page_title: Franklin Pierce
section_title: Early life and family
hierarchical_section_title: Franklin Pierce / Early life and family
caption_attribution_description: English: Former childhood home of American President Franklin Pierce in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, now operated as a historic house museum. August 2016.
context_page_description: Franklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States, a northern Democrat who saw the abolitionist movement as a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. He alienated anti-slavery groups by supporting and signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, yet he failed to stem conflict between North and South, setting the stage for Southern secession and the American Civil War.
  Pierce was born in New Hampshire; he served in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate until his resignation in 1842. His private law practice was a success, and he was appointed New Hampshire's U.S. Attorney in 1845. He took part in the Mexican–American War as a brigadier general in the Army. He was seen by Democrats as a compromise candidate uniting northern and southern interests and was nominated as the party's candidate for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. He and running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham in the 1852 presidential election.
caption: The Franklin Pierce Homestead in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, where Pierce grew up, is now a National Historic Landmark.[2] He was born in a nearby log cabin as the homestead was being completed.[note 2]
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