from both sides, i think the other side is the one who shot the national guard. by the end of the day, the national guard, in order to stop the fighting, they decide to light a fire. ,> sunday at 6:00 p.m. eastern the american treasures exhibit at the national constitution center. theilson, let served in commonwealth congress, solve the articles of confederation were achieve centralized purposes and wanted a stronger central government and a strong president elected by the people. he insisted, we the people of the united states. not the people of each state and not the parliament itself. , aamerican history tv weekend, every weekend, only on c-span3. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a

public service like america's cable television companies and is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. despite its pension for politics, new hampshire only lays claim to one u.s. president . coming up, "american history tv goes inside the home of frequent fears and learns about a presidency barred with tragedy. pierce is the 14th president of the united states. the only president from new hampshire. he was a lawyer. heharismatic politician, lived in a house here from 1842 to 1814 eight with his wife -- to 1848. he resigned a senate seat to come back to concord and be his

with his family -- and to be with his family and work on his law practice. he was born in hillsboro on november 23, 1804. before he was one year old, his father mentioned the big georgian mansion, where he ran a tavern. pierce grew up in social circumstances, a lot of people coming and going. a lot of political discussions. he was educated at some of the academies around hillsboro. when he was 16, his father took him up to brunswick, maine, to go to college. he made good friends there. one of them was nathaniel hawthorne. he ended up graduating third from his class. ' franklin pierce's -- frequent fears's -- franklin pierce's interest in politics started early. his father's tavern had

politic conversations going on. his father was in the legislature. he went to be governor that she was on to be governor twice. when he was 23, pierce ran for the legislature. he was elected. when he was 26, he was the youngest speaker of the house we have ever had in new hampshire. at that time, there were 200 members in our house. represented -- represented today, order 35, it is a large legislative body. he went on to run for -- today, 435, it is a large legislative body. he went on to run for the house. he went on to run for the senate. he resigned in the senate seat. his wife, jane, did not like washington, did not like politics.

she was a very shy, retiring person. she preferred to be in the bosom and her family. he was the opposite. i think you decided to give up his senate seat to come back and be with his young family in concord. he discovered his law practice to support his family. this house is known as a greek revival house. it was built in 1838. you see them all throughout concord, it is a common architectural style for this area. we are in the parlor. behind me, one of three -- in 1852,ne by when he was running for president. you can see he was a handsome gentleman. get a couple of nicknames, one was handsome frank. the other was young hickory of the granite hills.

he was -- he had the same politics as andrew jackson. letterwall, a copy of a by a college. this is franklin pierce writing to a friend, horatio bridge. in the letter, they are trying to find a job for nathaniel hawthorne. -- nathanielhrown hawthorne was an author, he like to write books. he also like a family -- he also had a family who he needed to support. it is the lives of the two men. there are always trying to find work for nathaniel hawthorne, so he could support his family. on the wall, an order of cincinnati certificate. franklin pierce is one of the presidents who belongs to this organization. this is the first veterans' organization in our country.

it was formed by the offices of the light under george washington. the organization is hereditary is oners's -- and pierce of the presidents who along to the order. george washington, monroe, and pierce are the three presidents. there are several pieces of furniture in the house franklin and jane took to the white house to furnish the eight rooms to be used for their personal life. one is the sofa over here, under the portrait. the table in the center of the room was known as the white house table. evidently, his sister's family was barring furniture from friends and relatives to furnish the rooms. against the wall, a writing desk and chair. it belonged to franklin pierce. he would be up until 3:00 in the morning, sometimes, answering

correspondences and writing speeches, sitting in the little chair. in this room, the dining room of the frequent fears man's. -- the franklin pierce manse. this, event through to his law partner. it was in the family when the house open. they very generously given -- generously gave it to the age -- theo the brid bridage. these are either owned by gay priest or franklin pierce. they have instructions in front of them. it has two bedrooms upstairs. there is a bad part of the house that has mother rooms -- that

has smaller rooms, used by the irish girls and children. one of the bedrooms was a guest room. when the guests came, they would stay for extended periods of time. 842y lived in the home from 1 to 1848 when he came back from the mexican war, the. house was sold. died in the bedroom upstairs, it was a sad time for the family. when pierce went off to the mexican war in 1847, he raised 1000 troops. they made him a general. they went to newport, rhode island, and boarded sailing vessels to go around to mexico. they spent about one month out on the ocean. the wind died down. they made it to their occurs,

where -- it to vera cruz, where he battle. when he came back -- we battled. when he came back, they sold it. they rented were stated boarding houses from that point on. to -- in -- in 1815 men buying were two for the nomination. th ballot,on the 35 nominated franklin pierce. on the 49th ballot, they selected him to be the nominee for the democratic party. jane and franklin pierce were riding in a carriage south of boston when the messenger caught up with them to give them the news. janeprobably painted --

promptly fainted. she was upset they would have to go back down to washington. she was happy in her life as it was. she did not want to change. she realized peers would always answer the call of the country asked. she agreed he should go ahead and run as the democratic candidate. pierce went home, it was a gentleman the -- it was ungentlemanly for the man to campaign at the time. his vice president went out and campaign along with his friends. they won the election in 1852. the vice president was ill, so he went to cuba. by the inauguration, congress pass an act so he could take the oval office on foreign soil.

he died two or three days after returning. peers never had a vice president. -- pierce never had a vice president. there is nothing to put someone in place at the time. it was a lonely time for him . here's had a track -- pierce had a tragedy, they were returning from a funeral in massachusetts. the car they were riding in turned around on the track, and axle broke, and it tumbled down an embankment. benny was the only fatality. he was killed in front of both of his parents right before they were due to go down to washington. this was devastating to both of them. particularly to jane, she never really recovered from it. pierce was left to handle with his own grief and to shore his

wife up. it was a stressful and difficult time in their lives. peers's -- pierce's presidency had a few successes. here is the national debt by 60% -- he reduce the national debt by 60%. he had trade agreements with canada on fishing treaties. he traded with japan. admiral perry came back and we began our trade and agreements with the japanese. the southern border of the united states was defined by the gadsden purchase during his time. navy wasand the modernized under the secretary of war, jefferson davis, who went on to become the president

of the confederacy during the civil war. pierce was a lawyer. he felt slavery should be handled with an act of congress. there should be legislation permitting it. he was not -- legislation prohibiting it. a fan of it, but he was afraid he would split the country over it. his hope was to keep. the country together he understood -- keep the country together. he understood fighting the revolution was too great a country. here's trying hard -- was to create the country. itwas trying to keep together. it split when lincoln took office. the democratic party did not want him to run again. he had good accomplishments. we do not hear about those because the kansas nebraska act, which occurred at the end of his presidency, was turned into

bloody kansas. it was a disaster as far as trying to achieve what it had hoped to achieve. they nominated the canon to be -- nominated buchanan to be the next candidate in the next election cycle. franklin pierce lefty presidency. they came up to him for a short time. jane was not healthy, she was suffering over the death. she suffered from depression. jane passed away in 1863. then, he passed away in 1869. frequent fears, for -- franklin pierce, unfortunately, was the light in answer after he left the presidency over the kansas nebraska act. -- itk the states along

took the state a long time to erect a statue. they finally put up a statue for franklin pierce. his mark is not that much in the state. hope people, when they visit the house, have a better understanding of franklin pierce. we invite them to learn some of the compliments of pierce's administration in washington and to understand what he was like as a person. i think he deserves a lot of credit for the things he accomplished while he was president. our cities tours staff visited new hampshire to learn about its rich history. learn about concord and other stops on our tour online. you are watching "american history tv" all weekend, every

weekend, on c-span3. next, from the buffalo bill center of the west in 20, wyoming. wyoming.y, in 1886, the show debuted at an american exhibition in london. performances attracted tens of thousands of spectators, including european royalty. we hear about how the show influenced u.s.-u.k. relations about buffalo bills s -- about buffalo bill' popularity with celebrities, and the experience of lakota indian performer black elk who stayed in europe after the london show closed in 1887. this is about 90 minutes. >> so it is a pleasure to , introduce the chair of the next session. buffalo bill's wild west abroad. many of you know bob riddell