Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire’s Favorite Son, by Peter A. Wallner

Review by Dean Dexter

This is the story about a handsome, gifted son of a colorful Revolutionary War veteran and governor, who seemingly with little effort became Speaker of the New Hampshire House at age 27, then a congressman, senator, general in the Mexican War, was among the most celebrated lawyers in his home state, turned down a presidential appointment to be U.S. attorney general, only to later become President himself. All this by age 48.

With such a life, of course, came much suffering. Wouldn't you know it. With the talent and success, there was a flow of self doubt, inner torment, struggles with faith and the bottle, a difficult marriage, and huge personal grief. With the eloquence, brilliant mind and good looks was also stubbornness and political vindictiveness. It's a familiar story that always fascinates. Bright boy from a powerful, connected family makes it big, really big, but it all ends sadly.

This story about Franklin Pierce is wonderfully and freshly told by author Peter A. Wallner, whose college mentor was the biographer of another president of the same era, Philip Shriver Klein (President James Buchanan: A Biography, Penn State Press, 1962; reprinted: American Political Biography Press, 1995). Drawing on documents unavailable to previous biographers, Wallner's Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire's Favorite Son is actually the first of a two volume project, covering the years from birth, to the election of 1852, to just before entering the White House.

Franklin Pierce, New Hampshire's Favorite Son, by Peter A. Wallner, Plaidswede Publishing, July 2004, P.O. Box 269, Concord, New Hampshire 03302, 321 pages, not including notes, bibliography and index.

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Franklin Pierce, Martyr for the Union, Plaidswede Publishing, July 2007, P.O. Box 269, Concord, New Hampshire 03302, 379 pages, not including notes, bibliography and index. Second volume of the two volume biography. A careful and thoughtful account of what, sadly, turned out to be a failed administration despite the proven talents and good intentions of the man, himself.

Here is a truthful picture of our 14th president, along with the seven others between Jackson and Lincoln, who rest in a kind of historical blur amid the years leading to the Civil War. Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan. Not much there, with the exception of Polk. Still, It is a pleasant surprise to see such a high quality, readable work about one from this cohort to emerge. Proof that anyone capable of getting elected to the White House must certainly have special qualities and a great story, if only it can be presented well enough to appeal to an audience outside of the academy. In this, Peter Wallner has truly delivered, and in doing so has given all who love American history, especially those interested in the Antebellum Period, a great gift indeed.

Both Volumes are superbly researched and highly readable, and place Peter Wallner as the pre-eminent biographer of the 14^th President.

The New Hampshire Historical Society

Daguerreotype, circa 1852, National Portrait Gallery, The Smithsonian

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