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Understanding 9/11tv Franklin Pierce Manse CSPAN September 17, 2017 2:57pm-3:13pm EDT
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ordinary people, casting their preference. and that is going to be full of surprise. looking at politics in new hampshire government, it is fun. it is a small state and people say it is not important. it is a small state. that is not true. every voter is important, every town meeting is important, every congressional session in concord here is important. it is important in that people have the right and the willingness, and certainly the aptitude and desire to make themselves heard. [cheering] despite its penchant for politics, new hampshire only lays claim to one u.s. president. coming up, "american history t"" goes inside the home of frequent -- franklin pierce and learns , about a presidency marred with tragedy.
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>> franklin pierce is the 14th president of the united states, and the only president from new hampshire. he was a lawyer. a very charismatic politician, and he lived in the house here from 1842 to 1848. jane, here with his wife, two sons, frankie and benny. he resigned a senate seat to come back to concord 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 moved him into the big georgian mansion in hillsboro where he ran a tavern. ,so 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
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him up to brunswick, maine, to go to college. he made some really good friends up there. one of them was nathaniel hawthorne. he ended up graduating third in his class. franklin pierce's interest in politics started early. his father had the tavern, lots of political conversations going on. his father was always involved in politics. he represented hillsboro in the legislature, was sheriff of the county, went on to be governor twice of new hampshire. when he was 23, pierce ran for the legislature. he was elected. and then 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.
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today, 435, it is a large legislative body. he went on to run for the house. -- for congress. franklin pierce was in the house from 1833-1837, and went on to run for the senate. senate. he resigned his senate seat. he served four to five years. his wife did not like washington, did not like politics. very shy, retiring person. she preferred to be in the bosom of her family. he was the opposite. i think he decided to give up his senate seat to come back and be with his young family here in concord. work on hisgoing to law practice to support his family. house is known as a greek revival house. it was built in 1838. you see them throughout concord.
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we are here in the parlor of the prank -- the frank when pierce mansion. behind me, one of three portraits done by anna kinney of franklin pierce in 1852, when he was running for president. you can see he is quite a handsome gentleman. he had a couple of nicknames. one was handsome frank. the other was young hickory of the granite hills. he had the same politics as andrew jackson. over here on the wall is a copy owned by bowden college. this is franklin pierce writing to a friend, horatio bridge. in the letter, they are trying to try and -- they are trying to find a job for nathaniel author hawthorne.aniel
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he liked to ride, but he had a family he needed to support. this is a theme threat the lives of the two men. they were always trying to find work for nathaniel hawthorne so he could support his family. is inere on the wall order of cincinnati certificate. of threepierce is one presidents that belongs to this organization. the first of veterans organization in our country. it was formed by the offices of the line under george washington. the organization is hereditary one of three presidents that long for the order of cincinnati. , munro andington pierce are the three presidents. there are several pieces of furniture in the house. franklin and jane took to the house.
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one is the sofa over here under the portrait. the table in the center of the room was known as the white house table in his sister's family. evidently, they were are awaiting furniture from friends and relatives to help furnish these eight rooms. over against the wall is a writing desk and chair. that belonged to franklin pierce. until 3:00 in the morning sometimes, answering correspondence and writing speeches, sitting in the little chair. this room is the dining room of the franklin pierce manse. here we have the secretary from his law office. when he was through with it, he .ave it to his law partner it was in that family when a house opened. they generously gave it to the brigade to demonstrate his law practice here.
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so this is how it opens. he would sit and write on the desk and he would have his law books in the case up above. allbooks in this case are by either james pierce or franklin pierce. they have inscriptions in the front of them. upstairs.o bedrooms there is a back part of the house that has smaller rooms in it that were probably used by the irish girls and the children when they lived here. one of the bedrooms would have been used as a guestroom. extendedd stay for periods of time. they lived in the house from 1842 to 1848. when pierce came back from the mexican war, the house was sold. here, the time they lived frankie, the four-year-old, died of typhus in the bedroom upstairs.
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that was a very sad time for the family. when pierce went off to the 1847, he raised a thousand troops. they made him a brigadier general. to newport,t down rhode island, and bought a sailing vessel to go around to mexico. they spent about a month on the ocean. the wind died down and they would be calm. they finally made it to veracruz, where he fought a couple of the battles. then they returned back to concord after that. when pierce came back, he sold the house. they never owned anything after that. they either rented property or stayed in boarding houses after that point. they couldn't seem to make a
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decision. virginia nominated franklin pierce. on the 49th valid, they actually selected him to be the nominee for the democratic party. franklin's -- jane and franklin pierce were writing in a carriage south of boston when a messenger con up with them to give them the news. jane promptly fainted. she was the last thing wanted. she was very upset to think that they would need to go back down to washington. she was happy just then and her life as it was and did not want to change. she realized that pierce would always answer the call if the country asked. so she agreed he should go ahead and run as the democratic candidate. pierce went home. it was ungentlemanly for the candidate to canned -- to campaign at that time. president went out and
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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 had to pass an act so he could take the oath on foreign soil. he died two or three days after returning. pierce never had a vice president. there is nothing to put someone in place at the time. it was a lonely time for him. 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.
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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. pierce's presidency had a few successes. he reduced 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
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with the japanese. the southern border of the united states was defined by the gadsden purchase during his time. the army and the navy was 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 prohibiting it. he was not 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 fighting the revolution was to create the country.
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he was trying to keep it together. it split when lincoln took office. franklin pierce had one term in 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 buchanan to be the next candidate in the next election cycle. franklin pierce left the presidency. they came up to him for a short time. -- they came back up to new hampshire for a short time.
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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. franklin pierce, unfortunately, was the light in answer after he -- unfortunately, was not well liked in new hampshire after the presidency over the kansas nebraska act. it 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. we 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 -- some of the accomplishments of pierce's administration in
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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. >> we are at the new hampshire statehouse in concord. this isn't the only building important to locals. up next, we listen to arnie our mission. -- we visit the host of arne arneson. >> what is new hampshire known for? it is known for presidential politics because we play an amazing role in the presidential primary. what people don't understand is within hours after the november election resident, candidates start showing up in new hampshire.
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