Franklin Pierce Born in Hillsborough

Summary

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. After graduating from Bowdoin College and studying law, he entered state politics and served in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Pierce also served as a brigadier general during the Mexican-American War. The Democratic Party nominated him for president in 1852, and he served as the fourteenth president of the United States from 1853 to 1857. His administration pursued territorial and commercial expansion but became increasingly consumed by the sectional conflict over slavery. Pierce supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which allowed settlers in those territories to determine whether slavery would be permitted and effectively overturned the Missouri Compromise restriction. Violence between proslavery and antislavery factions followed in Kansas. Pierce lost support within his own party and was not nominated for a second term, leaving office as the nation moved closer to civil war.