Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/345

 PIERCE

PIERCE

volunteer company recruiting in Concord, and his efficiency as a drill-master secured for him the appointment by President Polk to the colonelcy of the 9th volunteer infantry, and pro- motion to the rank of brigadier-general by the President, March 3, 1847. On the 27th of March he embarked from Newport, R.I., with Colonel Ransom and three companies of the 9th regiment, arriving at Vera Cruz, June 28, and ou Julv 14, left Vera Cruz, reaching the main army " A ^ . .A

of General Scott at Puebla, August 6. On August 19, at the battle of Contreras, General Pierce led his brigade across the lava bed, the rough volcanic rocks disabling his horse and the fall injuring the general's leg. Contrary to the advice of the surgeon he mounted another horse and continued the assault until almost midnight, wlien darkness ended the charge, which was taken up at daylight with General Pierce in the saddle ; but the army had gained the rear of the fortified Mexicans, and those escaping capture retreated to Churubusco, where General Santa Anna with his main army had gathered. Despite the advice of General Scott to leave the field, Pierce continued in the saddle, and his brigade and that of Gen. James Shields were ordered to make a detour in order to gain the enemy's rear. In doing tliis they were opposed by a superior force of Mexican reserves and a bloody battle ensued, most of which time Pierce was on foot, his horse being unable to cross a ravine, and the battle had not been determined when Worth and Pillow were successful in their attack on the front, and thus relieved the two outnumbered brigades. General Pierce was overcome by the pain in his leg, and carried to hospital after the battle. The defeat of the Mexicans at Cliuru- busco, led Santa Anna to propose a truce looking to terms for peace, and General Scott appointed Gen- eral Pierce one of the commissioners to meet repre- sentatives from the Mexican army and arrange an armistice ; but the commissioners soon discov- ered the purpose of the Mexican general to be merely to gain time, and General Scott closed the negotiations after a truce of two weeks and following the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, the City of Mexico capitulated and the war was at an end. In December, 1847, General Pierce was welcomed home in Concord, and the state legislature presented him with a sword. He was a delegate to and president of the

state constitutional convention of 1850, and in the convention he endeavored to remove the con- stitutional bar against non-Protestants holding office in the state, by an amendment which was not adopted by the people, but thereafter the restriction was not enforced. His legal practice was continued, 1847-52, with eminent success, and his services as an orator were in constant demand. He accepted the compromise measures of 1850 as settling the question of slavery in the newly acquired territory, and the Democratic national convention met at Baltimore, June 12, 1852, with Buchanan, Cass, Douglas and Marcy as the prom- inent candidates. After the 35th ballot the name of Franklin Pierce was presented by Vir- ginia and on the 39th ballot he was nominated as the candidate of the party for President of the United States, receiving 282 of the 293 votes of the convention and in the election that followed in November his electors received 1,601.474 popular votes to 1.380,576 for the elec- tors of Winfield Scott, 156.149 for those of John P. Hale, and 1,670 in Massachusetts for those of Daniel Webster. At the meeting of the electoral college in 1853, he received 254 electoral votes to 42 for Winfield Scott, all the states but Ver- mont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky, voting for Pierce and King. He was inaugurated,

THE A/M.TE HO_SE ,- .84-9-1366.

March 4, 1853, and on March 7, announced the following appointments : William L. Marcy of New York, secretary of state ; James Guthrie of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury : Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, secretary of war ; Robert McClelland of Michigan, secretary of the interior ; James C. Dobbin of North Carolina, secretary of the navy ; James Campbell of Pennsylvania, postmaster-general, and Caleb Gushing of Mass- achusetts, attorney-general. His cabinet as thus constituted remained without change to the close of Ills administration, the only example of an un- broken official Presidential family in the history of the United States. He appointed James Buchanan of Pennsylvania (succeeded in 1856 by George M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania) U.S. minister to Great Britain ; John Young Mason of Virginia, U.S. minister to France ; Henry R. Jackson of Georgia, U.S. minister resident to Austria ; Thomas H. Seymour of Connecticut. U.S. minister to Russia, and Pierre Soule of Louisiana (succeeded in 1855