Evening star., 1952-12-16
The Political Min
History Didn't Quite
Repeat Itself in 1852
Dork Horse Beat q General
In Year The Star Was Born
By Gould Lincoln

BY GouId Lincoln
One hundred years ago today Franklin
Pierce. New Hampshire Democrat. was
President of the United States
and The Washington Star published its
first daily newspaper.
The President-elect had defeated.
after heated campaign. a hero Of the
Mexican War, Gen. Winfield Scott. can
didate of the Whig Party. party that
was on its way into history. President
Pierce was brought up in the political
tradition. His father had been Demo-
cratic Governor of New Hampshire. He
himself was elected a member Of the
House of Representatives as a young
man, and not long after. he was elected
Senator. He was the youngest member
Of the Upper House. Times have changed.
Senator Pierce resigned his seat in the
Senate in 1842-to accept the Office Of
district attorney of New Hampshire.
Private to General.
When this country went to war with
Mexico, Pierce enlisted as private in
a company of volunteers. Soon after
wards, he was commissioned by Presi-
dent Polk as colonel of the 9th Regi-
ment. A year later he was brigadier
general-although he was without mill
tary experience. He was with Gen.
Scott on his march to Mexico City.
Pierce's selection to be the Democratic
candidate for President-in 1852--was a
complete surprise. He was. indeed, the
darkest of "dark-horse candidates" The
leading candidates for the nomination
were Lewis CaSS, James Buchanan and
Stephen A. Douglas. So bitter was the
factional strife in the party, however,
that none of them could be nominated.
On the 35th ballot the Virginia delega-
ton cast its vote for Pierce, and on the
49th he was nominated.
President Truman, early this year
when Gen. Eisenhower was under dis
cussion as presidential candidate Of
the Republicans, commented on the fact
that Democrat, Pierce, just hundred
years earlier, had been the Democratic
nominee for President and taken the
measure OF another famous general
Winfield Scott. His suggestion that the
party could repeat this feat in 1852 did
not work out.
Mr.. Pierce had to wait until March 4,
1858. to take over the presidency-and
he did not name his cabinet until three
days later. On December l6, 1852, the
country had turned it's attention to
other things, and politics was not the
immediate consideration of the people.
In the first issue of The Evening Star,
no mention of the President-elect was
carried. Indeed, the only political
paragraph in the paper read as follows:
"Col. Gentry of Tennessee, who re-
raf1ICnA fn cI1Y1porf Ia
speech in Franklin in that State few
days ago in which he proclaimed him
self Whig."
BOlted His Party.
The records show that Meredith Poin-
dexter Gentry of Franklin, Tenn, served
for number of terms in the House as
Whig member of that body. He was not
a candidate for reelection in 1852. AS
suming that Col. Gentry and Repre-
sentative Gentry were one and the same.
1t appears that this Whig member of
Congress could not stomach his party's
candidate for President. hundred
years later, Senator Wayne Morse Of
Oregon, Republican, found he could not
support his partys presidential candi-
date. The Oregon Senator has pro-
claimed himself an independent Repub-
lican.
The issues of 1852 revolved, in large
part, around the slavery question. Pierce
believed that ownership of slaves was
protected under the Constitution. He
was considered "safe man" by the
Southern Democrats. He was an "ex-
pansionist," in the matter of territory
as well as of trade, for the United States,
as were many of the Southern Demo-
Gratis. They wished the United States to
acquire Cuba, for example, and Pierce
was believed in sympathy with the idea.
And it was Pierce who sent Commodore
Perry to Japan on a mission to open
up that country to trade with America.
A hundred years later, President-elect
Eisenhower struggles, too. with inter-
national problems, in world far more
harassed.