A Brief Biography of Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (Annotated)

This easy-to-understand guide to the life and career of Franklin Pierce (equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 16 pages) was written especially for the esteemed multi-volume “World Book: Organized Knowledge in Story and Picture” (1919 edition).

Includes supplemental material:

• About Franklin Pierce in Brief
• About the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, the Gadsden Purchase and the Ostend Manifesto

Sample passage:
During the four years following the Mexican War, Pierce practiced law at Concord, New Hampshire. Except for a single instance, in 1850, when he was president of a convention to draft a new constitution for New Hampshire, he had no part in public affairs. This aloofness from the issues of the day made Pierce an acceptable compromise candidate for the Presidency in 1852. The Democratic convention met at Baltimore on June 1. To the previous party declarations on the subject of slavery its platform added a new resolution, pledging the party to a faithful execution of the Compromise of 1850, “the act for reclaiming fugitive slaves included,” and to a resistance of all attempts to renew agitation of the slavery question. Then the convention struggled fruitlessly for three days to nominate; Cass, Marcy, Buchanan and Douglas were formidable candidates. On the thirty-fifth ballot General Pierce received a few votes, and on the forty-ninth ballot he was nominated. It cannot be said that Pierce was a national leader, but he held a respectable place in public life, was personally attractive and was popular; he had no record to attack and no enemies to fear. Less able than any of the men he defeated, he was a safe selection under the existing conditions.

About the author:
W. F. Zimmerman was a staff editor of “World Book: Organized Knowledge in Story and Picture.”