Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/225

FRANKLIN PIERCE FRANKLIN PIERCE, fourteenth president of the United States, born in Hillsborough, N. H., No vember 23, 1804; died in Concord, N. H., October 8, 1869. His father, Benjamin Pierce (born in Chelmsford, Mass., December 25, 1757; died in Hillsborough, N. H., April 1, 1839), on the day of the battle of Lexington enlisted in the patriot army and served until its disbandment in 1784, at taining the rank of captain and brevet major. He had intense political convictions, was a Republican of the school of Jefferson, an ardent admirer of Jackson, and the leader of his party in New Hamp shire, of which he was elected governor in 1827 and 1829. He was a farmer, and trained his chil dren in his own simple and laborious habits. Dis cerning signs of future distinction in his son Frank lin, he gave him an academical education in well- known institutions at Hancock, Francestown, and Exeter, and in 1820 sent him to Bowdoin college, Brunswick, Me. His college-mates there were John P. Hale, his future political rival, Prof. Cal vin E. Stowe, Sargent S. Prentiss, the distin guished orator, Henry W. Longfellow, and Na thaniel Hawthorne, his future biographer and life long personal friend. His ambition was then of a 177