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