Review of Franklin Pierce by Michael Holt

“Franklin Pierce was arguably the most handsome man ever to serve as president of the United States.  He was certainly one of the most amiable and congenial men to hold that office.”  So begins Michael Holt’s biography of Pierce, which is part of the “American Presidents” series.  Holt goes on to chronicle Pierce’s entry into politics and his rapid rise through the ranks of state legislator, U. S. Representative, U. S. Senator, Brigadier General in the Mexican-American War, and, ultimately, President of the United States.  During his life, Pierce overcame many struggles, including a proclivity toward excessive drinking, a difficult wife, and a series of embarrassing injuries during the war that disabled him and caused some to unfairly accuse him of cowardice.  Pierce’s charming character, together with his perseverance in the face of so many struggles, would seem be ingredients that would equip him to be a good president.  Regrettably, they did not, and today Pierce is generally ranked among one of our five or ten worst chief executives.

Why, despite his positive qualities, was Pierce such a failure as a president? In positing an answer to this question, Holt points out the complete dominance of the Democratic Party in Pierce’s home state of New Hampshire during the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s.  The lack of a viable opposition to the Democrats, as is often the case in politics, weakened Democratic unity and led to the threat of division.  Pierce, a loyal Democrat, desired above all else to keep the party unified.  As Holt argues, “For Pierce, the unity of the Democratic Party, both within the state and within the nation as a whole, was a fixation, a shibboleth, virtually a be-all and end-all.  His obsession with obtaining that unity would help wreck his presidency” (22-23).

Despite Pierce’s “making the bureaucratic administration of the executive branch more honest and efficient than it had been under his Whig predecessors” (52), Pierce’s obsessive desire to maintain the unity of the national Democratic Party, more than anything else, led to his adoption of an extremely pro-Southern domestic policy.  Pierce’s most significant pro-Southern act was signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which Holt calls “the biggest mistake of Franklin Pierce’s political career”), a law that wiped away the restrictions on the spread of slavery spelled out in the 1820 Missouri Compromise.  Pierce also did nothing to stop the actions of the pro-slavery “Border Ruffians”, residents of Missouri who crossed into Kansas to fight anti-slavery settlers and to vote for Kansas’ admission to the Union as a slave state.  Finally, Pierce attacked abolitionists, condemning them as fanatics and laying much of the blame for the civil strife of his time at their feet.  By the end of his term, Pierce was “damaged goods,” so much so that his own party refused to nominate him for a second term.

Franklin Pierce is an excellent brief biography of our fourteenth president.  Holt has succeeded admirably in presenting an account of Pierce’s life and career that is balanced and brief, yet surprisingly thorough.  Readers who are interested in an introduction to the sad story of Pierce could do no better than to read Holt’s biography.