the 
 reader closer to the man than any narrative which 
 we could substitute. 
 
 “ June 28. The vomito rages fearfully ; and the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 69 
 
 city every where appears like the very habitation 
 of pestilence. I have ordered the troops to be 
 taken directly from the transports to Virgara, an 
 extensive sand beach upon the gulf, where there is 
 already an encampment consisting of four or five 
 hundred men, under the command of Major Lally. 
 The officers are under much apprehension on ac- 
 count of the climate and the vomito, the statements 
 with regard to which are perhaps exaggerated. My 
 orders are to make no delay here, and yet there is 
 no preparation for my departure. About two thou- 
 sand wild mules had been collected ; but through 
 the carelessness of persons employed by the quar- 
 termaster’s department, (a precious set of scoun- 
 drels, it being possible to obtain few but desperate 
 characters to enter this service here at this season,) 
 a stampede has occurred to-day, by which fifteen 
 hundred have been lost. The Mexicans fully be- 
 lieve that most of my command must die of vomito 
 before I can be prepared to march into the interior. 
 
 “ July 5. Pitched my tent at Virgara, two miles 
 from the city. Mornings close, and heat excessive. 
 Fine breeze after eleven o’clock, with breakers dash- 
 ing upon the smooth beach for three miles. Our 
 tents are upon the sand, which is as hard as the 
 beach at Lynn or Hampton. Heavy rains, and 
 tremendous thunder, and the most vivid and con- 
 tinuous flashes of lightning, almost every night. 
 Many of the officers and soldiers are indisposed ; 
 but as yet there is no clear case of vomito. The 
 
70 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 troops are under drill every morning, the sun being 
 too intense and oppressive to risk exposure at any 
 other period of the day. I find my tent upon the 
 beach decidedly preferable to any quarters in the 
 city. Neither officers nor soldiers are allowed to 
 go to the city except by special permission, and on 
 duty. 
 
 11 July 6. Mules and mustangs are being col- 
 lected daily ; but they are wild, unaccustomed to 
 the harness, and most of them even to the bridle. 
 Details from the different commands are actively 
 engaged in taming these wild animals, and break- 
 ing them to harness. 
 
 “ July 7. Last night, at ten o’clock, there was a 
 stampede, as it is called in camp. The report of 
 musketry at the advanced picket induced me to 
 order the long roll to be beaten, and the whole 
 command was at once formed in line of battle. I 
 proceeded in person, with two companies, to the 
 advanced picket, and found no ground for the 
 alarm, although the sentinels insisted that a party 
 of guerillas had approached within gun shot of 
 their posts. I have ordered that, upon the repeti- 
 tion of any such alarm, the two companies nearest 
 the picket shall proceed at once to the advanced 
 post. The long roll will not be beaten until a 
 report shall be sent in from the commanding officer 
 of the detachment, who is to take with him a small 
 detachment of cavalry as couriers. This will se- 
 cure the quiet of the camp at night, and at the 
 same time afford protection against surprise. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 71 
 
 “ July 8. Lieutenant T. J. Whipple, adjutant of 
 the Ninth Infantry, was induced by curiosity to 
 visit, with private Barnes of Manchester, the cem- 
 etery near the wall of the city — an imprudent act, 
 especially as the audacity of the guerillas, and their 
 daily near approach, have been well understood. 
 That he should have gone with a single unarmed 
 private, and himself without arms except his sabre, 
 is astonishing. Lieutenant Whipple was attacked 
 by six guerillas, and overpowered. Barnes escaped, 
 and found me, within half an hour, at Governor 
 Wilson’s quarters. I immediately despatched a 
 troop of cavalry in pursuit ; but no trace of the 
 miscreants has been discovered, and great alarm 
 is felt for the safety of our gallant, but too adven- 
 turous, friend. There was in my command no 
 braver man or better soldier than Whipple. 
 
 11 July 12. Being informed that Adjutant Whip- 
 ple’s life had been spared, and that he was a pris- 
 oner with a band of guerillas about twelve or 
 fourteen miles from my camp, I sent a strong de- 
 tachment, by night, to surprise the ranchero, and, 
 if possible, to recover our valued friend. The vil- 
 lage was taken, but the guerillas had fled with 
 their prisoner. Captain Duff, the efficient and 
 gallant commander of cavalry, attached to my 
 command, having been greatly exposed in an ex- 
 cursion in search of W 7 hipple, is dangerously sick 
 of vomito. 
 
 “ About eighty American horses have reached me 
 
72 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 from New Orleans, and I shall put my command 
 in motion to-morrow or the next day. I know 
 not how long my delay might have continued, 
 but for the activity of my officers generally, and 
 especially if I had not secured the services of a 
 most efficient staff, which has cheerfully rendered 
 its aid in season and out of season. Major Woods, 
 of the Fifteenth Infantry, a graduate of West Point, 
 and an officer of great intelligence, experience, and 
 coolness, kindly consented to act as my adjutant 
 general. My aid-de-camp, Lieutenant Thom, of 
 the Topographical Engineers, Lieutenant Cald- 
 well, of the Marine Corps, brigade commissary, 
 and Lieutenant Van Bocklin, of the Seventh In- 
 fantry, brigade quartermaster, have all, regardless 
 of the dangers of the climate, performed an amount 
 of labor, in pushing forward the preparations for 
 our march, which entitles them not merely to my 
 thanks, but to a substantial acknowledgment from 
 government. Major Lally is dangerously sick of 
 vomito. I have sent him' in an ambulance, on my 
 mattress, to Major Smith’s quarters, in the city, to- 
 day. Major Seymour is also sick, but is deter- 
 mined to go on with the command. I visited the 
 gallant Captain Duff this morning, and have de- 
 cided to send him to the hospital, in the city. His 
 is an undoubted case of the vomito, and I fear that 
 but slight hope of his recovery can be reasonably 
 indulged. I feel his loss seriously ; he was a truly 
 brave and efficient officer. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 73 
 
 " July 13. After a delay of nearly three weeks, 
 in this debilitating and sickly climate, where I had 
 reason to expect, before landing, a delay of not 
 more than two days, — and after an amount of 
 labor and perplexity more trying than an active 
 campaign in the field, — the hum and clank of 
 preparation, the strand covered with wagons, go- 
 ing to and returning from the city, laden with 
 ammunition, subsistence, &c., sufficiently indicate 
 that the long-deferred movement is at last to be 
 made. 
 
 “ July 14. Colonel Ransom, with the Ninth In- 
 fantry, and two companies of the Twelfth, under 
 Captain "Wood, left this morning, with about eighty 
 wagons of the train. He will proceed to San Juan, 
 twelve miles distant, on the Jalapa road, and there 
 await my arrival with the remainder of the brigade. 
 It would be almost certain destruction to men and 
 teams, so long as we remain in tierra caliente, to 
 march them between the hours of nine o’clock, 
 A. M., and four, P. M. Colonel Ransom’s com- 
 mand, therefore, struck their tents last night, load- 
 ed their company wagons, and bivouacked, in 
 order that there might be nothing to delay an 
 early start in the morning. Fortunately, it did 
 not rain, and the advance moved off in fine order 
 and spirits. 
 
 “ July 15. It is impossible for me to move to- 
 day, with the remainder of the brigade, on account 
 of the deficiency of teams. Notwithstanding all 
 7 
 
74 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 my exertions, I shall be compelled to rely on many 
 mule teams, which, when I move, will be in har- 
 ness for the first time. I have, however, sent off a 
 second detachment, consisting of four companies 
 of the Fourteenth and two companies of the Third 
 Infantry, under the command of that accomplished 
 and admirable officer, Lieutenant Colonel Hebert, 
 of Louisiana. 
 
 “ July 16. After much perplexity and delay, on 
 account of the unbroken and intractable teams, I 
 left the camp, this afternoon, at five o’clock, with 
 the Fourth Artillery, Lieutenant Colonel Watson’s 
 Marine Corps, and a detachment of the Third 
 Dragoons, with about forty wagons. The road 
 was very heavy ; the wheels sinking almost to the 
 hubs in sand, and the untried and untamed teams 
 almost constantly bolting, in some part of the 
 train. We were occupied rather in brealdng the 
 animals to harness, than in performing a march. At 
 ten o’clock at night, we bivouacked, in the darkness 
 and sand, by the wagons in the road — having 
 made but three miles from camp. 
 
 “ Camp near San Juan , July 17. Started this 
 morning, at four o’clock. Road still heavy, over 
 short, steep hills ; progress slow and difficult. 
 Reached Santa Fe, eight miles from Vera Cruz, 
 at eight o’clock, A. M. Heat exceedingly oppres- 
 sive. Remained here till four, P. M. About 
 twelve o’clock, two muleteers came to our bivouac 
 in great agitation, to announce that five hundred 
 
franklin pierce. 
 
 75 
 
 guerillas were on the Jalapa road, not five hundred 
 yards distant, advancing rapidly. Lieutenant 
 Colonel Watson, with the Marine Corps, is, by 
 order, immediately under arms, and Major Gavet, 
 with two pieces of artillery, in position to keep 
 the road. No guerilla force approaches ; and it is 
 doubtful whether the muleteers, looking through 
 the medium of terror, were not entirely mistaken. 
 Still, it was our first alarm, and useful, as stimu- 
 lating to vigilance and constant preparation for an 
 attack. 
 
 “ Resumed the march at four P. M., and reached 
 San Juan about nine o’clock in the evening, in a 
 drenching rain. The road from SjSanta Fe to this 
 place is level and firm ; no water, until the first 
 branch of the San Juan is reached. The gueril- 
 las had attempted to destroy the bridge over the 
 stream ; but Colonel Ransom’s advance was upon 
 them before the work of destruction was complete, 
 and New England strength and ingenuity readily 
 repaired damages. The rain continued to pour, 
 throughout that night, the next day, and the night 
 following. The encampment being upon low, 
 muddy ground, along the margin of the stream, 
 officers and men were compelled to find their only 
 repose, literally, in the mud and water ; and I re- 
 solved to move, notwithstanding the heavy rain, 
 which continued to pour until the evening of the 
 19th. 
 
 “ Telema Nueva, July 20. My brigade, with the 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 exception of Lieutenant Colonel Bonham’s com- 
 mand, left Camp Pierce, (a name given it before my 
 arrival, by Colonel Ransom,) at San Juan, yesterday 
 evening, and marched to this place, twenty-four 
 miles from Vera Cruz. Several escopettes were 
 discharged upon the detachment of dragoons, at the 
 head of the column. These shots came from an em- 
 inence on the left of the road, a direct line to which 
 was impracticable for cavalry. Lieutenant Deven, 
 in command of the advanced detachment, dashed 
 rapidly up the hill, along the road, to reconnoitre 
 the -position of the main body of the enemy, which, 
 it was supposed, might be posted behind the emi- 
 nence. Captain Ridgeley, of the Fourth Artillery, 
 threw a few round shot in the direction from which 
 the fire came ; and in the mean time, I had de- 
 spatched Captain Bodfish, of the Ninth Infantry, 
 with the grenadiers and Company F., to take the 
 enemy in flank. The duty was promptly and 
 handsomely performed ; but the enemy had fled 
 before Captain B. had arrived within musket shot 
 of his position. 
 
 “ The march was continued about a mile, when 
 mounted Mexicans could be discerned at distant 
 points, evidently reconnoitring. This being the 
 place where Colonel McIntosh’s train had been 
 attacked and sustained so much damage, I made 
 dispositions for any such contingency. I detached 
 Captain Larkin Smith, of the Eighth Infantry, 
 with three companies of infantry and a party of 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 77 
 
 dragoons, by a path on the left of the main road, 
 that debouched from an old Spanish fort, whence an 
 attack was anticipated. A detachment of dragoons 
 under Lieutenant Deven, Colonel Ransom with 
 the Ninth Infantry, and Captain Ridgeley with 
 three pieces of his battery, marched on the main 
 road. Captain Smith, having traversed the route 
 upon which he was directed, again intersected the 
 main road, near the fort above referred to, a little 
 hi advance of the head of our column. 
 
 “ In this position, as soon as Captain Smith’s 
 detachment had well extended upon the road, the 
 enemy opened a brisk fire. They were concealed 
 and strongly posted in the chapperal, on both sides 
 of the road — the greater number on the right. 
 The fire was promptly returned, and sustained on 
 both sides for some minutes, when Captain Ridge- 
 ley unlimbered one of his pieces, and threw a few 
 canister shot among them. This immediately 
 silenced the enemy’s fire, which had been nearly 
 done by Captain Smith, before the artillery came 
 up. Captain Bodfish, with three companies of the 
 Ninth Infantry, was sent to attack the enemy in 
 flank ; but his flight was too precipitous for this 
 detachment to come up with his main body. 
 
 <! I could not ascertain the enemy’s loss. The 
 Mexican paper at Jalapa stated it at forty ; which, 
 I think, was an exaggeration. Our own loss was 
 six wounded, and seven horses shot. 
 
 “ I witnessed with pleasure the conduct of that 
 
 7 * 
 
78 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 part of my command immediately engaged, on 
 this occasion. The first fire of the enemy indi- 
 cated a pretty formidable force, the precise strength 
 of which could not be ascertained, as they were 
 completely covered by the chapperal. It was the 
 first time, on the march, that any portion of my 
 command had been fairly under fire. I was at the 
 head of the column, on the main road, and, wit- 
 nessing the whole scene, saw nothing but coolness 
 and courage on the part of both officers and men. 
 
 “ Puente Nacionale, July 21. The brigade re- 
 sumed its march yesterday, at three o’clock, and 
 reached Paso de Orejas, three miles distant, where 
 we encamped for the night. The march was un- 
 obstructed by the enemy ; and our advanced troops 
 reached the place last named at an early hour. 
 The rear, however, in consequence of our immense 
 train, did not arrive till after dark. As it descended 
 towards the camp, it was approached by gueril- 
 las ; but they were kept at bay by a few discharges 
 from a six pounder, left with Lieutenant Colonel 
 Watson, in the rear. These parties had been seen 
 during the day, on distant and elevated points, 
 reconnoitring our line. The road, on this part of 
 the march, is high and dry ; no water except in 
 small ponds or pools. Paso de Orejas is on the 
 west side of a rapid and beautiful stream, spanned 
 by a substantial and expensive bridge ; and, judg- 
 ing from the spacious buildings, it has evidently 
 been a place of considerable business. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 79 
 
 “We left Paso de Orejas at four o’clock in the 
 morning, and pursued our course uninterruptedly, 
 until we reached Puente Nacionale. Anticipating, 
 from rumors which had reached us upon the road, 
 an attack at this place, and having no map of its 
 defences, natural or artificial, I halted the entire 
 command on the top of the long hill, which de- 
 scends to the fork of the Antigua River. With a 
 detail of two companies of the Twelfth Infantry, 
 commanded by Captains Wood and Danvers, I 
 proceeded in person, two or three hundred yards, 
 to an elevation on the right of the road, from which, 
 with my glass, I could command a view of the 
 bridge, the village, and the enemy’s positions. 
 There were a few lancers in the village, riding 
 rapidly from one position to another, flourishing a 
 red flag, and occasionally, as if in defiance, coming 
 up to the barricade which they had thrown across 
 the bridge. The main body of the enemy, how- 
 ever, was posted behind a temporary breastwork, 
 on a bluff, a hundred and fifty feet high, command- 
 ing the whole bridge, and overhanging, as it were, 
 the eastern arch. Their position could not be 
 turned, as the heights continue precipitous from 
 the water’s edge, for a long distance below. 
 
 “ The tongue of land, dividing the fork referred 
 to above from the main stream of the Rio del An- 
 tigua, rises to an immense height on the left ; and 
 on this eminence is a fortification, which, from the 
 road, has the appearance of great strength. After 
 
80 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 crossing the bridge, the road' tarns suddenly to the 
 left. Having satisfied myself that this fort, on 
 the left, was not occupied, I sent forward Captain 
 Dobbins with his company, together with Company 
 G, Fourth Infantry, and Company I, Voltigeurs, 
 under Captain Archer, along the brow of the hill 
 to the bank of the Antigua, opposite the village, 
 with instructions, if possible, to cross the river 
 above. 
 
 “ The passage above, like that below, being 
 found impracticable, I rode forward, with my aid- 
 de-camp, Lieutenant Thom, to reconnoitre the 
 enemy’s works more closely, and to find on the 
 left, if possible, a position for artillery. In this I 
 was to a certain extent successful, and immediate- 
 ly ordered forward three pieces, two under the com- 
 mand of Captain Ridgeley, and one under Lieu- 
 tenant Getty, of the Fourth Artillery. These were 
 stationed on a piece of table land, perhaps an acre 
 in extent, four or five rods from the west end of 
 the main bridge, and thirty feet above it. The 
 pieces swept the bridge, and dispersed the lancers 
 from the village. Shots were also thrown at the 
 heights, but, in consequence of the great elevation 
 of the bluff’ where the enemy’s main body were 
 posted, without any other effect than to distract 
 his fire from the advance, under Colonel Bonham, 
 then awaiting my orders to cross. This portion of 
 Colonel Bonham’s command consisted of Compa- 
 ny B, Twelfth Infantry, under Captain Holden, a 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 81 
 
 detachment of the same regiment under Lieutenant 
 Giles, two companies of Pennsylvania volunteers 
 under Captains Caldwell and Taylor, Company C, 
 A oltigeurs, under Lieutenant Forsyth, and Com- 
 pany F, Eleventh Infantry, commanded by Lieu- 
 tenant Hedges. 
 
 “ Under the discharge of the artillery of the ene- 
 my’s works, the command was given to Colonel 
 Bonham to advance. It was admirably executed. 
 Captain Holden’s company, leading, rushed over 
 the bridge with a shout ; the captain, some paces 
 in advance, leaped the barricade of brush and tim- 
 ber, his men following with great enthusiasm. 
 Having crossed the bridge, he threw his company, 
 under the cover of buildings, immediately beneath 
 the bluff, and taking a narrow, steep path to the 
 right, was in a few moments upon the summit, 
 where the whole brigade greeted him with hearty 
 cheers. The remainder of the command followed 
 rapidly, and in good order. In the mean time, with 
 a view to cut off' the retreat of the foe, Captain 
 Dupreau, of the Third Dragoons, had leaped the 
 barricade, dashed through the village, and, almost 
 simultaneously with Captain Holden, planted the 
 colors of his company upon the breastwork, from 
 which the plunging fire had so recently ceased. 
 The guerillas and lancers could hardly have 
 waited, after the first shout of Holden’s company, 
 to see the effect of their own fire ; for, before our 
 first detachment reached their works, they were in 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 full flight, beyond pursuit, in the dense chapperal 
 of the mountains in their rear. 
 
 “ Colonel Bonham’s horse was shot near me, and 
 I received an escopette ball through the rim of my 
 hat, but without other damage than leaving my 
 head, for a short time, without protection from the 
 sun. The balls spattered like hailstones around 
 us, at the moment the column advanced ; and it 
 seems truly wonderful that so few took effect. A 
 large portion of them passed over our heads, and 
 struck between the rear of Colonel Bonham’s com- 
 mand and the main body of the brigade, two or 
 three hundred yards behind, with the train ; thus 
 verifying what has so often been said by our gal- 
 lant fellows, within the last forty days, that the 
 nearer you get to these people in fight, the safer. 
 
 “ The encampment was made in the village, for 
 the night, thirty miles from Vera Cruz. Here 
 General Santa Anna has a spacious and magnifi- 
 cent hacienda, in which I established my head- 
 quarters. 
 
 “ July 22. I left the princely hacienda of Santa 
 Anna, at the Natural Bridge, this morning at four 
 o’clock. The moment our picket guards wjere with- 
 drawn, the enemy appeared on all the surrounding 
 heights, but at distances too respectful to provoke 
 any particular notice. I proceeded on the march, 
 without molestation, until we commenced the de- 
 scent of the Plan del Rio, where Captain Du- 
 preau’s company of cavalry, a few hundred yards 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 83 
 
 in front of the column, was fired upon from the 
 chapperal, and three horses wounded. Lieutenant 
 Colonel Hebert, being next to the dragoons, threw 
 out a company of skirmishers on either side, and, 
 with the remainder, continued the march on the 
 main road. Nothing more, however, was seen or 
 heard of the enemy. 
 
 “ An old Spanish fort stands on a high eminence 
 at the right of the road, commanding it in all di- 
 rections, and overlooking the bridge. A bridge, 
 about four hundred yard* west of the main stream, 
 had been barricaded, evidently with the intention 
 of defending it. But neither the fort nor the po- 
 sition beyond the barricade was occupied ; the 
 enemy, as we soon learned, having hit upon another 
 expedient for checking our advance, which they 
 evidently believed must cause several weeks’ deten- 
 tion, and probably drive the command back upon 
 the coast. 
 
 “ Removing the barricade at the small bridge, 
 and proceeding about four hundred yards, we came 
 to the Plan del Rio, over which there had been a 
 bridge similar to Puente Nacionale. It was a mag- 
 nificent structure of art, combining great strength 
 and beauty, a work of the old Spaniards, so many 
 of which are found upon this great avenue from 
 the coast, fitted to awaken the admiration and 
 wonder of the traveller. The fact that the main 
 arch, a span of about sixty feet, had been blown 
 up, first burst upon me as I stood upon the brink 
 
84 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 of the chasm, with a perpendicular descent of 
 nearly a hundred feet to the bed of a rapid stream, 
 much swollen by the recent rains. As far as the 
 eye could reach, above and below, the banks on 
 the west side, of vast height, descended precipi- 
 tously, aimost in a perpendicular line, to the water’s 
 edge. 
 
 “This sudden'- and unexpected barrier, I need 
 not say, was somewhat withering to the confidence 
 with which I had been. animated. The news hav- 
 ing extended back along the line, my officers soon 
 crowded around me ; and the deep silence that 
 ensued was more significant than any thing which 
 could have been spoken. After a few moments’ 
 pause, this silence was broken by many short, epi- 
 grammatical remarks, and more questions. ‘ We 
 have it before us now ! ’ said Lieutenant Colonel 
 Hebert. ‘ The destruction of this magnificent and 
 expensive work of a past generation could not 
 have been ordered, but upon a deliberate and firm 
 purpose of stern resistance.’ ‘ This people have 
 destroyed,’ said another, ‘ what they never will re- 
 build.’ ‘ What is to be done with this train ? ’ 
 ‘ What do you purpose now, general ? ’ ‘ To have 
 it closed up,’ I replied, ‘ as compactly as possible to- 
 night, and to cross to-morrow with every wagon ! ’ 
 But, I confess, there was no very distinct idea, in 
 my own mind, how the thing was to be accom- 
 plished. 
 
 “ I ought to have mentioned that the Ninth 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 85 
 
 Infantry, under the gallant Colonel Ransom, which 
 was that day in advance, on discovering that the 
 bridge had been blown up, and supposing the ene- 
 my to be in force on the other side, immediately 
 descended the steep banks, by the aid of trees and 
 other supports, and forded the river. They then 
 took possession of a church on the other side. 
 
 “ A long hill descends from the west towards 
 this river; the road is narrow, and there is no 
 ground for an encampment or the packing of wag- 
 ons. The wagons, therefore, having been closed 
 up, were of necessity left in the wood, making a 
 line of more than a mile and a half in length. 
 Thus disposed, every precaution was taken for the 
 protection of the train, and the brigade was left to 
 bivouac. 
 
 “ The growth, for miles around, was low and 
 scrubby, affording no timber to reconstruct the 
 arch ; and it was perfectly apparent that no passage 
 could be effected at the north. Lieutenant Thom, 
 and two or three scientific officers with him, had 
 been occupied from the time of our arrival in mak- 
 ing a careful reeonnoissance down the banks of 
 the river, for two or three miles below. At dusk, 
 they reported that the difficulties in that direction 
 did not diminish, but that a road might probably 
 be constructed down the bank, some hundred yards 
 south of the bridge. Weary, and not in the most 
 buoyant spirits, we all sunk to repose. 
 
 “Early the next morning, I sent for Captain 
 
86 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 Bodfish, of the Ninth Infantry, an officer of high 
 intelligence and force of character. He had been 
 engaged for many years in the lumber business, 
 and accustomed to the construction of roads in the 
 wild and mountainous districts of Maine, and was 
 withal a man not lightly to be checked by slight 
 obstacles in the accomplishment of an enterprise. 
 It occurred to me, therefore, that he was the very 
 man whose services should, on this occasion, be 
 put in requisition. 
 
 “ Being informed of the object for which he had 
 been called, he retired, and, returning in half an 
 hour, said that he had examined the ground, and 
 that the construction of a road, over which the train 
 might safely pass, was practicable. ‘ What length 
 of time,’ he was asked, ‘will necessarily be occupied 
 in the completion of the work ? ’ ‘ That,’ said he, 
 
 ‘ will depend upon the number of men employed. 
 If you will give me five hundred men, I will fur- 
 nish you a road over which the train can pass 
 safely in four hours.’ The detail was immediately 
 furnished ; and, at the end of three hours, this en- 
 ergetic and most deserving officer reported to me 
 that the road was ready for the wagons. Fortune 
 favored us in more respects than one. The water 
 in the river, which, in the rainy season, is a rapid 
 and unfordable stream, fell one and a half feet from 
 the time of our arrival to the hour of the comple- 
 tion of the work. ‘ Bodfish’s road ’ (unless this 
 nation shall be regenerated) will be the road, at 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 87 
 
 that place, for Mexican diligences, for half a cen- 
 tury to come. 
 
 “ Without removing an article from a single 
 wagon, the entire train had passed, without ac- 
 cident, before the sun went down on the even- 
 ing of the 23d. Here, on the east side of Plan 
 del Rio, where there are barracks and many 
 ranchos, we are comfortably quartered for the 
 night. The troops are in the highest spirits ; and 
 jokes innumerable are passing among our southern 
 brethren upon the absurdity of Mexicans attempt- 
 ing to play such a trick on Yankees. The heat 
 had been so excessive that I intended to remain 
 one day at this place, for the refreshment of men 
 and animals : but all are anxious to proceed, and 
 we move in the morning. Thus the destruction 
 of this very expensive work, instead of retarding 
 my progress for a single hour, has added fresh con- 
 fidence and enthusiasm to the command. 
 
 “ Ence.ro. July 24. Plan del Rio being within 
 four miles of Cerro Gordo, and being apprehensive 
 of a plunging fire on the trains, from the eminences, 
 I despatched Lieutenant Colonel Bonham with five 
 hundred picked men, at twelve o’clock, last night, 
 to take possession of the heights, by the way of 
 Twiggs’s route, as it is called. An officer, in my 
 command, was at the battle of Cerro Gordo, and 
 supposed that he sufficiently understood the locali- 
 ties to act as guide. This military road of Twiggs 
 turned off from the main road, four or five miles 
 
88 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 from Plan del Rio. I went forward in person, with 
 Captain Dupreau’s company of cavalry. The rain 
 poured in torrents ; and the darkness was such that 
 I could not see Dupreau’s white horse, while riding 
 by his side. In consequence of this extreme dark- 
 ness, Captain Scantland was unable to find the 
 route, and I returned with the cavalry to camp. 
 The detachment rested upon their arms till morn- 
 ing, when the duty was handsomely performed, 
 although the strongholds were found unoccupied. 
 
 “ When our train left Plan del Rio, at early 
 dawn, the Mexicans appeared on the heights, and 
 discharged a harmless volley upon the rear guard. 
 They evidently made a mistake. Not having cal- 
 culated distances with their usual accuracy, Colonel 
 Ransom, being in the rear with a six pounder, un- 
 der the command of Lieutenant Welsh, threw a 
 few canister shot among them. These undoubt- 
 edly took effect, as they scattered in all directions, 
 without firing another gun. We reached this 
 place at about two o’clock, where is another mag- 
 nificent hacienda, owned by Santa Anna. There 
 being large herds of cattle around us, but no owner 
 of whom to purchase, I have sent out detachments 
 to supply our immediate wants. 
 
 “ Two or three of the young officers, desiring to 
 participate in the chase of the cattle, left the camp 
 without permission, and, in the excitement of the 
 chase, wandered to a considerable distance. One 
 of them has just been brought in with a dangerous 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 89 
 
 gun shot through the thigh — a very natural result 
 of such imprudence. The only matter of surprise is, 
 that they were not all killed or captured by the bands 
 of guerillas, who are known to hang upon our rear 
 by day, and about our camp by night. I am sorry 
 for the officer, but trust the admonition may be 
 salutary. We have here a delightful encampment, 
 upon a green carpet that slopes gently to a fine 
 stream of clear, pure water. Jalapa is only eight 
 miles distant. 
 
 “ .Camp near Jalapa , July 25. We left the en- 
 campment at Encero at seven o’clock, not without 
 regret, so pleasant was the situation, and so re- 
 freshing the pure stream that rushed sparkling by 
 us. It reminded all New England men of their 
 homes. Our march to Jalapa, which we reached 
 at noon, was uninterrupted. The main road to 
 Puebla passes outside of the city. I rode with 
 twenty dragoons to the principal fonda, kept by 
 an intelligent Frenchman, where I dined, and re- 
 mained two or three hours, until the train and rear 
 of the command had passed. In the hotel, I met 
 and conversed, through an interpreter, with many 
 persons in the garb of gentlemen. Full of compli- 
 ments and professions of friendship, they quite 
 stagger a blunt Yankee. The truth is, instead of 
 being induced to take up my quarters on account 
 of these protestations, I the earlier thought it time, 
 with my true friend and aid-de-camp, Lieutenant 
 Thom, and the twenty dragoons, to join the com- 
 8 * 
 
 t 
 
90 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 mand. I hardly know why, amid pleasant conver- 
 sation, this feeling came over me. It was instinct, 
 rather than any legitimate deduction from what I 
 either saw or heard ; but, in this case, it proved 
 better than reason, for, returning to the main road, 
 I found the extreme rear halted, and in no little 
 excitement. A colored servant of Lieutenant 
 Welsh, having been sent to water a horse, not six 
 rods from the road, had been stabbed, and the horse 
 stolen. I stopped long enough to ascertain that no 
 trace could be found of the robbers, and then, pro- 
 ceeded to camp, two and a half or three miles dis- 
 tant. 
 
 “ The encampment is by a fine stream, which, 
 drives the spindles of Don Garcia, a quarter of a 
 mile below us. This factory has in some respects 
 a New England aspect, but is destitute of the in- 
 dications of New England enterprise and thrift. 
 
 “ No trust is to be placed in this people. I have 
 learned, beyond a doubt, that Jalapa is daily filled 
 with guerillas, and that many of these bravos 
 were about the fonda, while we were there. 
 
 “ Camp near Jalapa , July 27. Several soldiers, 
 while strolling to the city or the neighboring 
 ranchos, in violation of general orders, have either 
 deserted, been killed, or taken prisoners. Mr. N., 
 a lawyer resident in New Orleans, but a native of 
 Maine, having business in the interior of Mexico, 
 was permitted to accompany my command from 
 Vera Cruz. He seems to have been enjoying a 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 91 
 
 stroll in the streets of Jalapa, when he was seized 
 by the guerillas, who are evidently in disguise in 
 all parts of the city. He wrote me a note after 
 his capture, stating that he had been offered his 
 liberty, if I would send to the Alcalde of Jalapa a 
 certificate that he was a private citizen, and in no 
 way connected with the American army. This 
 was, of course, promptly forwarded. 
 
 “ The guerillas, I believe, have complete pos- 
 session, or rather control, of Jalapa. The citizens, 
 who dread them more than we do, and who suffer 
 severely from them, dare not inform against nor 
 resist them, so long as an uncertainty exists with 
 regard to protection from the American forces. 
 They stroll about the city in disguise, and, when- 
 ever an opportunity presents itself, they kill or carry 
 off our stragglers, and steal and rob with impunity. 
 
 “ Camp near La Hoy a , July 29. We left our 
 camp near Jalapa this morning at seven o’clock. 
 The sick list, instead of diminishing, has increased, 
 and now includes more than four hundred men. 
 The principal cause is excessive indulgence in 
 fruits, which it was found impossible to keep from 
 the troops. We are now upon the margin of a 
 stream, where are the remains of fires and other 
 relics of a former encampment. The ground is 
 low and level. The rain is pouring in torrents, 
 and rushes through my tent, in a channel dug by 
 the orderly, like a permanent, living brook. 
 
 “ On arriving at San Miguel el Saldado, I re- 
 
92 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 quiredthe Alcalde of that place, and another Mexi- 
 can, to go forward with us as guides to the passes 
 that turn the strong positions commanding the 
 roads over which we shall pass to-morrow. 
 
 “ Camp near the Castle of Perote, July 30. The 
 whole command was under arms at dawn. Two 
 regiments (the Ninth Infantry under Colonel Ran- 
 som, and detachments from various regiments 
 under Lieutenant Colonel Bonham) were ordered 
 to take the paths leading over the heights com- 
 manding the road, while the main body, with the 
 train, should pass this strong defile. During the 
 night, the Alcalde had furnished two guides, better 
 acquainted with the paths than himself. One ac- 
 companied each of the flanking columns. This 
 service, performed by Colonel Ransom and Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel Bonham, was exceedingly arduous, 
 although they occupied the heights without resist- 
 ance. The train passed this gorge of the moun- 
 tains, which furnishes the strongest natural de- 
 fences, without molestation ; the two flanking 
 regiments making their appearance, every few 
 moments, in the openings, and on the peaks of the 
 surrounding summits. 
 
 “ At Las Vegas, about four miles from Perote, 
 we were met by Colonel Wyncoop, of the Pennsyl- 
 vania volunteers, now in command of the castle, 
 with Captain Walker’s elegant company of mount- 
 ed riflemen. Captain Walker is the same who 
 gained [earned is the better word, for officers some- 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 93 
 
 times gain what they do not merit) such an envi- 
 able reputation on the Rio Grande. His company 
 is in all respects worthy of their efficient, gentle- 
 manly, modest, and daring commander. 
 
 “ I reached the castle before dark, and Colonel 
 Wyncoop kindly tendered me his quarters; but I 
 adhered to a rule from which I have never deviated 
 on the march — to see the rear of the command 
 safely in camp, and where they pitched their tents 
 to pitch my own. The rear guard, in consequence 
 of the broken condition of the road, did not arrive 
 until nine o’clock ; when our tents were pitched in 
 darkness, and in the sand, which surrounds the 
 castle on all sides. 
 
 “ Camp under ' the Walls of the Castle of Perote, 
 Avgust 1. We make a halt here of two or three 
 days, to repair damages, procure supplies, and give 
 rest to the troops. I have sent two hundred sick 
 to the hospital in the castle, and received about the 
 same number of convalescents, left by trains that 
 have preceded me. 
 
 “ While at the artillery quarters, to-day, in the 
 village, Captain Ruff' arrived, with his company of 
 cavalry and the company of native spies, as they 
 are called, now in our service, and commanded by 
 the celebrated robber Domingues. Captain Ruff 
 was sent forward by General Persifer F. Smith. 
 The latter, in consequence of the rumors that had 
 reached the commander-in-chief, in relation to the 
 attacks made upon my command, had been sent 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 down as far as Ojo del Agua, with a view to ascer- 
 tain my whereabouts and condition, and to afford 
 support, if necessary.” 
 
 General Pierce’s journal here terminates. In its 
 clear and simple narrative, the reader cannot fail 
 to see — although it was written with no purpose 
 of displaying them — the native qualities of a born 
 soldier, together with the sagacity of an experi- 
 enced one. He had proved himself, moreover, 
 physically apt for war, by his easy endurance of 
 the fatigues of the march ; every step of which (as 
 was the case with few other officers) was performed 
 either on horseback or on foot. Nature, indeed, 
 has endowed him with a rare elasticity both of 
 mind and body ; he springs up from pressure like 
 a well-tempered sword. After the severest toil, a 
 single night’s rest does as much for him, in the 
 way of refreshment, as a week could do for most 
 other men. 
 
 His conduct on this adventurous march received 
 the high encomiums of military men, and was 
 honored with the commendation of the great 
 soldier who is now his rival in the presidential 
 contest. He reached the main army at Puebla, 
 on the 7th of August, with twenty-four hundred 
 men, in fine order, and without the loss of a sin- 
 gle wagon. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 95 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 HIS SERVICES IN THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 
 
 General Scott, who was at Puebla with the 
 main army, awaiting this reenforcement, began his 
 march towards the city of Mexico on the day after 
 General Pierce’s arrival. The battle of Contreras 
 was fought on the 19th of August. 
 
 The enemy’s force consisted of about seven 
 thousand men, posted in a strongly-intrenched 
 camp, under General Valencia, one of the bravest 
 and ablest of the Mexican commanders. The ob- 
 ject of the commanding general appears to have 
 been to cut off the communications of these de- 
 tached troops with Santa Anna’s main army, and 
 thus to have them entirely at his mercy. For this 
 purpose, a portion of the American forces were 
 ordered to move against Valencia’s left flank, and, 
 by occupying strong positions in the villages and 
 on the roads towards the city, to prevent reenforce- 
 ments from reaching him. In the mean time, to 
 draw the enemy’s attention from this movement, a 
 vigorous onset was made upon his front ; and as 
 the operations upon his flank were not immediately 
 and fully carried out according to the plan, this 
 front demonstration assumed the character of a 
 
96 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 fierce and desperate attack, upon which the for* 
 tunes of the day much depended. General Pierce’s 
 brigade formed a part of the force engaged in this 
 latter movement, in which four thousand newly- 
 recruited men, unable to bring their artillery to 
 bear, contended against seven thousand disciplined 
 soldiers, protected by intrenchments, and shower- 
 ing round shot and shells against the assailing 
 troops. 
 
 The ground in front was of the rudest and 
 roughest character. The troops made their way 
 with difficulty over a broken tract, called the Pe- 
 dregal, bristling with sharp points of rocks, and 
 which is represented as having been the crater of 
 a now exhausted and extinct volcano. The enemy 
 had thrown out skirmishers, who were posted in 
 great force among the crevices and inequalities of 
 this broken ground, and vigorously resisted the 
 American advance ; while the artillery of the in- 
 trenched camp played upon our troops, and shat- 
 tered the very rocks over which they were to pass. 
 
 General Pierce’s immediate command had never 
 before been under such a fire of artillery. The 
 enemy’s range was a little too high, or the havoc 
 in our ranks must have been dreadful. In the 
 midst of this fire, General Pierce, being the only 
 officer mounted in the brigade, leaped his horse 
 upon an abrupt eminence, and addressed the colo- 
 nels and captains of the regiments, as they passed, 
 in a few stirring words — reminding them of the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 97 
 
 honor of their country, of the victory their steady 
 valor would contribute to achieve. Pressing for- 
 ward to the head of the column, he had nearly 
 reached the practicable ground that lay beyond, 
 when his horse slipped among the rocks, thrust his 
 foot into a crevice, and fell, breaking his own leg, 
 and crushing his rider heavily beneath him. 
 
 Pierce’s mounted orderly soon came to his as- 
 sistance. The general was stunned, and almost 
 insensible. When partially recovered, he found 
 himself suffering from severe bruises, and especially 
 from a sprain of the left knee, which was under- 
 most when the horse came down. The orderly 
 assisted him to reach the shelter of a projecting 
 rock ; and as they made their way thither, a shell 
 fell close beside them, and exploded, covering them 
 with earth. “ That was a lucky miss,” said Pierce 
 calmly. Leaving him in such shelter as the rock 
 afforded, the orderly went in search of aid, and was 
 fortunate to meet with Dr. Ritchie, of Virginia, 
 who was attached to Pierce’s brigade, and was 
 following in close proximity to the advancing col- 
 umn. The doctor administered to him as well as 
 the circumstances would admit. Immediately on 
 recovering his full consciousness, General Pierce 
 had become anxious to rejoin his troops ; and now, 
 in opposition to Dr. Ritchie’s advice and remon- 
 strances, he determined to proceed to the front. 
 
 With pain and difficulty, and leaning on his 
 orderly’s arm, he reached the battery commanded 
 9 G 
 
98 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 by Captain McGruder, where he found the horse 
 of Lieutenant Johnson, who had just before re- 
 ceived a mortal wound. In compliance with his 
 wishes, he was assisted into the saddle ; and, in 
 answer to a remark that he would be unable to 
 keep his seat, “ Then,” said the general, “ you must 
 tie me on.” Whether this precaution was actually 
 taken is a point on which authorities differ ; but at 
 all events, with injuries so severe as would have 
 sent almost any other man to the hospital, he rode 
 forward into the battle. 
 
 The contest was kept up until nightfall, without 
 forcing Valencia’s intrenchment. General Pierce 
 remained in the saddle until eleven o’clock at night. 
 Finding himself, at nine o’clock, the senior officer 
 in the field, he, in that capacity, withdrew the troops 
 from their advanced position, and concentrated 
 them at the point where they were to pass the 
 night. At eleven, beneath a torrent of rain, destitute 
 of a tent or other protection, and without food or re- 
 freshment, he lay down on an ammunition wagon, 
 but was prevented by the pain of his injuries, espe- 
 cially that of his wounded knee, from finding any 
 repose. At one o’clock came orders from General 
 Scott to put the brigade into a new position, in 
 front of the enemy’s works, preparatory to taking 
 part in the contemplated operations of the next 
 morning. During the night, the troops appointed 
 for that service, under Riley, Shields, Smith, and 
 CadwaNader, had occupied the villages and roads 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 99 
 
 between Valencia’s position and the city ; so that, 
 with daylight, the commanding general’s scheme 
 of the battle was ready to be carried out, as it had 
 originally existed in his mind. 
 
 At daylight, accordingly, Valencia’s intrenched 
 camp was assaulted. General Pierce was soon in 
 the saddle, at the head of his brigade, which retained 
 its position in front, thus serving to attract the en- 
 emy’s attention, and divert him from the true point 
 of attack. The camp was stormed in the rear by 
 the American troops, led on by Riley, Cadwallader, 
 and Dimmick ; and in the short space of seventeen 
 minutes it had fallen into the hands of the assail- 
 ants, together with a multitude of prisoners. The 
 remnant of the routed enemy fled towards Churu- 
 busco. As Pierce led his brigade in pursuit, cross- 
 ing the battle field, and passing through the works 
 that had just been stormed, he found the road and 
 adjacent fields every where strewn with the dead 
 and dying. The pursuit was continued until one 
 o’clock, when the foremost of the Americans ar- 
 rived in front of the strong Mexican positions at 
 Churubusco and San Antonio, where Santa Anna’s 
 army had been compelled to make a stand, and 
 where the great conflict of the day commenced. 
 
 General Santa Anna entertained the design of 
 withdrawing his forces towards the city. In order 
 to intercept this movement, Pierce’s brigade, with 
 other troops, was ordered to pursue a route by 
 which the enemy could be attacked in the rear. 
 
100 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 Colonel Noah E. Smith (a patriotic American, long 
 resident in Mexico, whose local and topographi- 
 cal knowledge proved eminently serviceable) had 
 offered to point out the road, and was sent to 
 summon General Pierce to the presence of the 
 commander-in-chief. When he met Pierce, near 
 Coyacan, at the head of his brigade, the heavy 
 fire of the batteries had commenced. “ He was 
 exceedingly thin,” writes Colonel Smith, “worn 
 down by the fatigue and pain of the day and night 
 before, and then evidently suffering severely. Still, 
 there was a glow in his eye, as the cannon boomed, 
 that showed within him a spirit ready for the con- 
 flict.” He rode up to General Scott, who was at 
 this time sitting on horseback beneath a tree, near 
 the church of Coyacan, issuing orders to different 
 individuals of his staff. Our account of this inter- 
 view is chiefly taken from the narrative of Colonel 
 Smith, corroborated by other testimony. 
 
 The commander-in-chief had already heard of 
 the accident that befell Pierce the day before ; and 
 as the latter approached, General Scott could not 
 but notice the marks of pain and physical exhaus- 
 tion, against which only the sturdiest constancy of 
 will could have enabled him to bear up. “ Pierce, 
 my dear fellow,” said he, — and that epithet of 
 familiar kindness and friendship, upon the battle 
 field, was the highest of military commendation 
 from such a man, — “ you are badly injured ; you 
 are not fit to be in your saddle.” “ Yes, general, 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 101 
 
 I am,” replied Pierce, “ in a case like this.” “ You 
 cannot touch your foot to the stirrup,” said Scott- 
 “ One of them I can,” answered Pierce. The gen- 
 eral looked again at Pierce’s almost disabled figure, 
 and seemed on the point of taking his irrevocable 
 resolution. “ You are rash, General Pierce,” said 
 he ; “ we shall lose you, and we cannot spare you. 
 It is my duty to order you back to St. Augustine.” 
 “For God’s sake, general,” exclaimed Pierce, “ don’t 
 say that ! This is the last great battle, and I must 
 lead my brigade ! ” The commander-in-chief made 
 no further remonstrance, but gave the order for 
 Pierce to advance with his brigade. 
 
 The way lay through thick standing corn, and 
 over marshy ground intersected with ditches, which 
 were filled, or partially so, with water. Over some 
 of the narrower of these Pierce leaped his horse. 
 When the brigade had advanced about a mile, 
 however, it found itself impeded by a ditch ten or 
 twelve feet wide, and six or eight feet deep. It 
 being impossible to leap it, General Pierce was 
 lifted from his saddle, and, in some incomprehen- 
 sible way, hurt as he was, contrived to wade or 
 scramble across this obstacle, leaving his horse on 
 the hither side. The troops were now under fire. 
 In the excitement of the battle, he forgot his inju- 
 ry, and hurried forward, leading the brigade, a 
 distance of two or three hundred yards. But the 
 exhaustion of his frame, and particularly the an- 
 guish of his knee, — made more intolerable by such 
 9 * 
 
102 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 free use of it, — was greater than any strength of 
 nerve, or any degree of mental energy, could 
 struggle against. He fell, faint and almost insen- 
 sible, within full range of the enemy’s fire. It was 
 proposed to bear him off' the field ; but, as some 
 of his soldiers approached to lift him, he became 
 aware of their purpose, and was partially revived 
 by his determination to resist it. “ No,” said he, 
 with all the strength he had left, “ don’t carry 
 me off! Let me lie here!” And there he lay, 
 under the tremendous fire of Churubusco, until the 
 enemy, in total rout, was driven from the field. 
 
 Immediately after the victory, when the city of 
 Mexico lay at the mercy of the American com- 
 mander, and might have been entered that very 
 night, Santa Anna sent a flag of truce, proposing 
 an armistice, with a view to negotiations for peace. 
 It cannot be considered in any other light than as 
 a very high and signal compliment to his gallantry 
 in the field, that General Pierce was appointed, by 
 the commander-in-chief, one of the commissioners 
 on our part, together with General Quitman and 
 General Persifer F. Smith, to arrange the terms 
 of this armistice. Pierce was unable to walk, or 
 to mount his horse without assistance, when intel- 
 ligence of his appointment reached him. He had 
 not taken off his spurs, nor slept an hour, for two 
 nights ; but he immediately obeyed the summons, 
 was assisted into the saddle, and rode to Tacubaya, 
 where, at the house of the British consul general, 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 103 
 
 the American and Mexican commissioners were 
 assembled. The conference began late in the 
 afternoon, and continued till four o’clock the next 
 morning, when the articles were signed. Pierce 
 then proceeded to the quarters of General Worth, 
 in the village of Tacubaya, where he obtained an 
 hour or two of repose. 
 
 The expectation of General Scott, that further 
 bloodshed might be avoided by means of the armis- 
 tice, proved deceptive. Military operations, after 
 a temporary interruption, were actively renewed ; 
 and on the 8th of September was fought the 
 bloody battle of Molino del Rey, one of the fiercest 
 and most destructive of the war. 
 
 In this conflict, General Worth, with three thou- 
 sand troops, attacked and routed fourteen thousand 
 Mexicans, driving them under the protection of 
 the Castle of Chepultepec. Perceiving the obsti- 
 nacy with which the field was contested, the com- 
 mander-in-chief despatched an order to General 
 Pierce to advance to the support of General 
 Worth’s division. He moved forward with rapid- 
 ity ; and although the battle was won just as he 
 reached the field, he interposed his brigade between 
 Worth and the retreating enemy, and thus drew 
 upon himself the fire of Chepultepec. A shell 
 came streaming from the castle, and, bursting 
 within a few feet of him, startled his horse, which 
 was near plunging over an adjacent precipice. 
 Continuing a long time under fire, Pierce’s brigade 
 
104 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 was engaged in removing the wounded, and the 
 captured ammunition. While thus occupied, he 
 led a portion of his command to repel the attacks 
 of the enemy’s skirmishers. 
 
 There remained but one other battle, — that of 
 Chepultepec, — which was fought on the 13th 
 of September. On the preceding day, (although 
 the injuries and the over-exertion, resulting from 
 previous marches and battles, had greatly enfeebled 
 him,) General Pierce had acted with his brigade. 
 In obedience to orders, it had occupied the field of 
 Molino del Rey. Contrary to expectation, it was 
 found that the enemy’s force had been withdrawn 
 from this position. Pierce remained in the field 
 until noon, when, it being certain that the antici- 
 pated attack would not take place before the fol- 
 lowing day, he returned to the quarters of General 
 Worth, which were near at hand. There he be- 
 came extremely ill, and was unable to leave his 
 bed for the thirty-six hours next ensuing. In the 
 mean time, the Castle of Chepultepec was stormed 
 by the troops under Generals Pillow and Quitman. 
 Pierce’s brigade behaved itself gallantly, and suf- 
 fered severely ; and that accomplished officer, 
 Colonel Ransom, leading the Ninth Regiment to 
 the attack, was shot through the head, and fell, 
 with many other brave men, in that last battle 
 of the war. 
 
 The American troops, under Quitman and 
 Worth, had established themselves within the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 105 
 
 limits of the city, having possession of the gates 
 of Belen and of San Cosma, but, up till nightfall, 
 had met with a vigorous resistance from the Mexi- 
 cans, led on by Santa Anna in person. They had 
 still, apparently, a desperate task before them. It 
 was anticipated, that, with the next morning’s 
 light, our troops would be ordered to storm the 
 citadel, and the city of Mexico itself. When this 
 was told to Pierce, upon his sick bed, he rose, and 
 attempted to dress himself ; but Captain Hard- 
 castle, who had brought the intelligence from 
 Worth, prevailed upon him to remain in bed, and 
 not to exhaust his scanty strength, until the immi- 
 nence of the occasion should require his presence. 
 Pierce acquiesced for the time, but again arose, in 
 the course of the night, and made his way to the 
 trenches, where he reported himself to General 
 Quitman, with whose division was a part of his 
 brigade. Quitman’s share in the anticipated as- 
 sault, it was supposed, owing to the position which 
 his troops occupied, would be more perilous than 
 that of Worth. 
 
 But the last great battle had been fought. In 
 the morning, it was discovered that the citadel had 
 been abandoned, and that Santa Anna had with- 
 drawn his army from the city. 
 
 There never was a more gallant body of officers 
 than those who came from civil life into the army 
 on occasion of the Mexican war. All of them, 
 from the rank of general downward, appear to have 
 
106 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 been animated by the spirit of young knights, in 
 times of chivalry, when fighting for their spurs. 
 Hitherto known only as peaceful citizens, they felt 
 it incumbent on them, by daring and desperate 
 valor, to prove their fitness to be intrusted with 
 the guardianship of their country’s honor. The 
 old and trained soldier, already distinguished on 
 former fields, was free to be discreet, as well as 
 brave ; but these untried warriors were in a differ- 
 ent position, and therefore rushed on perils with a 
 recklessness that found its penalty on every battle 
 field — not one of which was won without a griev- 
 ous sacrifice of the best blood of America. In this 
 band of gallant men, it is not too much to say, 
 General Pierce was as distinguished for what we 
 must term his temerity in personal exposure, as for 
 the higher traits of leadership, wherever there was 
 an opportunity for their display. 
 
 He had manifested, moreover, other and better 
 qualities than these, and such as it affords his bi- 
 ographer far greater pleasure to record. His ten- 
 derness of heart, his sympathy, his brotherly or 
 paternal care for his men, had been displayed in a 
 hundred instances, and had gained him the enthu- 
 siastic affection of all who served under his com- 
 mand. During the passage from America, under 
 the tropics, he would go down into the stifling air 
 of the hold, with a lemon, a cup of tea, and, better 
 and more efficacious than all, a kind word, for the 
 sick. While encamped before Yera Cruz, he gave 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 107 
 
 up his own tent to a sick comrade, and went him- 
 self to lodge in the pestilential city. On the march, 
 and even on the battle field, he found occasion to 
 exercise those feelings of humanity which show 
 most beautifully there. And, in the hospitals of 
 Mexico, he went among the diseased and wounded 
 soldiers, cheering them with his voice and the 
 magic of his kindness, inquiring into their wants, 
 and relieving them to the utmost of his pecuniary 
 means. There was not a man of his brigade but 
 loved him, and would have followed him to death, 
 or have sacrificed his own life in his general’s 
 defence. 
 
 The officers of the old army, whose profession 
 was war, and who well knew what a soldier was, 
 and ought to be, fully recognized his merit. An 
 instance of their honorable testimony in his behalf 
 may fitly be recorded here. It was after General 
 Pierce had returned to the United States. At a 
 dinner in the halls of Montezuma, at which forty 
 or fifty of the brave men above alluded to were 
 present, a young officer of the New England regi- 
 ment was called on for a toast. He made an 
 address, in which he spoke with irrepressible en- 
 thusiasm of General Pierce, and begged to propose 
 his health. One of the officers of the old line rose, 
 and observed, that none of the recently appointed 
 generals commanded more unanimous and univer- 
 sal respect ; that General Pierce had appreciated the 
 scientific knowledge of the regular military men, 
 and had acquired their respect by the independ- 
 
10S 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 ence, firmness, and promptitude, with which he 
 exercised his own judgment, and acted on the in- 
 telligence derived from them. In concluding this 
 tribute of high, but well-considered praise, the 
 speaker very cordially acquiesced in the health of 
 General Pierce, and proposed that it should be 
 drunk standing, with three times three. 
 
 General Pierce remained in Mexico until De- 
 cember, when, as the warfare was over, and peace 
 on the point of being concluded, he set out on his 
 return. In nine months, crowded full of incident, 
 he had seen far more of actual service than many 
 professional soldiers during their whole lives. As 
 soon as the treaty of peace was signed, he gave up 
 his commission, and returned to the practice of the 
 law, again proposing to spend the remainder of his 
 days in the bosom of his family. All the dreams 
 of his youth were now fulfilled ; the military ardor, 
 that had struck an hereditary root in his breast, 
 had enjoyed its scope, and was satisfied ; and he 
 flattered himself that no circumstances could here- 
 after occur to draw him from the retirement of 
 domestic peace. New Hampshire received him 
 with pride and honor, and with even more enthu- 
 siastic affection than ever. At his departure, he 
 had received a splendid sword at the hands of 
 many of his friends, in token of their confidence ; 
 he had shown himself well worthy to wear, and 
 able to use, a soldier’s weapon ; and his native 
 state now gave him another, the testimonial of 
 approved valor and warlike conduct. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 109 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COMPROMISE AND OTHER MATTERS. 
 
 The intervening years, since General Pierce’s 
 return from Mexico, and until the present time, 
 have been spent in the laborious exercise of the 
 legal profession — an employment scarcely varied 
 or interrupted, except by those episodes of political 
 activity which a man of public influence finds it 
 impossible to avoid, and in which, if his opinions 
 are matter of conscience with him, he feels it his 
 duty to interest himself. 
 
 In the presidential canvass of 1848, he used his 
 best efforts (and with success, so far as New Hamp- 
 shire was concerned) in behalf of the candidate 
 of his party. A truer and better speech has never 
 been uttered, on a similar occasion, than one which 
 he made, (during a hurried half hour, snatched from 
 the court room,) in October of the above year, be- 
 fore the democratic state convention, then in ses- 
 sion at Concord. It is an invariable characteristic 
 of General Pierce’s popular addresses, that they 
 evince a genuine respect for the people ; he makes 
 his appeal to then- intelligence, their patriotism, 
 and their integrity, and, never doubtful of their 
 upright purpose, proves his faith in the great mind 
 10 
 
110 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 and heart of the country both by what he says and 
 by what he refrains from saying. He never yet 
 was guilty of an effort to cajole his fellow-citizens, 
 to operate upon their credulity, or to trick them 
 even into what was right ; and therefore all the 
 victories which he has ever won in popular assem- 
 blies have been triumphs doubly honored, being as 
 creditable to his audiences as to himself. 
 
 When the series of measures known under the 
 collective term of The Compromise were passed 
 by Congress, in 1850, and put to so searching a 
 test, here at the north, the reverence of the people 
 for the constitution, and their attachment to the 
 Union, General Pierce was true to the principles 
 which he had long ago avowed. At an early 
 period of his congressional service, he had made 
 known, with the perfect frankness of his character, 
 those opinions upon the slavery question which 
 he has never since seen occasion to change in the 
 slightest degree. There is an unbroken consistency 
 in his action with regard to this matter. It is en- 
 tirely of a piece, from his first entrance upon public 
 life until the moment when he came forward, while 
 many were faltering, to throw the great weight of 
 his character and influence into the scale in favor 
 of those measures through which it was intended 
 to redeem the pledges of the constitution, and to 
 preserve and renew the old love and harmony 
 among the sisterhood of states. His approval 
 embraced the whole series of these acts, as well 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 those which bore hard upon northern views and 
 sentiments as those in which the south deemed 
 itself to have made more than reciprocal con- 
 cessions. 
 
 No friend nor enemy, that knew Franklin Pierce, 
 would have expected him to act otherwise. With 
 his view of the wdiole subject, whether looking at 
 it through the medium of his conscience, his feel- 
 ings, or his intellect, it w r as impossible for him not 
 to take his stand as the unshaken advocate of 
 Union, and of the mutual steps of compromise 
 which that great object unquestionably demanded. 
 The fiercest, the least scrupulous, and the most 
 consistent of those w r ho battle against slavery rec- 
 ognize the same fact that he does. They see that 
 merely human wisdom and human efforts cannot 
 subvert it except by tearing to pieces the constitu- 
 tion, breaking the pledges which it sanctions, and 
 severing into distracted fragments that common 
 country which Providence brought into one nation, 
 through a continued miracle of almost two hundred 
 years, from the first settlement of the American 
 wilderness until the revolution. In the days when, 
 a young member of Congress, he first raised his 
 voice against agitation, Pierce saw these perils and 
 their consequences. He considered, too, that the 
 evil would be certain, wdiile the good was, at best, 
 a contingency, and (to the clear, practical foresight 
 with which he looked into the future) scarcely so 
 much as that, attended, as the movement w T as and 
 
112 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 must be, during its progress, with the aggravated 
 injury of those whose condition it aimed to ame- 
 liorate, and terminating, in its possible triumph, — 
 if such possibility there were, — with the ruin of 
 two races which now dwelt together in greater 
 peace and affection, it is not too much to say, than 
 had ever elsewhere existed between the taskmaster 
 and the serf. 
 
 Of course, there is another view of all these 
 matters. The theorist may take that view in his 
 closet ; the philanthropist by profession may strive 
 to act upon it uncompromisingly, amid the tumult 
 and warfare of his life. But the statesman of prac- 
 tical sagacity — who loves his country as it is, and 
 evolves good from things as they exist, and who 
 demands to feel his firm grasp upon a better reality 
 before he quits the one already gained — will be 
 likely here, with all the greatest statesmen of Amer- 
 ica, to stand in the attitude of a conserv ative. 
 Such, at all events, will be the attitude of Franklin 
 Pierce. We have sketched some of the influences 
 amid which he grew up, inheriting his father’s love 
 of country, mindful of the old patriot’s valor in so 
 many conflicts of the revolution, and having close 
 before his eyes the example of brothers and rela- 
 tives, more than one of whom have bled for Amer- 
 ica, both at the extremest north and farthest south ; 
 himself, too, in early manhood, serving the Union 
 in its legislative halls, and, at a maturer age, lead- 
 ing his fellow-citizens, his brethren, from the widest- 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 115 
 
 this great subject, fully and unreservedly indorsing 
 the measures comprehended under it, and declaring 
 the principles on which the Democracy of the state 
 was about to engage in the gubernatorial contest. 
 Mr. Atwood accepted the nomination, acceding to 
 the platform thus tendered him, taking exceptions 
 to none of the individual resolutions, and, of course, 
 pledging himself to the whole by the very act of 
 assuming the candidacy, which was predicated 
 upon them. 
 
 The reverend candidate, we should conceive, is 
 a well-meaning, and probably an amiable man. 
 In ordinary circumstances, he would, doubtless, 
 have gone through the canvass triumphantly, and 
 have administered the high office to which he as- 
 pired with no discredit to the party that had placed 
 him at its head. But the disturbed state of the 
 public mind on the Compromise Question rendered 
 the season a very critical one ; and Mr. Atwood, 
 unfortunately, had that fatal weakness of character, 
 which, however respectably it may pass in quiet 
 times, is always bound to make itself pitiably man- 
 ifest under the pressure of a crisis. A letter was 
 addressed to him by a committee, representing the 
 party opposed to the Compromise, and with whom, 
 it may be supposed, were included those who held 
 the more thorough-going degrees of anti-slavery 
 sentiment. The purpose of the letter was to draw 
 out an expression of Mr. Atwood’s opinion on the- 
 abolition movement generally, and with an especial 
 
116 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 reference to the Fugitive Slave Law, and whether, 
 as chief magistrate of the state, he would favor 
 any attempt for its repeal. In an answer of con- 
 siderable length, the candidate expressed senti- 
 ments that brought him unquestionably within the 
 Free Soil pale, and favored his correspondents, 
 moreover, with a pretty decided judgment as to 
 the unconstitutional, unjust, and oppressive char- 
 acter of the Fugitive Slave act. 
 
 During a space of about two months, this very 
 important document was kept from the public eye. 
 Rumors of its existence, however, became gradually 
 noised abroad, and necessarily attracted the atten- 
 tion of Mr. Atwood’s democratic friends. Inquiries 
 being made, he acknowledged the existence of the 
 letter, but averred that it had never been delivered, 
 that it was merely a rough draught, and that he had 
 hitherto kqpt it within his own control, with a view 
 to more careful consideration. In accordance with 
 the advice of friends, he expressed a determination, 
 and apparently in good faith, to suppress the let- 
 ter, and thus to sever all connection with the anti- 
 slavery party. This, however, was now beyond 
 his power. A copy of the letter had been taken ; 
 it was published, with high commendations, in the 
 anti-slavery newspapers ; and Mr. Atwood was ex- 
 hibited in the awkward predicament of directly 
 avowing sentiments on the one hand which he had 
 implicitly disavowed, on the other, of accepting 
 a nomination based on principles diametrically 
 opposite. 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 117 
 
 The candidate appears to have apprehended this 
 disclosure, and he hurried to Concord, and sought 
 counsel of General Pierce, with whom he was on 
 terms of personal kindness, and between whom 
 and himself, heretofore, there had never been a 
 shade of political difference. An interview with 
 the general and one or two other gentlemen en- 
 sued. Mr. Atwood was cautioned against saying 
 or writing a word that might be repugnant to his 
 feelings or his principles ; but, voluntarily, and at 
 his own suggestion, he now wrote, for publication, 
 a second letter, in which he retracted every objec- 
 tionable feature of his former one, and took de- 
 cided ground in favor of the Compromise, including 
 all its individual measures. Had he adhered to 
 this latter position, he might have come out of the 
 affair, if not with the credit of consistency, yet, at 
 least, as a successful candidate in the impending 
 election. But his evil fate, or, rather, the natural 
 infirmity of his character, was not so to be thrown 
 off. The very next day, unhappily, he fell into the 
 hands of some of his anti-slavery friends, to whom 
 he avowed a constant adherence to the principles 
 of his first letter, describing the second as having 
 been drawn from him by importunity, in an ex- 
 cited state of his mind, and without a full realiza- 
 tion of its purport. 
 
 It would be needlessly cruel to Mr. Atwood to 
 trace, with minuteness, the further details of this 
 affair. It is impossible to withhold from him a 
 
118 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 certain, sympathy, or to avoid feeling that a very 
 worthy man, as the world goes, had entangled 
 himself in an inextricable knot of duplicity and 
 tergiversation, by an ill-advised effort to be two 
 opposite things at once. For the sake of true man- 
 hood, we gladly turn to consider the course adopted 
 by General Pierce. 
 
 The election for governor was now at a distance 
 of only a few weeks ; and it could not be other- 
 wise than a most hazardous movement for the 
 democratic party, at so late a period, to discard a 
 candidate with whom the people had become fa- 
 miliar. It involved nothing less than the imminent 
 peril of that political supremacy which the party 
 had so long enjoyed. With Mr. Atwood as can- 
 didate, success might still be considered certain. 
 To a short-sighted and a weak man, it would have 
 appeared the obvious policy to patch up the diffi- 
 culty, and, at all events, to conquer, under what- 
 ever leadership, and with whatever allies. But it 
 was one of those junctures which test the differ- 
 ence between the man of principle and the mere 
 politician — the man of moral courage and him 
 who yields to temporary expediency. General 
 Pierce could not consent that his party should gain 
 a nominal triumph, at the expense of what he 
 looked upon as its real integrity and life. With 
 this view of the matter, he had no hesitation in his 
 course ; nor co uld the motives which otherwise 
 would have been strongest with him — pity for the 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 119 
 
 situation of an unfortunate individual, a personal 
 Mend, a democrat, as Mr. Atwood describes him- 
 self, of nearly fifty years’ standing — incline him 
 to mercy, where it would have been fatal to his 
 sense of right. He took decided ground against 
 Mr. Atwood. The convention met again, and 
 nominated another candidate. Mr. Atwood went 
 into the field as the candidate of the anti-slavery 
 party, drew off a sufficient body of democrats to 
 defeat the election by the people, but was himself 
 defeated in the legislature. 
 
 Thus, after exhibiting to the eyes of mankind 
 (or such portion of mankind as chanced to be look- 
 ing in that direction) the absurd spectacle of a 
 gentleman of extremely moderate stride attempt- 
 ing a feat that would have baffled a Colossus, — 
 to support himself, namely, on both margins of the 
 impassable chasm that has always divided the 
 anti-slavery faction from the New Hampshire De- 
 mocracy, — this ill-fated man attempted first to 
 throw himself upon one side of the gulf, then on 
 the other, and finally tumbled headlong into the 
 bottomless depth between. His case presents a 
 painful, but very curious and instructive instance 
 of the troubles that beset weakness, in those emer- 
 gencies which demand steadfast moral strength 
 and energy — of which latter type of manly char- 
 acter there can be no truer example than Franklin 
 Pierce. 
 
 In the autumn of 1850, in pursuance of a vote 
 
120 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 of the people, a convention assembled at Concord 
 for the revision of the constitution of New Hamp- 
 shire. General Pierce was elected its president by 
 an almost unanimous vote — a very high mark of 
 the affectionate confidence which the state, for so 
 long a time, and in such a variety of modes, had 
 manifested in him. It was so much the higher, as 
 the convention included New Hampshire’s most 
 eminent citizens, among whom was Judge Wood- 
 bury. 
 
 General Pierce’s conduct, as presiding officer, 
 was satisfactory to all parties ; and one of his po- 
 litical opponents (Professor Sanborn, of Dartmouth 
 College) has ably sketched him, both in that aspect 
 and as a debater. 
 
 “ In drawing the portraits of the distinguished 
 members of the constitutional convention,” writes 
 the professor, “ to pass Frank Pierce unnoticed 
 would be as absurd as to enact one of Shakspeare’s 
 dramas without its principal hero. I give my im- 
 pressions of the man as I saw him in the conven- 
 tion ; for I would not undertake to vouch for the 
 truth or falsehood of those veracious organs of 
 public sentiment, at the capital, which have loaded 
 him, in turn, with indiscriminate praise and abuse. 
 As a presiding officer, it would be difficult to find 
 his equal. In proposing questions to the house, he 
 never hesitates or blunders. In deciding points of 
 order, he is both prompt and impartial. His treat- 
 ment of every member of the convention was 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 121 
 
 characterized by uniform courtesy and kindness. 
 The deportment of the presiding officer of a delib- 
 erative body usually gives tone to the debates. 
 If he is harsh, morose, or abrupt in his manner, the 
 speakers are apt to catch his spirit by the force of 
 involuntary sympathy. The same is true, to some 
 extent, of the principal debaters in such a body. 
 When a man of strong prejudices and harsh temper 
 rises to address a public assembly, his indwelling 
 antipathies speak from every feature of his face, 
 and from every motion of his person. The audi- 
 ence at once brace themselves against his assaults, 
 and condemn his opinions before they are heard. 
 The well-known character of an orator persuades 
 or dissuades quite as forcibly as the language he 
 utters. Some men never rise to address a delibera- 
 tive assembly without conciliating good will in 
 advance. The smile that plays upon the speaker’s 
 face awakens emotions of complacency in those 
 who hear, even before he speaks. So does that 
 weight of character, which is the matured fruit of 
 long public services and acknowledged worth, 
 soothe, in advance, the irritated and angry crowd. 
 
 “ Mr. Pierce possesses unquestioned ability as a 
 public speaker. Few men, in our country, better 
 understand the means of swaying a popular as- 
 sembly, or employ them with greater success. His 
 forte lies in moving the passions of those whom 
 he addresses. He knows how to call into vigorous 
 action both the sympathies and antipathies of 
 11 
 
122 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 those who listen to him. I do not mean to imply 
 by these remarks that his oratory is deficient in 
 argument or sound reasoning. On the contrary, 
 he seizes with great power upon the strong points 
 of his subject, and presents them clearly, forcibly, 
 and eloquently. As a prompt and ready debater, 
 always prepared for assault or defence, he has few 
 equals. In these encounters, he appears to great 
 advantage, from his happy faculty of turning little 
 incidents, unexpectedly occurring, to his own ac- 
 count. A word carelessly dropped, or an un- 
 guarded allusion to individuals or parties, by an 
 opponent, is frequently converted into a powerful 
 weapon of assault, by this skilful advocate. He 
 has been so much in office, that he may be said to 
 have been educated in public life. He is most 
 thoroughly versed in all the tactics of debate. He 
 is not only remarkably fluent in his elocution, but 
 remarkably correct. He seldom miscalls or repeats 
 a word. His style is not overloaded with orna- 
 ment, and yet he draws liberally upon the treasury 
 of rhetoric. His figures are often beautiful and 
 striking, never incongruous. He is always listened 
 to with respectful attention, if he does not always 
 command conviction. From his whole course in 
 the convention, a disinterested spectator could not 
 fail to form a very favorable opinion, not only of 
 his talent and eloquence, but of his generosity and 
 magnanimity.” 
 
 Among other antiquated relics of the past, and 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 123 
 
 mouldy types of prejudices that ought now to be 
 forgotten, and of which it was the object of the 
 present convention to purge the constitution of 
 New Hampshire, there is a provision, that certain 
 state offices should be held only by Protestants. 
 Since General Pierce’s nomination for the presi- 
 dency, the existence of this religious test has been 
 brought as a charge against him, as if, in spite of 
 his continued efforts to remove it, he were per- 
 sonally responsible for its remaining on the statute 
 book. 
 
 General Pierce has naturally a strong endow- 
 ment of religious feeling. At no period of his 
 life, as is well known to his friends, have the sacred 
 relations of the human soul been a matter of indif- 
 ference with him ; and, of more recent years, what- 
 ever circumstances of good or evil fortune may 
 have befallen him, they have alike served to deepen 
 this powerful sentiment. Whether in sorrow or 
 success, he has learned, in his own behalf, the great 
 lesson, that religious faith is the most valuable and 
 most sacred of human possessions ; but, with this 
 sense, there has come no narrowness or illiberality, 
 but a wide-embracing sympathy for the modes of 
 Christian worship, and a reverence for individual 
 belief, as a matter between the Deity and man’s 
 soul, and with which no other has a right to inter- 
 fere. With the feeling here described, and with 
 his acute intellectual perception of the abortive 
 character of all intolerant measures, as defeating 
 
124 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 their own ends, it strikes one as nothing less than 
 ludicrous that he should be charged with desiring 
 to retain this obsolete enactment, standing, as it 
 does, as a merely gratuitous and otherwise inoper- 
 ative stigma upon the fair reputation of his native 
 state. Even supposing no higher motives to have 
 influenced him, it would have sufficed to secure 
 his best efforts for the repeal of the religious test, 
 that so many of the Catholics have always been 
 found in the advance-guard of freedom, marching 
 onward with the progressive party ; and that, 
 whether in peace or war, they have performed for 
 their adopted country the hard toil and the gallant 
 services which she has a right to expect from her 
 most faithful citizens. 
 
 The truth is, that, ever since his entrance upon 
 public life, on all occasions, — and often making 
 the occasion where he found none, — General 
 Pierce has done his utmost to obliterate this ob- 
 noxious feature from the constitution. He has 
 repeatedly advocated the calling of a convention 
 mainly for this purpose. In that of 1850, he both 
 spoke and voted in favor of the abolition of the 
 test, and, with the aid of Judge Woodbury and 
 other democratic members, attained his purpose, 
 so far as the convention possessed any power or 
 responsibility in the matter. That the measure was 
 ultimately defeated is due to other causes, either 
 temporary or of long continuance ; and to some of 
 them it is attributable that the enlightened public 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 125 
 
 sentiment of New Hampshire was not, long since, 
 made to operate upon this enactment, so anoma- 
 lous in the fundamental law of a free state. 
 
 In order to the validity of the amendments passed 
 by the convention, it was necessary that the people 
 should subsequently act upon them, and pass a 
 vote of two thirds in favor of their adoption. The 
 amendments proposed by the convention of 1850 
 were numerous. The constitution had been modi- 
 fied in many and very important particulars, in 
 respect to which the popular mind had not pre- 
 viously been made familiar, and on which it had 
 not anticipated the necessity of passing judgment. 
 In March, 1851, when the vote of the people was 
 taken upon these measures, the Atwood controver- 
 sy was at its height, and threw all matters of less 
 immediate interest into the background. During 
 the interval since the adjournment of the conven- 
 tion, the whig newspapers had been indefatigable 
 in their attempts to put its proceedings in an odious 
 light before the people. There had been no period, 
 for many years, in which sinister influences ren- 
 dered it so difficult to draw out an efficient expres- 
 sion of the will of the democracy, as on this 
 occasion. It was the result of all these obstacles, 
 that the doings of the constitutional convention 
 were rejected in the mass. 
 
 In the ensuing April, the convention reassembled, 
 in order to receive the unfavorable verdict of the 
 people upon its proposed amendments. At the 
 11 * 
 
126 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 suggestion of General Pierce, the amendment 
 abolishing the religious test was again brought 
 forward, and, in spite of the opposition of the 
 leading whig members, was a second time sub- 
 mitted to the people. Nor did his struggle in 
 behalf of this enlightened movement terminate 
 here. At the democratic caucus, in Concord, 
 preliminary to the town meeting, he urged upon 
 his political friends the repeal of the test, as a 
 party measure ; and again, at the town meeting 
 itself, while the balloting was going forward, he 
 advocated it on the higher ground of religious 
 freedom, and of reverence for what is inviolable in 
 the human soul. Had the amendment passed, the 
 credit would have belonged to no man more than 
 to General Pierce ; and that it failed, and that the 
 free constitution of New Hampshire is still dis- 
 graced by a provision which even monarchical 
 England has cast off, is a responsibility which must 
 rest elsewhere than on his head. 
 
 In September, 1851, died that eminent statesman 
 and jurist, Levi Woodbury, then occupying the 
 elevated post of judge of the Supreme Court of the 
 United States. The connection between him and 
 General Pierce, beginning in the early youth of 
 the latter, had been sustained through all the sub- 
 sequent years. They sat together, with but one 
 intervening chair between, in the national Senate ; 
 they were always advocates of the same great 
 measures* and held, through life, a harmony of 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 113 
 
 sundered states, to redden the same battle fields 
 with their kindred blood, to unite their breath into 
 one shout of victory, and perhaps to sleep, side by 
 side, with the same sod over them. Such a man, 
 with such hereditary recollections, and such a per- 
 sonal experience, must not narrow himself to adopt 
 the cause of one section of his native country 
 against another. He will stand up, as he has al- 
 ways stood, among the patriots of the whole land. 
 And if the work of anti-slavery agitation, which, 
 it is undeniable, leaves most men who earnestly 
 engage in it with only half a country in their af- 
 fections — if this work must be done, let others 
 do it. 
 
 Those northern men, therefore, who deem the 
 great cause of human welfare all represented and 
 involved in this present hostility against southern 
 institutions, and who conceive that the world 
 stands still except so far as that goes forward — 
 these, it may be allowed, can scarcely give their 
 sympathy or their confidence to the subject of this 
 memoir. But there is still another view, and prob- 
 ably as wise a one. It looks upon slavery as one 
 of those evils which divine Providence does not 
 leave to be remedied by human contrivances, but 
 which, in its own good time, by some means im- 
 possible to be anticipated, but of the simplest and 
 easiest operation, when all its uses shall have been 
 fulfilled, it causes to vanish like a dream. There 
 is no instance, in all history, of the human will 
 10 * H 
 
114 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 and intellect having perfected any great moral re- 
 form by methods which it adapted to that end ; 
 but the progress of the world, at every step, leaves 
 some evil or wrong on the path behind it, which 
 the wisest of mankind, of their own set purpose, 
 could never have found the way to rectify. What- 
 ever contributes to the great cause of good, con- 
 tributes to all its subdivisions and varieties ; and, 
 on this score, the lover of his race, the enthusiast, 
 the philanthropist of whatever theory, might lend 
 his aid to put a man, like the one before us, into 
 the leadership of the world’s affairs. < 
 
 How firm and conscientious was General Pierce’s 
 support of the Compromise, may be estimated from 
 his conduct in reference to the reverend John 
 Atwood. In the foregoing pages it has come of- 
 tener in our way to illustrate the bland and pre- 
 possessing features of General Pierce’s character, 
 than those sterner ones which must necessarily 
 form the bones, so to speak, the massive skeleton, 
 of any man who retains an upright attitude amidst 
 the sinister influences of public life. The transac- 
 tion now alluded to affords a favorable opportunity 
 for indicating some of these latter traits. 
 
 In October, 1850, a democratic convention, held 
 at Concord, nominated Mr. Atwood as the party’s 
 regular candidate for governor. The Compromise, 
 then recent, was inevitably a prominent element 
 in the discussions of the convention ; and a series 
 of resolutions were adopted, bearing reference to 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 127 
 
 opinion and action, which was never more con- 
 spicuous than in the few months that preceded 
 Judge Woodbury’s death. At a meeting of the 
 bar, after his decease, General Pierce uttered some 
 remarks, full of sensibility, in which he referred to 
 the circumstances that had made this friendship 
 an inheritance on his part. Had Judge Woodbury 
 survived, it is not improbable that his more ad- 
 vanced age, his great public services, and equally 
 distinguished zeal in behalf of the Union, might 
 have placed him in the position now occupied by 
 the subject of this memoir. Fortunate the state, 
 which, after losing such a son, can still point to 
 another, not less worthy to take upon him the 
 charge of the nation’s welfare. 
 
 We have now finished our record of Franklin 
 Pierce’s life, and have only to describe the posture 
 of affairs which — without his own purpose, and 
 against his wish — has placed him before the peo- 
 ple of the United States, as a candidate for the 
 presidency. 
 
128 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HIS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. 
 
 On the 12th of June, 1852, the democratic na- 
 tional convention assembled at Baltimore, in order 
 to select a candidate for the presidency of the Unit- 
 ed States. Many names, eminently distinguished 
 in peace and war, had been brought before the 
 public, during several months previous ; and among 
 them, though by no means occupying a very prom- 
 inent place, was the name of Franklin Pierce. In 
 January of this year, the democracy of New Hamp- 
 shire had signified its preference of General Pierce 
 as a presidential candidate in the approaching can- 
 vass — a demonstration which drew from him the 
 following response, addressed to his friend, Mr. 
 Atherton : — 
 
 “ I am far from being insensible to the generous 
 confidence, so often manifested towards me by the 
 people of this state ; and although the object indi- 
 cated in the resolution, having particular reference 
 to myself, be not one of desire on my part, the ex- 
 pression is not on chat account less gratifying. 
 
 “ Doubtless the spontaneous and just apprecia- 
 tion of an intelligent people is the best earthly 
 reward for earnest and cheerful services rendered 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 129 
 
 to one’s state and country ; and while it is a mat- 
 ter of unfeigned regret that my life has been so 
 barren of usefulness, I shall ever hold this and sim- 
 ilar tributes among my most cherished recollections. 
 
 “To these, my sincere and grateful acknowledg- 
 ments, I desire to add, that the same motives which 
 induced me, several years ago, to retire from public 
 life, and which, since that time, controlled my judg- 
 ment in this respect, now impel me to say, that the 
 use of my name, in any event, before the demo- 
 cratic national convention at Baltimore, to which 
 you are a delegate, would be utterly repugnant to 
 my tastes and wishes.” 
 
 The sentiments expressed in the above letter 
 were genuine, and from his heart. He had looked 
 long and closely at the effects of high public sta- 
 tion on the character and happiness, and on what 
 is the innermost and dearest part of a man’s pos- 
 sessions — his independence ; and he had satisfied 
 himself that office, however elevated, should be 
 avoided for one’s own sake, or accepted only as a 
 good citizen would make any other sacrifice, at the 
 call and at the need of his country. 
 
 As the time for the assembling of the national 
 convention drew near, there were other sufficient 
 indications of his sincerity in declining a stake in 
 the great game. A circular letter was addressed, 
 by Major Scott of Virginia, to the distinguished 
 democrats whose claims had heretofore been pub- 
 licly discussed, requesting a statement of their 
 
 i 
 
130 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 opinions on several points, and inquiring what 
 would be the course of each of these gentlemen, in 
 certain contingencies, in case of his attaining the 
 presidency. These queries, it may be presumed, 
 were of such a nature that General Pierce might 
 have answered them, had he seen fit to do so, to 
 the satisfaction of Major Scott himself, or to that 
 of the southern democratic party, whom it seemed 
 his purpose to represent. With not more than 
 one exception, the other statesmen and soldiers, to 
 whom the circular had been sent, made a response. 
 General Pierce preserved an unbroken silence. It 
 was equivalent to the withdrawal of all claims 
 which he might be supposed to possess, in refer- 
 ence to the contemplated office ; and he thereby 
 repeated, to the delegates of the national party, the 
 same avowal of distaste for public life which he 
 had already made known to the Democracy of his 
 native state. He had thus done every thing in his 
 power, actively or passively, — every thing that he 
 could have done, without showing such an esti- 
 mate of his position before the country as was in- 
 consistent with the modesty of his character, — to 
 avoid the perilous and burdensome honor of the 
 candidacy. 
 
 The convention met, at the date above men- 
 tioned, and continued its sessions during four 
 days. Thirty-five ballotings were held, with a con- 
 tinually decreasing prospect that the friends of any 
 one of the gentlemen hitherto prominent before 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 131 
 
 the people would succeed in obtaining the two 
 thirds vote that was requisite for a nomination. 
 Thus far, not a vote had been thrown for General 
 Pierce ; but, at the thirty-sixth ballot, the delega- 
 tion of old Virginia brought forward his name. In 
 the course of several more trials, his strength in- 
 creased, very gradually at first, but afterwards with 
 a growing impetus, until, at the forty-ninth ballot, 
 the votes were for Franklin Pierce two hundred 
 and eighty-two, and eleven for all other candidates. 
 Thus Franklin Pierce became the nominee of the 
 convention ; and as quickly as the lightning flash 
 could blazen it abroad, his name was on every 
 tongue, from end to end of this vast country. 
 Within an hour he grew to be illustrious. 
 
 It would be a pretension, which we do not mean 
 to put forward, to assert that, whether considering 
 the length and amount of his public services, or 
 his prominence before the country, General Pierce 
 stood on equal ground with several of the distin- 
 guished men, whose claims, to use the customary 
 phrase, had been rejected in favor of his own. But 
 no man, be his public services or sacrifices what 
 they might, ever did or ever could possess, in the 
 slightest degree, what we may term a legitimate 
 claim to be elevated to the rulership of a free peo- 
 ple. The nation would degrade itself, and violate 
 every principle upon which its institutions are 
 founded, by offering its majestic obedience to one 
 of its citizens as a reward for whatever splendor 
 
132 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 of achievement. The conqueror may assert a claim, 
 such as it is, to the sovereignty of the people whom 
 he subjugates ; but, with us Americans, when a 
 statesman comes to the chief direction of affairs, 
 it is at the summons of the nation, addressed to 
 the servant whom it deems best fitted to spend his 
 wisdom, his strength, and his life, in its behalf. 
 On this principle, which is obviously the correct 
 one, a candidate’s previous services are entitled to 
 consideration only as they indicate the qualities 
 which may enable him to render higher services 
 in the position which his countrymen choose that 
 he shall occupy. What he has done is of no im- 
 portance, except as proving what he can do. And 
 it is on this score, because they see in his public 
 course the irrefragable evidences of patriotism, in- 
 tegrity, and courage, and because they recognize 
 in him the noble gift of natural authority, and have 
 a prescience of the stately endowment of adminis- 
 trative genius, that his fellow-citizens are about to 
 summon Franklin Pierce to the presidency. To 
 those who know him well, the event comes, not 
 like accident, but as a consummation which might 
 have been anticipated, from its innate fitness, and 
 as the final step of a career which, all along, has 
 tended thitherward. 
 
 It is not as a reward that he will take upon him 
 the mighty burden of this office, of which the toil 
 and awful responsibility whiten the statesman’s 
 head, and in which, as in more than one instance 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 133 
 
 we have seen, the warrior encounters a deadlier 
 risk than in the battle field. When General Pierce 
 received the news of his nomination, it affected 
 him with no thrill of joy, but a sadness, which, for 
 many days, was perceptible in his deportment. It 
 awoke in his heart the sense of religious depend- 
 ence — a sentiment that has been growing contin- 
 ually stronger, through all the trials and experiences 
 of his life ; and there was nothing feigned in that 
 passage of his beautiful letter, accepting the nomi- 
 nation, in which he expresses his reliance upon 
 heavenly support. 
 
 The committee, appointed by the Baltimore con- 
 vention, conveyed to him the intelligence of his 
 nomination in the following terms : — 
 
 “ A national convention of the democratic re- 
 publican party, which met in Baltimore on the 
 first Tuesday in June, unanimously nominated you 
 as a candidate for the high trust of the President 
 of the United States. We have been delegated to 
 acquaint you with the nomination, and earnestly 
 to request that you will accept it. Persuaded as 
 we are that this office should never be pursued by 
 an unchastened ambition, it cannot be refused by 
 a dutiful patriotism. 
 
 “ The circumstances under which you will be 
 presented for the canvass of your countrymen 
 seem to us propitious to the interests which the 
 constitution intrusts to our Federal Union, and 
 must be auspicious to your own name. You come 
 12 
 
134 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 before the people without the impulse of personal 
 wishes, and free from selfish expectations. You 
 are identified with none of the distractions which 
 have recently disturbed our country, whilst you are 
 known to be faithful to the constitution — to all 
 its guaranties and compromises. You will be free 
 to exercise your tried abilities, within the path of 
 duty, in protecting that repose we happily enjoy, 
 and in giving efficacy and control to those cardinal 
 principles that have already illustrated the party 
 which has now selected you as its leader — princi- 
 ples that regard the security and prosperity of the 
 whole country, and the paramount power of its 
 laws, as indissolubly associated with the perpetuity 
 of our civil and religious liberties. 
 
 “ The convention did not pretermit the duty of 
 reiterating those principles, and you will find them 
 prominently set forth in the resolutions it adopted. 
 To these we respectfully invite your attention. 
 
 “ It is firmly believed that to your talents and 
 patriotism the security of our holy Union, with its 
 expanded and expanding interests, may be wisely 
 trusted, and that, amid all the perils which may 
 assail the constitution, you will have the heart to 
 love and the arm to defend it.” 
 
 "We quote likewise General Pierce’s reply: — 
 
 “ 1 have the honor to acknowledge your personal 
 kindness in presenting me, this day, your letter, 
 officially informing me of my nomination, by the 
 democratic national convention, as a candidate for 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 135 
 
 the presidency of the United States. The surprise 
 with which I received the intelligence of my nom- 
 ination was not unmingled with painful solici- 
 tude ; and yet it is proper for me to say that the 
 manner in which it was conferred was peculiarly 
 gratifying. 
 
 “ The delegation from New Hampshire, with all 
 the glow of state pride, and with all the warmth 
 of personal regard, would not have submitted my 
 name to the convention, nor would they have cast 
 a vote for me, under circumstances other than those 
 which occurred. 
 
 “ I shall always cherish with pride and gratitude 
 the recollection of the fact, that the voice which 
 first pronounced, and pronounced alone, came from 
 the Mother of States — a pride and gratitude rising 
 above any consequences that can betide me per- 
 sonally. May I not regard it as a fact pointing 
 to the overthrow of sectional jealousies, and look- 
 ing to the permanent life and vigor of the Union, 
 cemented by the blood of those who have passed 
 to their reward ? — a Union wonderful in its for- 
 mation, boundless in its hopes, amazing in its 
 destiny. 
 
 “ I accept the nomination, relying upon an abid- 
 ing devotion to the interests, honor, and glory of 
 the whole country, but, above and beyond all, upon 
 a Power superior to all human might — a Power 
 which, from the first gun of the revolution, in 
 every crisis through which we have passed, in every 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF 
 
 hour of acknowledged peril, when the dark clouds 
 had shut down over us, has interposed as if to 
 baffle human wisdom, outmarch human forecast, 
 and bring out of darkness the rainbow of prom- 
 ise. Weak myself, faith and hope repose there in 
 security. 
 
 “ I accept the nomination upon the platform 
 adopted by the convention, not because this is 
 expected of me as a candidate, but because the 
 principles it embraces command the approbation 
 of my judgment ; and with them, I believe I can 
 safely say, there has been no word nor act of my 
 life in conflict.” 
 
 The news of his nomination went abroad over 
 the Union, and, far and wide, there came a re- 
 sponse, in which was distinguishable a truer appre- 
 ciation of some of General Pierce’s leading traits 
 than could have been anticipated, considering the 
 unobtrusive tenor of his legislative life, and the 
 lapse of time since he had entirely withdrawn 
 himself from the nation’s eye. It was the marvel- 
 lous and mystic influence of character, in regard 
 to which the judgment of the people is so seldom 
 found erroneous, and which conveys the perception 
 of itself through some medium higher and deeper 
 than the intellect. Every where the country knows 
 that a man of steadfast will, true heart, and gener- 
 ous qualities has been brought forward, to receive 
 the suffrages of his fellow-citizens. 
 
 He comes before the people of the United States 
 
FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 137 
 
 at a remarkable era in the history of this country 
 and of the world. The two great parties of the 
 nation appear — at least to an observer somewhat 
 removed from both — to have nearly merged into 
 one another ; for they preserve the attitude of po- 
 litical antagonism rather through the effect of their 
 old organizations, than because any great and rad- 
 ical principles are at present in dispute between 
 them. The measures advocated by the one party, 
 and resisted by the other, through a long series of 
 years, have now ceased to be the pivots on which 
 the election turns. The prominent statesmen, so 
 long identified with those measures, wall henceforth 
 relinquish their controlling influence over public 
 affairs. Both parties, it may likewise be said, are 
 united in one common purpose — that of preserv- 
 ing our sacred Union, as the immovable basis from 
 which the destinies, not of America alone, but of 
 mankind at large, may be earned upward and 
 consummated. And thus men stand together, in 
 unwonted quiet and harmony, awaiting the new 
 movement in advance which all these tokens in- 
 dicate. 
 
 It remains for the citizens of this great country 
 to decide, within the next few weeks, whether they 
 will retard the steps of human progress by placing 
 at its head an illustrious soldier, indeed, a pa- 
 triot, and one indelibly stamped into the history of 
 the past, but who has already done his work, and 
 12 * 
 
138 
 
 LIFE OF FRANKLIN PIERCE. 
 
 has not in him the spirit of the present or of the 
 coming time, — or whether they will put their trust 
 in a new man, whom a life of energy and various 
 activity has tested, but not worn out, and advance 
 with him into the auspicious epoch upon which 
 we are about to enter. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 A. 
 
 We have done far less than justice to Franklin Pierce’s col- 
 lege standing, in our statement on page 16. Some circum- 
 stances connected with this matter are too characteristic not 
 to be recorded. 
 
 During the first two years, Pierce was extremely inattentive 
 to his college duties, bestowing only such modicum of time 
 upon them as was requisite to supply the merest superficial 
 acquaintance with the course of study, for the recitation room. 
 The consequence was, that, when the relative standing of the 
 members of the class was first authoritatively ascertained, in 
 the junior year, he found himself occupying precisely the low- 
 est position in point of scholarship. In the first mortification 
 of wounded pride, he resolved never to attend another recita- 
 tion, and accordingly absented himself from college exercises 
 of all kinds for several days, expecting and desiring that some 
 form of punishment, such as suspension or expulsion, would be 
 the result. The faculty of the college, however, with a wise 
 lenity, took no notice of this behavior ; and at last, having had 
 time to grow cool, and moved by the grief of his friend Little 
 and another classmate, Pierce determined to resume the routine 
 of college duties. “ But,” said he to his friends, “ if I do so, 
 you shall see a change ! ” 
 
 Accordingly, from that time forward, he devoted himself to 
 study. His mind, having run wild for so long a period, could 
 be reclaimed only by the severest efforts of an iron resolution ; 
 
140 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 and for three months afterwards, he rose at four in the morning, 
 toiled all day over his books, and retired only at midnight, 
 allowing himself but four hours for sleep. With habit and 
 exercise, he acquired command over his intellectual powers, and 
 was no longer under the necessity of application so intense. 
 But from the moment when he made his resolve until the close 
 of his college life, he never incurred a censure, never was ab- 
 sent (and then unavoidably) but from two college exercises, 
 never went into the recitation room without a thorough acquaint- 
 ance with the subject to be recited, and finally graduated as the 
 third scholar of his class. Nothing save the low standard of 
 his previous scholarship prevented his taking a yet higher rank. 
 
 The moral of this little story lies in the stern and continued 
 exercise of self-controlling will, which redeemed him from indo- 
 lence, completely changed the aspect of his character, and made 
 this the turning point of his life. 
 
 B. 
 
 In the dearth of other matter with which to carry on the war, 
 the whig journals lay great stress on the responsibility which 
 they allege against General Pierce and his political friends for 
 the continued existence of the religious test in the constitution 
 of New Hampshire. Since our own remarks on this subject 
 were in type, we have examined a pamphlet, from the press of 
 the Boston Post, in which the question is thoroughly discussed, 
 and facts adduced which irrefragably prove the following posi- 
 tions, viz. : — 
 
 “ That the exclusion clauses in the New Hampshire consti- 
 tution were put into it in 1784, before parties had formed, and 
 were retained in it in 1792, when the federal or whig party was 
 in power ; and that to expunge them, it requires that a conven- 
 tion be called, and that a vote of two thirds of the people should 
 accept the amendments it proposes, while it is made a duty of 
 
NOTES. 
 
 141 
 
 the people to vote on the question of calling a convention every 
 seven years : 
 
 “ That the democratic journals have denounced these exclu- 
 sion clauses as contrary to every principle of reason, justice, and 
 common sense, and constantly advocated a revision of the con- 
 stitution : 
 
 “ That the leading democratic politicians have taken the same 
 course in their political speeches ; and instances are specified 
 where they have, in political meetings, gone from town to town 
 advocating a convention: 
 
 “ That democratic county and state conventions have, in 
 formal resolutions, unqualifiedly repudiated these clauses, and 
 declared in favor of a revision of the constitution ; and these 
 resolutions are quoted : 
 
 “ That so united was thought to be democratic public opinion 
 against them, and so thoroughly was it in favor of a revision of 
 the constitution, that its leading organ, the N. H. Patriot, Octo- 
 ber 17, 1844, declared that the universal sense of the democratic 
 party was against them, and asserted, October 31, 1844, that it 
 could say, with truth, there was not one intelligent member of 
 the democratic party who was not in favor of a revision of the 
 constitution : 
 
 “ That in the convention of 1850, called to revise the consti- 
 tution, Judge Woodbury and General Pierce made speeches 
 against this test ; and in a second session, after the amendments 
 had been rejected, that they succeeded in getting the question 
 submitted, together with another question, to the people : 
 
 “ That in all these movements General Pierce actively par- 
 ticipated : that in the canvass of 1844, he went from town to 
 town urging a revision of the constitution, and that year was 
 denounced by the whigs because he advised all the democratic 
 votes to be printed in favor of a call for a convention : that in 
 1845, he, with others, in a democratic convention, reported a 
 resolution, which passed, repudiating the tests : that in 1850, he 
 labored in the convention, in both sessions, to repeal it : that in 
 the caucus of the democrats at Concord, and in town meeting 
 
142 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 in Concord, he made speeches in favor of blotting out the test : 
 that he has uniformly, by pen and speech, denounced it as a 
 stigma on the state : 
 
 “ That the whig assertion, that the democratic party could 
 every seven years have repealed this test ‘ for the last sixty 
 years,’ or ‘at any time the last quarter of a century,’ is an 
 enormous falsehood ; for facts show that it was not until the 
 sixth septennial period, or 1829, that the democrats obtained 
 even a majority ascendency : that within twenty-five years there 
 have been two whig governors : that in 1838 their majority was 
 but 2800, in 1843 but 1600, and in 1846 they were in a minor- 
 ity, and that, in a contest, they never have had the two thirds 
 vote required to alter the constitution : and that, at the only 
 period when amendments to the constitution have been voted 
 on since 1792, that is, on the amendments of 1850, the demo- 
 cratic party lacked ten thousand votes of having two thirds : 
 
 “ That whig editorials, during the canvass of 1844, previous 
 to the convention of 1850, during the sittings of the first session 
 of that convention, and at its second session, — all which are 
 quoted, and the dates of which are given, — either were in oppo- 
 sition to the call of a convention, or threatened that, if amend- 
 ments approved by them were not adopted, opposition would be 
 made to all amendments, or endeavored to array the prejudices 
 of the people against the convention and its amendments, on 
 the ground that of its forty thousand dollars expense, and, for- 
 sooth, because the convention chose to pass a series of compro- 
 mise resolutions introduced by General Pierce. There is the 
 language of the whig editorials, and it speaks for itself. All 
 this shows conclusively that while the democratic party, in all 
 the various ways it could, was denouncing the tests and urging 
 a convention, the whig party was endeavoring to turn democratic 
 action to party account There is the record, and its force can- 
 not be avoided. The inference is a just and a fair one — had 
 the whig organs forgot party, the tests would have been abol- 
 ished ! 
 
 “ Such is the conclusiveness with which the democratic party 
 
NOTES. 
 
 143 
 
 and General Pierce can be vindicated from this charge of intol- 
 erance, and such is the position of the party that makes this 
 charge ! But, setting all this aside, is it too much to invoke 
 the candid and the patriotic, of all parties, to brand this business 
 as disgraceful to those who engage in it ; and to denounce this 
 special appeal to a sect in religion, in order to get its members 
 to vote a certain way in politics, as a gross violation of the 
 spirit of our institutions, and a wanton insult alike to the intel- 
 ligence and patriotism of American citizens ? This desperate 
 and unparalleled electioneering experiment, for many reasons, 
 deserves a disgraceful defeat. 
 
 “ Again we ask, As truth makes its way in the track of false- 
 hood, will not the base charge, instead of injuring General 
 Pierce or the democratic party, recoil ■with fearful effect on 
 those who utter it P” 
 
 At the town meeting in Concord, wffiile the votes were being 
 cast on the amendments proposed by the constitutional conven- 
 tion, General Pierce addressed his fellow-citizens with reference 
 to the test. His speech is described as one which, for impas- 
 sioned eloquence and power, could scarcely be surpassed ; and 
 it is difficult to imagine a stronger expression of abhorrence for 
 the obnoxious law than is contained in the following imper- 
 fectly-reported passage : — 
 
 “ Can it be possible,” said he, “ that the people of New Hamp- 
 shire will vote to retain a feature in its fundamental law, in- 
 grafted there under peculiar circumstances, repugnant to the 
 plainest ideas of justice and equality, repugnant to the whole 
 scope and tenor of the constitution, upon which it stands as a 
 fungus — dead, to be sure, but still there, a blot and deformity, 
 obnoxious in the last degree to the spirit of the age in which 
 we live ? How can we say that our land is the asylum of the 
 oppressed of other countries, when we fail to extend over them 
 the shield of equal rights, and say to them, There is the panoply 
 under which, so far as the dearest and most sacred of all rights 
 is concerned, you may shelter yourselves ? I love and revere 
 the faith of my Protestant fathers ; but do not Martin Lawler 
 
144 
 
 NOTES. 
 
 and his countrymen, now near me, and who have this day exer- 
 cised the rights of freemen, revere and cling to the faith of their 
 fathers P Are you to tell them that they can vote for you, but 
 are to be excluded from the privilege of being voted for? that 
 while you tax them to maintain your government, they shall not 
 be eligible to positions that control taxation ? Shame upon 
 such a provision, while we boast of equal rights ! 1 hope this 
 
 provision of our constitution receives the deliberate reprobation 
 of every man now in this hall. But if I am mistaken in this, it 
 is due to the honor of the state, it is due to the plainest dictates 
 of justice, that whoever may favor this test should state the rea- 
 sons upon which he relies. For one, I never think of it without 
 a deep sense of regret, and, I may add, of humiliation for my 
 native state.” 
 
 THE END.