SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF FRANKLIN PIERCE AND WM. R. KING, CANDIDATES OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR THE PRESIDENCY AND VICE PRESIDENCY · OF THE UNITED STATES. [The Democratic National Convention which assembled at Baltimore on the second day of June, 1852, unanimously nominated General FRANKLIN PIERCE as the democratic candidate for the presidency and the Hon. WILLIAM R. KING for the vice presidency of the United States. Whatever pertains to their personal and political history has become a matter of pervading and peculiar interest. To place before the public, without eulogy or ornament, the leading incidents of their lives, the National Democratic Executive Committee present the following brief and authentic sketches. Their high honor, unimpeachable integrity, eminent statesmanship, and unsurpassed fidelity in the varied public trusts and duties assigned to them, commend them to the generous confidence and support of all who desire an able and honest administration of the government.] FRANKLIN PIERCE. GENERAL PIERCE is the son of Benjamin Pierce, who fought at Bunker Hill, served honorably through the revolutionary war, was a member of the governor's council, high sheriff of his county, governor of New Hampshire in 1827 and 1829, and died April 1, 1839, aged 81 years. He possessed great force of character and knowledge of men, was a thorough republican, was highly respected by all parties, and exercised a large influence on public affairs. On the conclusion of the revolutionary war he settled in Hillsborough, which then was almost a wilderness. He married twice, and had by his first wife one daughter, the widow of General John McNeil, and by his second wife five sons and three daughters. One of the daughters died in infancy, and the other two died in 1837, leaving families. Of the sons the oldest, Benjamin K., was a gallant officer of the army, who distinguished himself in the Florida war; and the second, also, was connected with the army, and attained the rank of brevet colonel. These are both dead. Another died in early manhood. The remaining sons are Col. Henry D. Pierce, of Hillsborough-a farmer of great personal worth and of much wealth, who has represented his town in the legislature-and the subject of this memoir. FRANKLIN PIERCE was born in Hillsborough, November 23, 1804. He was sent to the neighboring schools of Hancock and Francestown-living in the latter place with the mother of the late Levi Woodbury, to whom he pays a grateful tribute for the salutary influence she exercised over his early boyhood. His academic studies were pursued at Exeter academy. In 1820, in his sixteenth year, he entered Bowdoin College, from which he graduated, with credit, in 1824. Dr. Calvin E. Stowe was one of his class. His agreeable manners, manly bearing, social turn and fine talents, made him a general favorite; and among his intimate friends were Hon. James Bell, of Manchester, and Dr. Luther V. Bell, the head of the McLean Asylum, of Somerville, Nathaniel Hawthorn, Jonathan Cilley, and James Mason, son of Jeremiah Mason. Three years were subsequently passed in preparatory studies in the offices of Hon. Edmund Parker, of Amherst, and of Hon. Levi Woodbury, of Portsmouth, N. H., and in the law school of Judge Samuel Howe, of Northampton, Massachusetts. The productions of Mr. Pierce bear witness that these early and priceless advantages for thorough culture were well improved; while the admiration and friendship entertained for him by college cotemporaries, who subsequently became ornaments of their profession, was but the commencement of that favor which he has since uniformly attracted towards him. Mr. Pierce in 1827 opened a law office in Hillsborough, opposite the residence of Governor Pierce. At this time the latter enjoyed a wide and just popularity in New Hampshire, and this year he was elected governor. The succeeding year, in consequence of the division in the republican party on the presidential question-a part declaring for General Jackson and a part for Mr. Adams-Governor Pierce, who was a "Jackson man," was defeated. The fruits of this anti-democratic victory were the election, by a small majority, of John Bell governor, and of Hon. Samuel Bell United States senator. The next year, however, Governor Pierce was re-elected. It was in the midst of these stirring scenes that Mr. Pierce commenced the practice of his profession. He had, to favor his advancement in business relations and in political life, it is true, the wide influence of his father; but the great success that immediately attended him would have been but transient, had he not manifested ability, industry, energy and fidelity. These won for him a reputation as wide as it was solid. Mr. Pierce took a zealous part in politics, and in 1829 he was elected representative from his native town, and again the three successive years. This was an era in the political history of New Hampshire. It was the time when the Granite State came boldly to the support of General Jack son's administration. Benjamin Pierce, by over two thousand majority, was elected (1829) governor, an entire congressional delegation in favor of Jackson's administration was chosen, and a legislature was returned having a handsome democratic majority. The votes for Speaker in the latter indicate the strength of parties-Mr. Thornton, the administration candidate, receiving 123, and Mr. Wilson, opposition, 101. The next year (1830) the contest became still more animated and severe. Mr. Harvey was the democratic candidate and General Upham the whig candidate; and such was the success of the democracy, at all points, that their candidate received four thousand votes more than his opponent. One of the fruits of this election was the return of Hon. Isaac Hill to the United States Senate. Mr. Pierce took a prominent part in these contests, both in the field and in the legislature, and here laid the foundation of his political influence and success. The questions in which he engaged were mostly local, but there is one that stands out, of a general and important character. A convention of democratic republican members was held in Concord, June 15, 1830, and adopted an address and resolutions that will stand out among the important political documents of the time, for their ability, clearness and soundness. They accurately define the character of the constitution; clearly show how the lavish system of appropriations by the general government lead to wide-spread, general corruption, tending directly to the consolidation or disunion of the States, the destruction of democratic principles, and the extinction of liberty;" and they thus early endorsed the renomination of General Jackson as the democratic candidate for the next presidential term. This was the convention that resolved that Hon. Samuel Bell, then senator, had ceased to represent the sentiments of a majority of his constituents. The New Hampshire democrats the succeeding year (1831) nobly maintained their ground-the election resulting in the full success of their ticket for governor and Congress, while they retained their majority in the legislature. "The American system of Henry Clay," say the journals, "is dead and buried in the State of New Hampshire." It was the year that Mr. Pierce was elected Speaker of the House, which consisted of two hundred and twenty members; and it shows the estimation in which he was held, that he received 155 votes against 58 for all others. He was also elected Speaker in 1832. He discharged the duties of this office with great tact and ability, proving himself to be a firm, courteous, and impartial presiding officer. Thus, in five years he attained an enviable position among his associates, and won it, not by undermining rivals, or by adroitness in political intrigue, but by a firm adherence to political principle, eloquence in debate, unquestioned capacity for public business, unvarying courtesy, and the exhibition of frankness and manliness of character. So honorable was his ambition, that while he was ranking his associates, he retained their love and commanded their respect. In 1833 Mr. Pierce was promoted to a wider sphere of action, being elected a member of Congress from his district. He entered on this field of duty in a period of intense political excitement-indeed, in one of the hero ages of the American democracy. The United States Bank was then in the arena, making its most desperate struggle to overcome the government and to perpetuate its monopoly, and this by subsidizing the |