Franklin Pierce
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Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to national unity, he a
Portrait c. 1855–65
The Franklin Pierce Homestead in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, where Pierce grew up, is now a National Historic Landmark. He was born in a nearby log cabin as the homestead was being completed.
Novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, a lifelong friend of Pierce, wrote the biography Life of Franklin Pierce in support of Pierce's 1852 presidential campaign.
Pious and reserved, Jane Pierce was her husband's opposite in many ways.
James Buchanan
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James Buchanan Jr. was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. A northern Democrat, he sought to resolve the sectional crisis through a pro-slavery interpretation of the U.
Franklin Pierce
…Democratic majorities, they should supply the presidential candidate. Other possible standard-bearers included Douglas, Cass, William Marcy of New York, James Buchanan of Pennsylvania, Sam Houston of Texas, and Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. Despite home-state support, Pierce faced obstacles to his nomination, since…
Daguerreotype of Buchanan, c. 1850–1868
Buchanan's birthplace
1834 portrait of Buchanan at age 42–43 by Jacob Eichholtz
Bust of James Buchanan by Henry Dexter at the National Portrait Gallery