The 14th President of the United States Franklin Pierce was born this day 1804.

Ten Notes about President Franklin Pierce.

1. Franklin Pierce was 5’10” tall. He had dark gray eyes and black hair.

2. Pierce is the only POTUS who retained his original cabinet for all four years of his term. Pierce is the only POTUS who never had a Vice Daddy, Rufus King died before the inauguration. There was nothing set up to where Pierce would replace him at that time.

3. A terrible tragedy happened to Pierce and his wife in the time between his election and his taking office. On January 6th, 1853  Pierce and his wife and son were travelling by train when the train derailed killing their son Benjamin who was 11. Benjamin was thrown the length of the railroad car and suffered severe head injuries. He died and his parents witnessed this tragedy. Jane Pierce was still in mourning and didn’t attend her husbands inaugural. She didn’t attend social events at the White House. Franklin was also deeply affected by the tragedy. Pierce is thought to have been an alcoholic even before he was elected [a hero of many a well fought bottle} and the tragedy didn’t help matters.

4. Pierce although from New Hampshire had a pro-slavery position throughout his presidency. Years later when the Civil War was going on he remained loyal to the Union but was highly critical of POTUS Lincoln. When Lincoln was assassinated a crowd of people went to his house to denounce him as a traitor but he was able to calm them down and get them to leave. During his presidency he was considered a Dough-Face- a northern man with southern principles.

5. The most notable Cabinet member by far in the Pierce administration was by far Secretary of War Jefferson Davis who is considered one of the finest at the position in American history [as Secretary of War/Defense} Davis of course went on during the American Civil War to be the President of the Confederacy.

6.Pierce is the only POTUS from New Hampshire, he was also the first POTUS born in the 19th century. Pierce attended college with writers  Nathaniel Hawthrone and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

7. Franklin Pierce is the only elected POTUS whose party didn’t nominate him for re-election when his first term was up. Pierce was a miserable failure as a POTUS. He’s on the Mt. Rushmore of worst POTUS and it pains me to say that since he shares the same birthdate with Hans Postcard.

8. Pierce’s wife Jane and son Benjamin wrote him letters during the presidential campaign to him- expressing the desire that he would lose the election.

9. Pierce beat Winfield Scott in the 1852 presidential election. He desired to be re-elected in 1856 but the Democratic Party had had enough of him and nominated James Buchanan.

10. It wasn’t until  over 40 years after his death that his home state of New Hampshire raised a statue of POTUS #14 Franklin Pierce.