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Volume CXXXIII, Number 7 |
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President Pierce and Senator Fessenden
KID WONGSRICHANALAI
STAFF WRITER
For the Democratic Party the Presidential election of 1852
was a tough one. Tough not because of the Whig opponent, but because no
one could decide between James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, or Lewis
Cass. The black horse that rode in at this moment of indecision was New
Hampshire native Franklin Pierce of the Bowdoin class of 1824. He was
referred to as "Young Hickory" to compare him to Andrew Jackson,
whom he was not nor could he ever dream of becoming. The Democrats, in
this election, maintained that the federal government was at its best
when it was small. The platform was against the founding of a national
bank, supported rigid state's rights, proclaimed itself an enemy to abolitionists,
and pledged its support to the Compromise of 1850 which contained the
very touchy subject of the Fugitive Slave Law.
On the other side of the political arena was the Whig Party,
soon to be dead in its grave. In 1852 the party nominated General Winfield
Scott, hero of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, recently won. In Maine,
William Pitt Fessenden, Bowdoin class of 1823 and one time United States
Congressman was bitter after Scott compromised his early goals to gain
the support of southern Whigs. Pitt Fessenden liked men who stood their
ground. But still he was at this point rather powerless and Scott went
off to a fight that he could not win.
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| Franklin Pierce. |
While Pierce was a relatively unknown name, there was dirt
in his past and his opponents made sure that it came to light. During
the Mexican War, Pierce had been a brigade commander and, in his first
real action, he had been severely injured when his horse threw him forward
from the saddle. In all of the battles after that point, he would by some
ill luck be out of the count and, thus, his reputation as a coward surely
came to light in the election.
Writing in his memoirs after his own stint as the President
of the United States, Ulysses Grant defended Pierce:
"By an unfortunate fall from his horse on the afternoon
of the 19th [of August 1847] he [Pierce] was painfully injured. The next
day, when his brigade, with the other troops engaged on the same field,
was ordered against the flank and rear of the enemy guarding the different
points of the road from San Augustin Tlalpam to the city [Mexico City],
General Pierce attempted to accompany them. He was not sufficiently recovered
to do so and fainted. This circumstance gave rise to exceedingly unfair
and unjust criticisms of him when he became a candidate for the Presidency.
Whatever General Pierce's qualifications may have been for the Presidency,
he was a gentleman and a man of courage. I was not a supporter of him
politically, but I knew him more intimately than I did any other of the
volunteer generals."
Of course these words were written after Pierce was in his
grave and after Grant had failed at leading the country through Reconstruction.
Going back to the campaign, the results of the election showed that whatever
dirt was flung in Pierce's path, he still won a stunning 254 electoral
votes to Scott's 42. In the popular vote, however, his victory was not
so stunning. Despite that, Franklin Pierce had been elected to the highest
office in the land.
Tragedy, however, was about to strike. For years the Pierces
had been trying to have a family. The first two children had died young
and the third, who was eleven years old when his father was elected president,
met his end even before the inaugural address. It happened in Massachusetts,
when a train crash killed young Benjamin Pierce right before his father's
horrified eyes. His mother, Jane Pierce was also there as well. The soon-to-be
First Lady, who was also the daughter of former Bowdoin president Jesse
Appleton, never recovered from the shock.
Pierce went back to work. His inaugural address showed what
the nation could expect from his administration. Abolitionists no doubt
were stirred when he said, "I believe that involuntary servitude
as it exists in different states of this Confederacy, is recognized by
the constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right,
and that the states where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies
to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850,
commonly called the 'compromise measures,' are strictly constitutional
and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect…"
And there it was. The administration of Franklin Pierce
would not be a friend to the slave and, thus, instead of bringing the
nation closer together, it would push the already inflamed situation towards
eventual civil war. But it was Pierce's thoughts that this is the way
the nation should be run and, by God, he did his best to make it so.
The issues of the land at this time centered primarily on slavery and its possible extension into the lands newly acquired from Mexico. The Compromise of 1850 had averted war, but it had also introduced the concept of "popular sovereignty." This concept proclaimed that the people living in a territory could decide for themselves whether to join the Union as a slave state or a free one.
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| William Pitt Fessenden. |
The delicate balance that had held the Union together for
so long was suddenly threatened when Senator Stephen A. Douglas introduced
a bill that would allow the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to organize
as states under popular sovereignty. This act would nullify the Missouri
Compromise of 1820 and would allow other states to join the Union in this
fashion.
Without a guarantee that slavery would end, there was an
outcry in the North. The Republican Party would rise to combat this threat.
In the meantime, the Whigs were doing all they could. In 1854, William
Pitt Fessenden, no abolitionist but also not a friend of slavery was elected
by the State of Maine to serve in the United States Senate. His task was
to help defeat the dreaded Kansas-Nebraska act.
Elsewhere, as the fires of the Civil War were beginning
to burn, Pitt Fessenden's youngest son, Sam, was watching the proceedings
of this crisis with intense interest. Sam Fessenden had been born in the
same year and would soon be in the same class at Bowdoin as another Mainer
by the name of Thomas Worchester Hyde.
Next Week: The Pierce Administration and Fessenden returns
to Washington.
Some editing (by the Orient staff) may have occurred before
this piece was published. To view a full version of the entire series
(including source citations) please visit my website. (This site includes
the Chamberlain and Howard Series and is updated weekly during the school
year) at: http://www.bowdoin.edu/~kwongsri
Also, please send comments and ideas to: kwongsri@bowdoin.edu