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Jul 26, 2008
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History and GovernmentCongressional BiographiesNew Hampshire

PIERCE, Franklin

(1804—1869)

Senate Years of Service: 1837-1842
Party: Democrat

PIERCE, Franklin, a Representative and a Senator from New Hampshire and 14th President of the United States; born in Hillsborough, N.H., November 23, 1804; attended the academies of Hancock and Francestown, N.H.; prepared for college at Exeter and graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1824; studied law; admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Hillsborough in 1827; member, State general court 1829-1833, and served as speaker 1832-1833; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses (March 4, 1833-March 3, 1837); elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1837, to February 28, 1842, when he resigned; chairman, Committee on Pensions (Twenty-sixth Congress); resumed the practice of law in Concord; district attorney for New Hampshire; declined the appointment as Attorney General of the United States tendered by President James Polk; served in the Mexican War as a colonel and brigadier general; member of the New Hampshire State constitutional convention in 1850 and served as its president; elected President of the United States on the Democratic ticket and served from March 4, 1853, to March 3, 1857; resumed the practice of law; died in Concord, N.H., October 8, 1869; interment in Minat Inclosure, Old North Cemetery.


Bibliography

American National Biography ; Dictionary of American Biography ; Bisson, Wilfred J., comp., with assistance of Gerry Hayden. Franklin Pierce: A Bibliography . Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993; Wallner, Peter A. Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son . Concord, N.H.: Plaidswede Publishing, 2004.

Bisson, Wilfred J. comp., with assistance of Gerry Hayden. Franklin Pierce: A Bibliography . Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Brown, Thomas J. “Franklin Pierce’s Land Grant Veto and the Kansas-Nebraska Session of Congress.” Civil War History 42 (June 1996).

Nichols, Roy F. Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills . 1931. Rev. ed. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1988.

Sloan, Irving J., ed. Franklin Pierce, 1804-1869: Chronology, Documents, Bibliographical Aids . Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, 1968.

Upton, Richard F. “Franklin Pierce and the Shakers: A Subchapter in the Struggle for Religious Liberty.” Historical New Hampshire 23 (Summer 1968): 3-18.

Wallner, Peter A. Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son . Concord, N.H.: Plaidswede Publishing, 2004.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present

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