Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Forgotten Son

Abstract

The presidency of Franklin Pierce is often overlooked by history. Regarded as one of the country’s least known, least liked, and least successful presidents, Pierce’s administration (1853-1857) covered an unsettling period in the life of the nation. The polarization between the North and the South reached new extremes, the Kansas-Nebraska Act made civil war possible, possibly even inevitable, and Pierce’s southern sympathies only widened the crack of the nation. However, Pierce “was a politician of limited ability, and instead of growing in his job, he was overwhelmed by it.” Franklin Pierce’s failed presidency cannot be blamed entirely for the tumultuous events of the 1850’s, the emotional tone of the decade did not coincide with the president’s Constitutional principles. Through political, social, and cultural lenses, Pierce and his Constitutional beliefs will be reexamined. This research and online exhibit on Omeka will look further into Pierce, the president and the man, and hopes to educate residents of New Hampshire, as well as tourists to the state. The online exhibit will be made with the help of the New Hampshire Historical Society, whose goal is to collect, preserve, and interpret artifacts from New Hampshire history in satisfaction of its mission “to educate a diverse public about the significance of New Hampshire’s past and its relationship to our lives today.”