Details
PIERCE, Franklin. Letter signed ("Franklin Pierce") to the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 27 February 1855. 1 page, 4to, ruled paper.
A PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENT FROM PIERCE. The letter reads: "I communicate herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a letter of this date from the Secretary of the Interior, and accompanying paper, recommending certain appropriations on account of the Indian service." In the 1852 campaign biography that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote for his fellow New Englander, he called Pierce a man who "has in him many of the chief elements of a great ruler...He has a subtle faculty of making affairs roll onward according to his will, and of influencing their course without showing any trace of his action. There are scores of men in the country that seem brighter than he is, but [he] has the directing mind, and will move them about like pawns on a chess board..." A stout believer in the Union and the spirit of compromise, he thought another political deal could fix the slavery problem the way it was patched up in 1820 and 1850. He thought the Civil War a colossal mistake, and on the day of Lincoln's murder his home was mobbed by an angry crowd.
A PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENT FROM PIERCE. The letter reads: "I communicate herewith, for the consideration of Congress, a letter of this date from the Secretary of the Interior, and accompanying paper, recommending certain appropriations on account of the Indian service." In the 1852 campaign biography that Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote for his fellow New Englander, he called Pierce a man who "has in him many of the chief elements of a great ruler...He has a subtle faculty of making affairs roll onward according to his will, and of influencing their course without showing any trace of his action. There are scores of men in the country that seem brighter than he is, but [he] has the directing mind, and will move them about like pawns on a chess board..." A stout believer in the Union and the spirit of compromise, he thought another political deal could fix the slavery problem the way it was patched up in 1820 and 1850. He thought the Civil War a colossal mistake, and on the day of Lincoln's murder his home was mobbed by an angry crowd.