(November 23, 1804–October 8, 1869), was the 14th President of the United States, 1853–57; president of New Hampshire Constitutional Convention, 1850; Brigadier General in Mexican War, 1846–48; U.S. Senator, 1837–42; U.S. Representative, 1833–37; married Jane Means Appleton, 1834; member of the New Hampshire Legislature, 1829–33, being State Speaker of the House, 1831–33; admitted to bar, 1827; and graduated from Bowdoin College, 1824, being friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
In 1839, while serving in the U.S. Senate, Franklin Pierce wrote to his law partner:
I have dwelt somewhat more this winter upon the truths of divine revelation than usual and perhaps have struggled somewhat harder to think and act in conformity with the precepts and commands of the New Testament than ever before—but with indifferent success as every man must who is not a humble and devoted Christian, to which character I can, I regret to say, make no pretension.2196
On Friday, March 4, 1853, only two months after his eleven year only son, Bennie, was killed as the campaign train they were riding rolled off the tracks, President Franklin Pierce delivered his Inaugural Address on the steps of the Capitol:
Our fathers decided for themselves, both upon the hour to declare and the hour to strike. They were their own judges of the circumstances under which it became them to pledge to each other “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” for the acquisition of the priceless inheritance transmitted to us. The energy with which that great conflict was opened was under the guidance of a manifest and beneficent Providence. …
The dangers of a concentration of all power in the General government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded. You have a right, therefore, to expect your agents in every department to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States. The great scheme of our constitutional liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities. …
With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined. Without it what are we individually or collectively? What becomes of the noblest field ever opened for the advancement of our race in religion, in government, in the arts, and in all that dignifies and adorns mankind. …
It is with me an earnest and vital belief that as the Union has been the source, under Providence, of our prosperity to this time, so it is the surest pledge of a continuance of the blessings we have enjoyed, and which we are sacredly bound to transmit undiminished to our children. …
But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man’s wisdom. … It must be felt that there is no national security but in the nation’s humble, acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence. …
With all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from Heaven, I can express no better hope for my country than that the kind Providence which smiled upon our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited.2197
On Monday, December 5, 1853, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President Franklin Pierce stated:
While the different branches of the Government are to a certain extent independent of each other, the duties of all alike have direct reference to the source of power. Fortunately, under this system no man is so high and none so humble in the scale of public station as to escape from the scrutiny or to be exempt the responsibility which all official functions imply. …
Although disease, assuming at one time the characteristics of a widespread and devastating pestilence, has left its sad traces upon some portions of our country, we have still the most abundant cause for reverent thankfulness to God for an accumulation of signal mercies showered upon us as a nation. It is well that a consciousness of rapid advancement and increasing strength be habitually associated with an abiding sense of dependence upon Him who holds in His hands the destiny of men and of nations.
Recognizing the wisdom of the broad principles of absolute religious toleration proclaimed in our fundamental law, and rejoicing in the benign influence which it has exerted upon our social and political condition, I should shrink from a clear duty if I failed to express my deepest conviction that we can place no secure reliance upon any apparent progress if it be not sustained by national integrity, resting upon the great truths affirmed and illustrated by Divine Revelation. …
The Federal Government has its appropriate line of action in the specific and limited powers conferred on it by the Constitution, chiefly as to those things in which the States have a common interest in their relations to one another and to foreign governments, while the great mass of interests which belong to cultivated men—the ordinary business of life, the springs of industry, all the diversified personal and domestic affairs of society—rest securely upon the general reserved powers of the people of the several States. …
Happily, I have no occasion to suggest any radical changes in the financial policy of the Government. Ours is almost, if not absolutely, the solitary power of Christendom having a surplus revenue drawn immediately from imposts on commerce.2198
On Monday, December 4, 1854, in his Second Annual Message, President Franklin Pierce stated:
In the present, therefore, as in the past, we find ample grounds for reverent thankfulness to the God of grace and providence for His protecting care and merciful dealings with us as a people. …
As individuals we can not repress sympathy with human suffering nor regret for the causes which produce it; as a nation we are reminded that whatever interrupts the peace or checks the prosperity of any part of Christendom tends more or less to involve our own. …
We have to maintain inviolate the great doctrine of the inherent right of popular self-government; to reconcile the largest liberty of the individual citizen with complete security of the public order; to render cheerful obedience to the laws of the land, to unite in enforcing their execution, and to frown indignantly on all combinations to resist them; to harmonize a sincere and ardent devotion to the institutions of religious faith with the most universal religious toleration. … whilst exalting the condition of the Republic, to assure to it the legitimate influence and the benign authority of a great example amongst all the powers of Christendom.
Under the solemnity of these convictions the blessings of Almighty God is earnestly invoked to attend upon your deliberations and upon all the counsels and acts of the Government, to the end that, with common zeal and common efforts, we may, in humble submission to the divine will, cooperate for the promotion of the supreme good of these United States.2199
On December 31, 1855, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President Franklin Pierce stated:
I rely confidently on the patriotism of the people, on the dignity and self-respect of the States, on the wisdom of Congress, and, above all, on the continued gracious favor of Almighty God to maintain against all enemies, whether at home or abroad, the sanctity of the Constitution and the integrity of the Union.2200
On December 2, 1856, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President Franklin Pierce stated:
I shall prepare to surrender the Executive trust to my successor and retire to private life with sentiments of profound gratitude to the good Providence which during the period of my Administration has vouchsafed to carry the country through many difficulties.2201
On Friday, January 16, 1857, President Franklin Pierce communicated to the Senate:
I communicate to the Senate herewith, for its constitutional action, a treaty made and concluded at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, on the 16th day of December, 1856, between Indian Agent Benjamin F. Robinson, commissioner on the part of the United States, the principal men of the Christian Indians, and Gottleib F. Oehler, on behalf of the board of elders of the northern diocese of the Church of the United Brethren in the United States of America. Among the papers which accompany the treaty is a communication from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, containing a recommendation, concurred in by the Secretary of the Interior, that the treaty be ratified.2202
Franklin Pierce was baptized on December 3, 1865. Shortly afterwards, he wrote to a friend:
I can repeat with more or less comfort, Thou art my God. My time is in Thy hand.2203