Franklin Pierce, Part 1

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By Chris Johnson

Broadcast: September 30, 2004

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VOICE ONE:

This is Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English history program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Today, we continue the story of the United States during the middle of the last century.

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VOICE ONE:

Franklin Pierce was elected president in eighteen-fifty-two. He was forty-eight years old, one of America's youngest presidents.

President Franklin Pierce

Pierce was the compromise candidate of the Democratic Party. He won the nomination on the forty-ninth ballot at the party's convention. He then won a large victory over the candidate of the Whig Party, General Winfield Scott, in the general election. One of Pierce's friends, writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, helped him with his campaign.

VOICE TWO:

Franklin Pierce was from the northeastern state of New Hampshire. He was a lawyer and former state lawmaker. He also had served in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. He became an officer in the army during America's war with Mexico in the late eighteen-forties.

Pierce had been a public official for more than twenty years when he became president. Yet he was not a strong leader. He also faced a difficult situation in his personal life.

VOICE ONE:

Two of his children had died when they were babies. A third child was killed in a train accident shortly before Pierce was inaugurated.

In addition, his wife Jane did not like the city of Washington. She did not support her husband's campaign for president. Years earlier, she had urged him to resign from the Senate and return to New Hampshire. She did not want to go back to Washington, even to be first lady.

When her husband was elected, she agreed to live there. But she rarely saw anyone. One of her close friends took her place at public events.

VOICE TWO:

Franklin Pierce was a young man. And his inauguration speech was about a young America. He promised strong support for expanding the territory of the United States. He also promised a strong foreign policy.

In his foreign policy, President Pierce successfully negotiated with Britain to gain American fishing rights along the coast of Canada. However, he was unsuccessful in an attempt to buy Cuba from Spain.

VOICE ONE:

One of the most important developments in foreign policy during Pierce's administration actually began earlier. Former President Millard Fillmore had sent Navy commodore Matthew Perry to Asia. Perry finally sailed into Tokyo Bay in eighteen-fifty-three. His arrival led to the establishment of diplomatic and trade relations between the United States and Japan.

VOICE TWO:

National issues presented President Pierce with more difficult decisions. The Compromise of eighteen-fifty had settled the dispute over slavery in the western territories. But it did not end slavery. There was still a chance that the north and south would go to war over the issue.

Another question linked slavery and the western territories. Where should the United States build its new railroads.

VOICE ONE:

As America grew and white settlers moved west, many felt a great need for good transportation. They wanted railroads that reached across the continent from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Engineers decided that four new rail lines would be possible.

One could cross the northern part of the country, connecting the cities of Saint Paul and Seattle. Another could cross the middle, connecting Saint Louis and San Francisco. A third could connect Memphis and San Francisco. And a fourth could be far to the south, connecting New Orleans and San Diego.

VOICE TWO:

Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed that three lines be built. He said the government could give land to the railroad companies. The companies could then sell the land to get the money they needed to build the lines.

A Senate committee discussed the situation. It decided that building three railroads at the same time would be too difficult. It proposed that only one be built. But which one.

VOICE ONE:

Many congressmen believed that a southern line would be best. There would be little snow in winter. And the railroad would cross lands already organized as states or official territories. A northern or central line would face severe winter weather. And it would have to cross a wild area called Nebraska. Nebraska was neither a state nor a territory.

In trying to settle the question of railroads, the issue of slavery rose once again.

VOICE TWO:

Nebraska lay north of the Missouri compromise line, which had been established in eighteen-twenty. Slavery was not permitted there.

The state of Missouri lay next to Nebraska. Missouri was a slave state. Slave-holders in Missouri did not want the Nebraska area to become a free territory. They were afraid their slaves would flee to it. They felt threatened by the free states and free territories all around them.

VOICE ONE:

For years, Congressmen from Missouri had defeated all attempts to make Nebraska an official territory. When Congress me