Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce, a New Hampshire Democrat and veteran of the Mexican-American War, served as president from 1853 to 1857. He entered office promising to preserve national unity after the Compromise of 1850. His administration instead became associated with the collapse of that political settlement and with expansionist initiatives that often served the interests of southern slaveholders. ¹

The Gadsden Purchase from Mexico in 1853 acquired territory in what became southern Arizona and New Mexico, partly to support a possible southern railroad route. Pierce also sought the acquisition of Cuba from Spain. American ministers meeting at Ostend in 1854 argued that the island should be purchased and suggested that force might be justified under certain conditions. Publication of their manifesto provoked a major controversy and damaged the administration’s plans. ²

In Asia, Commodore Matthew Perry completed the mission begun under Millard Fillmore and signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan in 1854. In Central America, Pierce recognized the government established in Nicaragua by the American adventurer William Walker. These initiatives reflected a broad appetite for commercial access and territorial influence, but they also generated conflicts over sovereignty and the expansion of slavery. ²

Pierce supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, which replaced the Missouri Compromise restriction with a policy allowing settlers to determine whether slavery would be permitted. Competing proslavery and antislavery movements in Kansas turned that arrangement into violence and contested government. Pierce’s support for the proslavery territorial authorities alienated northern voters and helped strengthen the new Republican Party. Democrats denied him renomination in 1856. ³