American Presidents: Totalus Rankium - 14.1 Franklin Pierce

Episode Date: March 23, 2019

It’s time to look at the fun loving Franklin Pierce. He loves nothing better than rough-housing his friends, having a drink or two and denying the rights of people who wish that slavery didn’t exist, all the the name of unity. What a fun guy! Find out just how exciting his military career was, and just why he seemed a little stressed on his first day as president. 

Welcome to Totalus Rankium. This week, Franklin Pierce Part 1. Hello and welcome to American Presidents Totalus Rankium. I am Jamie. And I'm Rob, ranking all of the presidents from Washington to Trump. And this is episode 14.1, Franklin Pierce. I've got big hopes for him. Why have you got big hopes? Well, you said he's considered very attractive and good-looking for the time, so I'm thinking, oh yeah. Sexy Prez. Sexy Prez.

Sexy Prez. Yeah. It's a shame we do the canvas ability at the end, really, isn't it? I know, I know. We could change the format. Because then that gives you a picture going all the way through, and then you sort of go, oh, does this represent, you know, does it now represent his story?

No, that's a terrible idea. Scrap that. Delete that from the episode. Well, what are you going to imagine him looking like if you're going to cast him right now oh i'm thinking you know the you know american the americans did the uh red dwarf pilot series and they cast lister as like a six foot two long blonde floppish hair big blue eyes muscular chiseled guy you'd call chad that's what i'm imagining right now okay a chad yeah he'd play on his like school football team well american football team not

you know proper football um you know played baseball did everything he swam yeah glistening pectoral muscles or yeah that's what i'm imagining right now. Okay. Go for that then. Okay. And then you can decide whether he deserves that when we get to canvas ability. Love it. Yeah. Okay. Right. Are you ready for this episode then? I am.

Okay. Start with a black screen. Ooh. Yeah, no. I'm going back to a black screen again. Classic. I did blue. I did white.

It's back to black. Yeah. What's that you can hear? It's marching feet. Yeah. Good sound effect you can hear in the distance so not close musket shots yeah still black screen yeah yeah lower third. Lower third, Mexico, 1847. That's the war with Mexico. That's the war with Mexico. Yeah, you got it. You got it. The marching gets louder.

Cheers. And then the black screen moves. So like a bit of light comes across the middle horizontally. Yeah. And then the black goes up and down, almost as if it's an eyelid. And you realise you're seeing through someone's eyes here. Or somebody being born.

No, you're seeing through someone's eyes here. Okay. Yeah. What you see is a hot, barren, sandy floor, but on its side. Yeah, somebody lying down. Because it's someone lying down. You've got it. You've totally got it. I can infer that. Yeah, it's going to be lying down. Because it's someone lying down. You've got it. You've totally got it.

I can infer that. Yeah, you can. The marching is from the feet you can now see marching up the screen. Yeah. Yeah, quite close. Just crunching of stone, that sounds. It's a bit rude.

Yeah. I'm lying here. Well, they're just marching past you. Two pairs of boots come to a stop just in front of you. The camera moves up a bit as if the person lying on the floor is trying to see who these people are. But the sun is glaring down and it's all silhouetted. Yeah. Then you hear a voice.

Did he faint? Says one person. There's a pause, more marching. The second person says i think so what a complete and utter smash to black as your eyes close again oh yes franklin pierce nice is is that franklin pierce on the ground i'm not gonna ruin it oh he's gonna be really delicate wallflower isn't we will get to that he's chad he's a football player he's a football player we will get to that right okay okay early life here we go benjamin and anna pierce have five

children already and they live in new hampshire oh that's nice that's nice i've heard good things about it oh yeah what you heard it's nice well that's good anna was apparently a kind and affectionate woman whereas benjamin pierce was more stern perhaps this sternness was developed during his time in the army oh yes because benjamin pierce had enlisted into the continental army as a teenager after reports of the skirmishes at lexington and concord which we covered way back in washington's episode so his dad's a vet oh yes he was present at the battle of breeds hill which we briefly covered and ticonderoga which we didn't really cover at all uh but important victory for the us there good

yeah he was also there during valley forge remember that's when they were all really cold. Yes. Yeah, and they had to eat their horses. Or stew. Yeah. Oh, the hand holding things. Oh, no, no, that was a different one. That was a different one. That probably happened in Valley Forge as well, though, to be fair. So he was there for Valley Forge.

So, yeah, he came out of the war with the rank of lieutenant. Nice. Then after the war, Benjamin moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire after the death of his first wife. Nice. Then after the war Benjamin moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire after the death of his first wife. Yeah, that was due to complications of birth. So he had a daughter who he really resented. Quite possibly. But let's hope not.

On the journey all the way there, this is because of you. That's really sad. He's picturing this tiny little girl in tears. It's okay. Benjamin cheered up, though, and stopped taking it out on his poor daughter. Because he then married the aforementioned Anna.

It was called Anna Kendrick. So they got together. Benjamin led the state's militia for a while, served as county sheriff. And despite coming from Massachusetts, he was definitely not Federalist. Yeah, he might have been a Northerner, but not all Northerners were Federalist. He was very much a Jeffersonian Republican. Interesting. Yes.

So it was into this world that in a log cabin one day, Franklin Pierce was born. It was the noise. Now, unlike Fillmore, his birth in a small log cabin did not reflect the family fortune at all. They were staying in this log cabin whilst their sizeable home was being built just down the road. Fair enough. Not quite the same as Fillmore's, which is they had

three bits of wood to lean against another bit of wood, they called it home. Aww. Yeah. No, it's a bit better than that. Good, that's good. We're promised better things to come. Now, little Franklin was apparently a fun-loving young child who loved nothing more than being outdoors. He would spend all his time swimming, fishing, and in the winter, ice skating. Nice.

You just imagine ice skates back then must have been so uncomfortable. They'd just be metal discs strapped to a shoe. Yeah. I'll have to do some research on Victorian ice skates. Yeah, I don't know how they did it. Do you think they just got their kitchen knives and sellotaped them to their boots? Just don't skate in a big circle. You will regret it.

Yeah. But yeah, that's nice. Benefit of being really far north, I suppose. You get frozen rivers. Yeah, I was going to say, what state is it? Colorado? New Hampshire. Oh, is that the state? Yes. Oh! It's nice there. You You get frozen rivers. Yeah, I was going to say, what state? It's Colorado. New Hampshire. Oh, is that the state?

Yes. Oh! It's nice there. You've heard good things. Yeah. I didn't know it was a state. Now I do. Yeah, now you do.

It's right up there next to Maine. It's one of the very northern ones. Oh, okay. Yeah. So almost bordering Canada, pretty much. It does border Canada, yeah. It does border Canada. Yeah, yeah.

Oh, brilliant. Yeah, it's right up there. Right up there. Tucked right in the top right there. Oh, brilliant. Yeah, it's right up there. Right up there. Tucked right in the top right there. Nice. Yeah. Quite often forgotten about is New Hampshire. When we did that pub quiz not long ago and we had to list all 50 states,

I forgot to put New Hampshire down. And we played it on the way back from uni once. We sat in the car trying to name all 50 states. Yeah. That was a lonely time. Yeah, those kind of games are exactly the kind of games that franklin didn't like he didn't like being inside reading writing and playing quizzes he wanted to be outside running around uh he'd spend as much time as he could playing with the other

children in the area yeah quickly using his easy charm to become a bit of a ringleader. He was full of confidence, was little Franklin. Well, when you look that good. Oh, yes, exactly. Apparently, the women in the area took a liking to young Franklin. He was just a charming little boy. He could win friends around easily. Nice. Yeah.

Apparently, he had whatever it is. That kind of charisma that some people have. Every time he smiled did he go ping? Yes. Oh wow. You can't argue with that. You can't can you? Now apparently it was one of Franklin's elder brothers who was in the army at this point quite a bit older.

He was most concerned with Franklin's education more than anyone else and he made sure that to begin with Franklin attended school in a neighboring town getting the basics of education an introduction to latin and greek the usual stuff that we've seen before but as you can imagine franklin did not take well to this new boarding school no he wanted to be at home throwing ferrets off trees yeah playing, whatever. Playing with beavers. Whatever it is you do in the outdoor world. He's a bit young

for playing with beavers at the moment. They've got big teeth, yeah. Dangerous animals. So yeah, so one Sunday, homesick, the 12 year old Pierce walked 12 miles back home on his own in the hope that he would just not have

to go back to school. Please. Any chance this could not happen from now on? He arrived at home and no one was there. Pals party! Well, it was a Sunday in the morning. Everyone's at church. Yeah.

So he just kind of hung around for a bit, starting to think, maybe I shouldn't have done this. I'm going to be in trouble when everyone gets back. There he is. He's just sort of hanging around, starting to feel a bit nervous about what's going to happen next. When his family suddenly walk into the house. He was amazed when he was just treated as if nothing really was going on. Don't you even know about boarding school? What? Have you?

Maybe they're playing that trick where they're just ignoring him and Franklin starts to worry. It's like, am I dead? I'm a ghost. Can anyone see me? Yeah, they just acted as if everything was fine. He was then fed at dinner at the table, as per usual, and he starts getting his hopes up.

This looks good. Amazingly, my plan of just going home seems to be working. Then his father invited him to go on a ride in the family carriage. Oh, my dad did this to me when I was younger. Really? Yeah. I mean, not taking me to boarding school, but he said, oh, can you help me with something?

Got in the car, took me to the barber's to get a haircut. Oh, no. He got me tricked you you did oh and that still hurts today doesn't it a little bit yeah yeah let's see if your dad did what franklin's dad did because little franklin jumps into the carriage all excited off we go they start trundling along well those look like big rain clouds on the horizon there. Not to worry. It's fine. We're going on an adventure.

The rain clouds come in a bit more and a bit more. And then it starts hammering it down. Yeah. Like real big summer storm. Ooh, nice. Yeah. At that point, the carriage comes to a stop. And Franklin's father turns to Franklin and says,

Out you get. The rain's still hammering down what it's like oh yeah and go back to school they hadn't gone very far at all franklin still had most of the walk to do in torrential rain you don't like the horses wet do you exactly so yeah um that's brutal yeah franklin just had to walk all the way home on his own in the rain apparently he um said this was a turning point in life for him 12 years old pneumonia however if this really was a turning point he didn't really show it because he didn't seem to change his ways much. He continued to act, and I'll quote here, as a little wild. Oh, okay. He was fun-loving.

And as he hit his teenage years, he just became more fun-loving. Oh. Oh, yes. At the age of 16 in 1820, he was sent to college. Now, his father wanted a good, solid Republican college for his son. And the ones in New Hampshire were a little bit too Federalist for his son and the ones in new hampshire were a little bit too federalist for his liking a bit too liberal yeah so he um so he sent his son to bowden college i think i'm pronouncing that correctly but doine but i think it's bowden

i think it's pronounced that yeah anyway we Anyway. We'll go with that. Bowdoin College in Maine. So, neighbouring state. So off he goes. Once there, he made friends with a man named Nathaniel Hawthorne. Well, another boy called Nathaniel Hawthorne. That's the most English name I've ever heard in my life. It's very English, isn't it? Nathaniel? Yes, my ma.

Nathaniel became good friends with Franklin. And later wrote a biography of Franklin during the presidential campaign. It's a bit early to write a biography, isn't it? Well, no, this was later on. He's not writing it now. No, no, I mean, even during the presidency, if he's not successful, no-one's going to want to buy it or care, are they? Oh, no, back then it was quite common,

if you were running for president, someone would write a biography on you so voters would get to know you. Oh, that's quite cool. Yeah, so it was just a way of getting your face out there and your story and your background. Like a Twitter feed before Twitter or something. Yeah, exactly. So yeah, it was his good friend Nathaniel who wrote that for him.

So we do get a couple of stories from his school life from Nathaniel, but we need to bear in mind all this was pro-Franklin propaganda. Yeah, yeah. So we don't really know if it happened or not. But here's one of the stories. According to Nathaniel, Franklin was extremely popular with his classmates. Like, the most popular boy in the class.

Wow. Chad, I mean. Exactly. He's Chad. Yeah. He had a frank and generous manner, apparently, but he was not in possession of patience. Oh. Yeah. He had a frank and generous manner, apparently, but he was not in possession of patience. Oh. Yeah. One time, when given an algebra problem, he decided not to bother working it out, but he took a sneaky look at the slate next to him.

That's what I used to do at school. Well, yeah. I mean, who didn't do this? Yeah. This is how I got through all of my german and times tables every week yeah i'd in fact have a bag of mints on me usually and i'd just give one of the mints slightly to the person next to me so they wouldn't even tell me off when they noticed i was copying them that's a genius yeah it's just just how you get by sure they sell my class that

or when they were coming around to collect the test and i've done really badly Yeah, it's just how you get by, surely. I used to have my class there. Or when they were coming round to collect the test, and I'd done really badly, just give a mint instead of the test paper and just wave the person on. Doesn't work when it's the teacher, though. They just look at you disapprovingly. Rubbish. Anyway, so, Pierce has a go at a bit of the old copy. At the end of the lesson, the teacher was very surprised to see that Franklin had the answer.

That doesn't bode well for his... Yeah, I mean, Franklin's one of those students. Yeah, I know. You're halfway through a lesson, you look over and go, how on earth did they actually manage to do this? They must be cheating. Why does his friend smell of mints? Yes. So his teacher asked him,

Why, Pierce? Where on earth did you get this? And Franklin replied, Where did I get it? Why? From Stowe's slate, of course. Stowe being the pupil next to him. Yeah, yeah.

I just didn't think it was that funny. No. Well, according to Nathaniel, everyone laughed. Oh, yes. This was a rib tickler.'t think it was that funny. No. Well, according to Nathaniel, everyone laughed. Oh, yes. This was a rib tickler. No one speaks in that way. Not when he's 16.

You what, teach, is what you say. You what? Maybe. What are you looking at? Well, the tutor, like you, didn't laugh. Maybe it's because you're a teacher. Or maybe, yeah. Yeah. It's my instincts kicking in yes the belligerence actually according

to nathaniel the tutor was so impressed with franklin's honesty that he let the matter slide i do that sometimes depending on what it is are you honest fair enough oh yeah yeah do again though i will kill you i know where you live now this is likely an invention. In reality, Franklin found life in college tough to begin with. Now, he was very disappointed. He thought that college would be freedom. Time to really just enjoy life. He's in the state over from his home. Time to enjoy himself. He needs to wait to university for that. Well, this is essentially university. I mean, he's younger than we would be, but I mean, it's that kind of feel. But when he got there, he discovered that there were very strict rules in place.

And I will quote here. No student shall eat or drink in a tavern unless in the company of his parents, nor attend any theatrical entertainment, nor play cards, billiards, or any game of hazard with money, nor go fishing, nor be concerned with loud or disorderly singing, shouting, or clapping of hands, or any conduct that is dishonourable. Gosh. One of those lists where you can tell there was a faculty meeting. Yeah. Things we don't want the students to be doing anymore. First of all, they've got to stop drinking in our pub. Yeah.

That's first, right? And that bloody clapping. Yeah. Every day. Just big longness until eventually, should we just put anything that's dishonourable, shall we? That would do, yes. Let's head to the pub. Yeah. There's nothing worse than sneaking out to go to the pub to find your students there

surely that must be the worst thing as a yeah higher education teacher it's bad though when you go out and you meet parents of kids that you currently teach oh that is bad that is bad yeah it's not fun because then the parents tell the child oh so saw your teacher the other day having a very good time seven pints in he was kept hugging me anyway so with all these rules in place you can imagine what franklin pierce got up to reading no no he skipped many many lessons to go fishing and probably singing and clapping whilst he went let's get all the fish away probably but i've got the impression this is full-on, like, 1950s, 60s musical going off to fish. Yeah.

Yeah. Lovely song. All the birds tweeting in time. Yeah. He's slapping his thigh as he goes. Oh, my goodness. He's that excited to go fishing. He's never going to catch a single fish.

Remember, our friend wouldn't take us fishing once because he thought we'd be too noisy. Yeah, I don't understand why. Why would he think that? fishing once because he thought it would be too noisy yeah i don't understand why why would he think that in the evenings pierce and his friends would sneak out and go to the local tavern yay which is i mean come on you're bound to run into the faculty surely maybe there was a different local tavern but yeah franklin found that he um he enjoyed a beverage or two. Did he? He did. A lot. Like, really enjoyed it. Yeah, yeah.

It was great. Yeah. Good man. This would come back to plague him in later life. Cirrhosis? Yes. Oh, actually. But we're coming to that.

Next episode. Excellent. Yeah. Yeah, drinking definitely becomes a problem with piss as we will see anyway at this point though everything's just brilliant he's young he's enjoying life he became even more popular as you can imagine he was a bit smaller than most his age but he was bouncy and full of energy so he's smaller so if he if he's six foot two yours must be like six for eight or something oh yeah yeah wow yeah he loved messing about physically he's smaller. So if he's six foot two, the others must be like six foot eight or something. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Wow. Yeah, he loved messing about physically. He's just one of those people who will punch you in the arm when they meet you. They'll always run places. Yeah. Just very... Ball of energy. Ball of energy, yeah.

One of Pierce's favourite things to do was enter a friend's dorm at full pout and wrestle the poor unsuspecting friend to the ground before they had any idea of what was going on. So you'd just be there, drinking a cup of tea, and just bang! Foot, foot, foot, rugby tackle. You're on the floor. Hi, Pierce.

You'd have a moment of panic. Bear attack! Bear attack! Oh, it's Pierce again. Yeah. But I bet he got away with it! Oh, it's Pierce again. Yeah. But I bet he got away with it. Oh, he got away. People loved it. It was hilarious. It's Pierce.

He's doing his thing. Covering, scalding tea. Yes. My eyes! Broke a dislocated elbow. But when gradually your sight starts coming back, you notice it's Pierce. It's fine.

However, after a while, this free-loving lifestyle caught up with him. It became clear that he was about to fail. He was picking up on subtle clues, such as him ranking dead last after the first year in his year. Yeah. Yeah, not great. To do that, I've seen in some films, they put scores on a board so everyone can see what you've got. I don't know if they put it on a board, I must admit, but it wouldn't surprise me.

He was certainly told, you're dead last in the year, Pierce. Sort yourself out. So over the second year, he managed to start turning things around slightly. He bunked off less. He started to actually do some work himself instead of just copying people.

He joined a debating society and argued for Andrew Jackson's philosophy on politics. After all, his dad was a Republican, and by this point, that's morphing into the Democrats with Andrew Jackson. The final year went even better than the second, and in the end, he

finishes fifth in his class. That's a good turn. Yeah, he turns it round. Once graduating, he returns home to New Hampshire, and obviously went to read law with a local attorney because that's what literally everyone does. Yeah. Then he moved across the state to read law with another attorney and he just carries on with his law reading, basically.

Yay. He passes the bar with very little fuss in 1827. However, law is not what inspires him at this age. Women. Politics. age. Women. Politics. Oh. Yes. Possibly women as well, but definitely politics.

After what Franklin saw as the corrupt bargain between Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, Franklin was determined to see Jackson win in 1828. So he goes on rallies. He does a bit of campaigning. But closer to home, he campaigns for his father to retain the governorship of the state. Because that's right, the year before, his dad had become the governor. Oh, nice.

Yeah, I mean, Franklin's family are doing well for themselves. Yeah, they're doing very well. In case you've not realised. Now, anti-Jackson men were trying to get rid of the Alder Pierce, because Franklin's dad, big Jackson supporter as well. So they were trying to force him out of office. Franklin helped with the campaign

and was also selected to moderate some Hillsborough town meetings, which is where they lived. He still needs to make money at this time, so he starts practising law, but as a young, charismatic, good-looking man who was also the son of the governor, it's really not surprising he was soon elected to the state's legislature. So a couple of years later, he's still only 26 at this time,

he was elected to the position of the Speaker of the House. Yeah, so rapidly rising here. He's the youngest man to hold this post up until this point. It became clear to many that he's very much on the fast track here. I'll quote here. Frank Pierce is the most popular man of his age. In the first place, he has the advantage of his father's well-earned reputation. In the next place, he has a handsome person,

a prompt and off manner of saying and doing things, and talents competent to sustain him in any situation. Oh, so he's good socially. Yeah. Quick-witted. Yeah. Bit of a laugh. Good looking.

Disarming. Yeah. Look at him there. Yeah. Women say, whore, when he walks past, and men go, whore, when he walks past. All the women want to be with, and all the men want to be. Yeah. That's who he is.

And some men want to be with, but they have to keep it very quiet. Yeah. Because society's very bigoted back then. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Oh, he pierces my heart. Get it, get it, get it. That's what people said.

Yeah. Like him to pierce my, no. Mother. Mother. Sure enough, within a year, he was elected to national government. He's still under 30. Wow. Yeah.

He won a seat in the House of Representatives. However, on a visit to Boston to see his sisters, he suddenly becomes very ill with cholera. Oh gosh. And he dies. Well, at least that's what they cholera. Oh gosh. And he dies. Well, at least that's what they fear. Oh. He was close. He looked very confused there. Yeah.

Surprise! But he was that bad. People were starting to talk about him not pulling through. Oh dear. But he does. Slowly, over months, he manages to get back on his feet. Good. His well-formed feet. Oh, lovely arches.

Yes. Now, by December of that year, he was able to go to Washington to be sworn in. He's going to be a congressman. So, he works very hard in the capital. He's appointed to the Judiciary Committee. And just generally gets on with stuff that we're not going to cover. Because it becomes quite tedious. But just know that he did a good enough job that he was re-elected for the next term.

But he's more concerned with personal matters at this time in his life because, yes, politics interests him, but what else interests him? Women. There we go. We've got it this time. Yes. Or more to point, one woman. Because a few years previously, he had met Jane Means Appleton, which is a brilliant name. Jane Means Appleton.

Does she? Jane's just, what? Yeah, she was the daughter of a minister who was the previous president of Bowdoin College when he went. Now, he stopped being the president of the college before he attended, but there's the connection there. Now, many have commented on what an apparent mismatch there is between Franklin and Jane. What do you think of Franklin so far, personality-wise? Loud, boisterous, smooth, suave.

Is she like her dad, his dad? Strict, very quiet. Apparently pretty much every description that you can come up with. Any adjective you can pull out the hat just find the antonym. That will describe Jane apparently. So happy she's sad.

Hopefully not but apparently she was very much more shy, unsociable, frail. Generally didn't like to be out in the company of others. Okay. Yeah. Well, opposites attract.

Well, yeah, exactly. Opposites attract. And that must be what happened in this case. Now, Jane's father was already dead by this point. But her mother was alive. She was very much an old school federalist. Yeah. Which is another opposite here.

Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. And Jane sympathised with the emerging Whigs. So there's a political mismatch as well there. But, yeah, it would appear opposites do attract in this case because near Franklin's 30th birthday party, the two get married. Aw.

Soon afterwards, Jane was pregnant. Yeah. Franklin heads back to Washington to serve out his second term. Now, with his wife left behind, Franklin sought out some lodgings. Too expensive to live on your own? Who shall I go and live with? He moves in to lodgings with Senator Benton.

Okay. No penny dropping there. We've come across Benton twice. Yes, Benton. He is the one. You're not going to find it in your notes. Oh, damn it. I mean, you will eventually, but...

He's from Zachary... He's from Polk. I'll just tell you. John Tyler. We first saw Benton... John Quincy Adams. In Jackson's episode. Jackson's episode, that's what I said. When he got

into a shootout with Jackson outside a hotel. Oh, with the two gangs. Didn't he get in, he got grazed or something? Yeah, he shot Jackson. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, brilliant. Then we came across him again when Senator Foote pulled a pistol out on Benton on the Senate floor. Yes. Now, that's not happened yet. That's going to happen in the future. But that's the Benton we're talking about. All right, wonderful.

Yeah. So, yeah, Benton and Pierce get on quite well. They become friends. And, yeah, Pierce is just getting on with his job again. But then personal tragedy strikes. Miscarriage. Well, Jane's just given birth. That's brilliant. He receives the letter. Wonderful, Jane's just given birth. That's brilliant.

He receives the letter. Wonderful. You've got a son. Is that letter number one? That's letter number one, yes. Because a letter a couple of days later informs him that his son has just died. Aww. Yeah.

You might want to start a tally. Oh. No wonder he drank. Yeah. Spoiler warning. It gets a bit depressing at times. But still, his second term is now on, so he throws himself into his work. He starts making a bit of a name for himself. And by this point, his politics are very clear for all to see. He's a firm Jacksonian, through and through. And he thought that the abolitionist movement was a dangerous faction that would split the party and even the country apart, potentially lead to civil war. That's not wrong. Do you think that's because he morally disagrees with it or sees the bigger picture and this is really divisive?

That is debatable. Okay. And I'll let you come up with your conclusions at the end. Okay. Now, by this time in his life, he's also started to deeply mistrust anyone advocating a stop of the spread of slavery. Because he sees this as abolitionism through the back door. So he thinks slavery should spread to new states and abolitionists should just stop. Now, during his time in Congress, the issue over abolitionist petitions keeps coming up.

A South Carolinian representative called Hammond puts forth that the House should reject out of hand all petitions regarding slavery immediately, without any discussion. Franklin, along with others, was outraged by this clear violation of the Constitution's right to petition. Yeah. We can't just not discuss it. It's clear in the Constitution people have a right to petition. Yeah. So on the 18th of December, he stands up and he delivers a speech. The government could not reject petitions out of hand. This was ridiculous. What was the Ah. Yeah. Loophole.

Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah, he's clearly one of these people who will just follow the letter because that's what the rules say, damn it. Yes. Yeah. So this way of thinking won out, and as we've seen with the help of Polk as speaker, the gag law goes through.

Franklin Pierce then goes on to declare that all this talk of rights for slaves was coming from a very vocal minority. Most people are more than happy with the state of slavery in the country it's just some troublemakers making a lot of noise he declares it's amazing like now like currently with politics and stuff everywhere it's amazing how things are mirrored to things that were said and done but it's always been here hasn't it yeah yeah you think it's a modern thing when trump was elected and people kept saying this is unprecedented and the state of politics, we've never seen this before.

We have, many times. According to Pearce, not one in 500 people supported anything but the sovereign rights to protect their property. So abolitionists are one in 500, according to Pierce. However, by saying this, Franklin created a perhaps unexpected foe, because when Calhoun heard of these words, he was not happy. Yes, Calhoun may have died in a previous episode.

He's back! But he's back again. Yay! Now, if you remember, Calhoun had made a very successful political career through arguing for states' rights in regards to the tariffs. Yeah. But when that fight was won, he had switched to slavery. Calhoun did not want to hear that an up-and-coming Northerner

was saying that the North was actually almost fully behind the South. First of all, it simply wasn't true. Calhoun knew that. But second, and more important to him, it's much easier to rally support with the line, they're after your property, rather than, they largely are supportive of you. Calhoun knew how to run on fear and hate.

That's how he campaigned. He doesn't want a Northerner coming along and saying, oh no, everything's going to be fine. Now, although both men hated the abolitionist movement, they both had very different visions of defeating it. Downplay and ignore it from Franklin, highlight fearmonger and fight back from Calhoun. So Calhoun went as far to obtain a newspaper article that had done some very rough maths. They had got a signed petition from an abolitionist movement, and then using the signatures on that and the state's population from where they got it from, they worked out that roughly it was more 1 in 33 supported the abolitionist movement in the North.

Still a depressingly low number, but definitely far, far greater than 1 in 500. Yes. The article pointed out that anyone with so little grasp of the people they're representing should probably resign in regards to Pierce. Calhoun had that read out on the Senate floor. Franklin was furious. How dare you! And fought back. Stole one of his rabbits.

Yes. And then looked after it really nice. Yes. Yeah, because that would just whine Calhoun off. Yeah. Yeah. No, he fights back by coming up with an amazing argument. Do you want to hear it?

Denied it. Not true. Fake news. No, no, he didn't go down that route. That's a silly route to go down. Go on. No, he said the vast majority of the signatures on the petition came from

women and children. Oh. And obviously when he stated not one in 500 supported the rights of their southern brethren, he was obviously

talking about men. Obviously women would sign this, the mad fools. Yeah, well done Franklin. Woo! Won that one.

Yeah. Anyway, despite this argument, or perhaps because of it, his stardom was rising still. He was soon elected to the Senate, the youngest man so far to be so, at the age of 32. How old are you at the moment? 31. 32 next month.

What have you done with your life, Jamie? Exactly. Franklin's managed to be a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate and pushed through some hideously racist laws and made some quite sexist comments. I can make a sexist comment. I'm sure you could. So anyway, he's a senator now. He attended the special session that Van Buren set up.

Van Buren's president now, by the way. uh yeah he was elected and all the money stopped working so he called that special session while in the senate he argued once again that the senate did not have the right to reject petitions on slavery this argument came up again but in the different house so they should do what the house does he argued and just uh accept them but then don't do anything with them. Yeah, yeah. Put that on the to-do pile. Yes. Life was very routine for Franklin for a while. He worked in the Senate. Jane had come to stay with him. He went to work, he got his job done, nothing more to be said. But then, one of his friends got challenged to a duel. Oh, is this Benton? No. Damn it.

Yeah, no, it was a different friend, unfortunately. The duel was between a Whig and a Democrat politician, his friend obviously being the Democrat politician. This was seen as barbaric by many. I mean, come on, we're well into the 1800s now. Yeah. We're getting halfway through the century. And we're still shooting each other in the face with guns.

Yeah, to settle our political arguments. I mean, surely we should be... Discussing. Yeah. Like the Romans did. Yes. Get your sword out and we'll do it properly. Yeah.

Yeah, many people looked down on the fact this duel was happening. And then even more so when Franklin's friend was killed in the duel. Oh, dear. Yeah, this unnerved franklin somewhat jane in particular found it horrifying writing how much she wished her husband was out of political life she was pregnant again oh and gave birth to a son oh that's it that's it that's fine. Actually, this is brilliant for Jane because she's now got an excuse not to come back to Washington. Yeah. Yeah. She doesn't like it in Washington. She doesn't want to be there. So she now can just stay at home with their new son. So she moves into their new family home in Concord, which is the capital of New Hampshire. Yeah. And

Pierce goes back to Washington. By this time, the political landscape had shifted once more. Harrison's now president. Harrison's no longer president. And Franklin found himself in the minority as the Whigs were on the rise. Perhaps frustrated by a government that was

pushing through reforms that he despised, Franklin announced he would no longer serve out his term and returned home. Oh, resigned. Yeah, you get the impression if he's not on the winning side, he doesn't want any part of it. Coward. Funny you should say that. Now, perhaps in a move to change his life somewhat, he publicly, at this time, made a temperist pledge. He's going to cut out the booze. Yeah. Not long before, when he was in Washington on a regular heavy night of drinking, one of his drinking buddies had drawn out a pistol on another one of his friends and just waved the pistol around a bit. Yeah. Franklin was very upset

by this incident. Apparently it made him physically ill. Oh dear. Yeah. That was the alcohol. That was the alcohol. You just know he's in the corner throwing up into a bucket yeah one of his friends is waving what he thinks is a pistol at another friend but it's actually just

a stick of celery yeah a full friend is saying let it go it's not worth it it's not worth it yeah and the guy with the celery

in his face is just trying to eat the celery because it looks quite tasty yeah typical night out yeah Pierce realises this isn't on no time to sort your life

out made him physically sick and even the next day as well he had headaches and dry mouth and all from the worry well he wakes up there's one of his friends with a half-eaten stick of celery just jacked up one of his nostrils he's lying in his own vomit. Yeah, it's like, sort your life out, Pierce, he says to himself. So that's it. No more drink for him, he says at this time. Jane was very happy to have her husband back. He's promised to be sober. He's come away from Washington.

In Jane's eyes, this is what Pierce needs to do to have a happy life. And she's probably got a point. But if she was thinking that Pierce would stay out of politics, she was going to be disappointed because he's too big of a name by this point, and he soon becomes the de facto head of the Democrats in

New Hampshire. He spends his time politically fighting against prominent abolitionist politicians in the area. So anyone talking about freeing slaves, he clamps down on. It's not long before Franklin's friend from Congress, Polk, becomes president. This works out very well for Franklin because he was made the US Attorney for New Hampshire. Nice.

Yes. Nice new job for him. But Polk's got bigger plans because not long afterwards he's invited to serve in Polk's cabinet as the Attorney General. Big job. Yeah. Yeah. Big job. Yeah. Yeah. National job. However, Jane and Franklin were in mourning because their second son had just died.

I was really hopeful for a moment. No, no, second son's died. But they have had a third son by this point. Oh, God. So that's nice, isn't it? Yeah, you've actually started a tally. Yeah. Yeah.

Everyone's two now. Yeah, so unfortunately their second son's dead. Two-year-old Benjamin's still around, though, if you want to put a name on that potential third tally. Yeah, but the loss of their other two sons obviously hit them both hard, Jane in particular. Franklin decided to turn the job offer down. It would have been a huge deal for him, but

he's just not able to do it. Fair enough. He states that he wanted no public office at that time. Unless there's a war. Yeah. I'll obviously serve if there's a war. Because I'm strong and brave. Yeah. Then the Mexican War starts. Yeah, wonderful. Yeah.

Now Franklin had grown up on his father's war stories and his outer brothers had served in the War of 1812. Franklin was keen to get some experience himself. It doesn't seem surprising, does it? What we know about his personality. He wants to be up there doing things, achieving.

Yeah. So he wants to get some war experience. His chance comes in 1847. Congress called for the creation of ten additional army regiments. Piss signs up immediately and becomes a private in the army. Private? Oh, yeah. Polk then promotes him to colonel.

Oh, wonderful. Yes. Just a moment, you thought it was going to be one of those great stories of him working his way through the... No, no, it's not that. No, it's Colonel straight away. Right, right, Pierce, you're going to lead this army? Of course, sir, easy. Ten minutes later, all dead.

Yeah, he's given the job of creating one of the regiments in New Hampshire, which he diligently sets off to do. And obviously, I mean, he's doing his job. We've got to promote him. So he's promoted to Brigadier General. Oh, goodness me. Yes. What a uniform, though.

Is it a good uniform? Oh, I'm thinking blue, shiny bits, feathers. Lapels. Oh, massive lapels. Lapels. What are those shoulder things called? Oh. Little tassels on them.

I know what you mean. I bet they were tassels. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Yeah. Not supposed to be. A sash. Oh, those shoulder things called? Oh. Little tassels. I know what you mean. I bet they were tassels. Yeah, oh, absolutely. Yeah. Not supposed to be. A sash. Oh, yes. It's got a sash. Loads of medals. Yeah, flares. Wow. It's a striking uniform. And the gloves. Red velvet.

So, he's now in command of several regiments from the northern states. That's a lot of death. He was to go with Generalott and invade the capital of mexico while taylor held the north of the country well as you see doing that so oh yeah yeah as we as we will see now we've briefly looked at taylor in mexico yeah so now we get to see what the troops in the south of Mexico were doing. However, by the time the new regiments had been sorted, Scott's already left and already taken the port city of Veracruz.

That was easy. Yeah. So Pierce and his men follow, but they're late to the party. Once they arrive in Mexico, they find that Scott is now roughly 100 miles inland. Oh. Yeah. And due to some previous mismanagement, they have no transport to take them any further. And whose role was that, Brigadier General?

Well, apparently that's not Pips' fault. That's okay. You can't blame him for that. Good. And the 100 miles between me and Scott, nice straight road, friendly territory? Nope. Yeah, I wouldn. Nope. Great. Fortunately for them, not long afterwards, a whole bunch of

horses arrived from New Orleans. I'm thinking all crated together like a massive crate. Some of the massive crowbars opens the front door, falls flat, horses come spilling out. All these horses. Jazz horses as well because they're from New Orleans. Oh, yes.

One of the Saxon sunglasses. All they chilled out. They look around. What the hell are we doing here? What was I drinking? Nay. They've now got horses. They can now travel to Scott, which is fantastic.

So, Pierce's first task is to march the 2,500 men who were under him through hostile land to rendezvous with the general. That'll be easy. Easy? Yeah, just go in that direction, lads. I often wonder how they did things back then. Like, knew where they were?

Yeah. Well, surely they pre-planned it, or maybe messengers? Messenger scouts. 100 mile walk yeah or you'd have like scout stops like you'd send a message to one

he'd pass it on hands and string that's just gotta make sure it's pulled really tight are you I can't hear you

are you pulling the string's slack it's not working I think they're dead sir string's turning red interesting wick effect

candle joke i mean quite like a candle joke oh anyway so they march off um couple of days go by the heat's bearing down they're marching through land everything's tense people are saying things like, it's quiet. They hear the chirp of a cricket. Yeah. They all turn around and shoot their rifles at it. Yeah. That cricket regretted getting up that day.

Yes. Yeah. And then a shot rings out. Yes, it's a sniper. A couple of men injured, but apparently the men remain calm and they get out of the situation no problem. Just Franklin, my god man, you've been shot in the neck!

It's fine, sir. It's fine. But a flesh wound. They just carry on. Because damn it, they're in the army. Either that or they just didn't notice. Just poor Jeff at the back just gets picked off. Everyone just carries on. He he's there gurgling

actually he might have been at the front that's what finishes him off nasty anyway apart from these few casualties after 21 days they rendezvous with Scott oh Franklin is a good leader yeah well done Franklin

Scott is happy that they're there. Reinforcements. It's time to march on Mexico City. Yes. And end this war, this damned war. So to begin with, Pierce followed fellow Brigadier General Pillow. That's a good name. To attack the Mexican forces near Contreras.

I apologise for butchering the Mexican name. Contreras. I apologise for butchering the Mexican name. Contreras. Yeah, that's probably closer. Just saying it the same way with a Mexican accent is not saying it. It can't be any worse than my attempt. Santa Ana. You remember, he's leading the Mexicans. Yes.

Amazing guitarist. Yes, he's making a stand to defend the capital city. And he's also got a detachment of around 7,000 men at this point who were stopping the advance of the US forces. So they've got to get rid of these 7,000 men, to put it simply. Franklin was to attack the Mexican forces straight on, while others flanked and could catch the Mexicans by surprise. Like a weird pincery movement.

Yeah, yeah. Lobster movement. Yeah. The battle was about to begin. Franklin's orders are clear. He knows what he needs to do. He's going to lead his men straight on, full-on frontal assault. His time has come.

He's on a horse. He's on a horse, yeah. Jazz horse. A jazz horse. Nice. Picture the Mexicans lining up. Picture the Mexicans lining up. Picture the US forces lining up. Got it.

Picture the blazing sun. Yeah. Then get rid of that because it's actually quite a cold, cloudy day. Oh, is it? Yeah. But screw that. Blazing sun. Yeah.

There's some nice trumpet music slowly playing in the background. Like a mariachi sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. Then. Rattlesnake. Rachi sort of thing. Yeah, yeah. Then... Brass snake. Yeah, exactly. All the tropes are going on. And then one of the trumpets, like, sounds properly,

and it is time to attack. The artillery fires. Which really spooks Franklin's horse. I mean, he's just a jazz horse when you aren't lean. He's not used to this. A chilled out lifestyle. Yeah, I mean, even the drums that he plays has like little mufflers on the drumsticks. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, he's just not used to it. So his horse startles slightly. Pierce was thrown forward in his saddle, crushing his groin against the pommel. The pommel. Oh my goodness. Yeah. According to one source, he lost consciousness and began to slip from the saddle. This spooked the horse even further, who turned, twisting Pierce round slightly.

He lands on the floor awkwardly, and then the horse stands on his knee. This woke him up. He gathered his thoughts through the pain just enough to order a subordinate to lead the attack. He can't do it anymore. I think it was just a gurgle. The subordinates went, I'll take over, sir. Here's a nice pack. The damage is done. I mean, Franklin's

doing that thing that all men know about. Oh yeah. Where it happens, you go, oh no, that's not too bad. And then the pain hits. It's just deep, deep pain. It never stops. So he's now just curled up on the

floor in agony, whimpering. Now I should point out, there is another source that claims he was bravely striding forward, leading his spooked horse, calming it down over the rough terrain when he turned in a very manly way and

twisted his knee slightly, and that's what happened. Okay. What really happened is debated, but I'm going for the ball-crushing story. I think so, yeah. Yeah, that's definitely what I'm going for. Oh, eunuch style. Yes. Either way, Pierce is out of action.

He didn't even get to say charge. Colonel Morgan, who was also there, shouted at Colonel Ransom to take command of the brigade. And I'll quote here, General Pierce is a damn coward. No, I'm sorry. In his defence. So the battle ends without Franklin able to help really at all.

Night falls. Everything's still pretty much a stalemate. The battle's not been decided. Yeah. It comes to a close because of nightfall. During the night, a ravine had been discovered that could theoretically lead the US forces to a position where they could jump out and surprise the Mexicans from the rear. Boo! Yeah, the Mexicans would be so scared by the boo,

they'd jump up and land on their own bayonets. Ooh. Yeah. That's the plan. So, realising this, Scott orders his generals to come to his tent and organise the attack for the following morning. All his generals turn up. Where's Pierce?

Oh, he's on his way, don't worry. In hobbles. Pierce. He was clean-shaven that morning, but now it's like stubble. Oh, yeah. Hair's all over the place. Red eyes.

Yeah. Very wide staring eyes as well. Just wincing with every breath. Ah, Pierce, would you care for a seat? Well, Scott took one look at him, apparently, and suggested he sits this one out. Look at you, man. You're in no state

to lead anyone. Franklin was utterly horrified and I'll quote, This is the last great battle. I must lead my brigade. So Scott relented. Fair enough. You want your experience. Are you sure you're okay? You can do this.

Franklin assured the General he could definitely lead the troops. I'll get on this horse. It'll be fine. Well, dawn broke. Franklin did not get on a horse. He decided to lead on foot. Yes. This was his chance to redeem himself.

There was mutterings that he had cowardly not led the charge yesterday. I come up with an excuse. So here's his chance. Time to redeem himself. So, dawn breaks. It's time to set off. The train was certainly very uneven, though. And his knee was very weak. So, dawn breaks, it's time to set off. The train was certainly very uneven, though, and his knee was very weak.

Oh, no. Soon after starting, he twists his leg, and he fainted once more. Oh, for goodness sake. Yes. Men just carry on. They're used to it by this point. Battle starts, Pierce faints, attack. That's the signal.

By the time Pierce regained consciousness, and this is now, we're back at the start now. Yeah. Yeah, he manages to catch up with his men, like hobbles onto the battleground, waving his ceremonial sword around. But it's just everyone sitting around having a sandwich. A victory sandwich. Yeah. All the fighting's gone. The Mexicans had fled back and retreated. So there you go.

But it's okay. The war's still on. Good. He has a chance to pull this back. So the next battle, mainly against deserters of the U.S. Army, he sits that one out. His leg's gone. Time to recover, so he sits the next battle out.

He rests for a couple of weeks, he regains his strength, and they advance on the capital itself. Yay. Yeah. On September the 8th, his brigade were put on standby to attack the Mexican forces at Molina del Rey. Again, I apologise for the pronunciation.

But this is an area on the fringes of Mexico City itself. They're hoping to break through this area to get into the city. This battle was tough. Buildings were getting in the way and room-to-room fighting was taking place. Oh, wow. Yeah. There was a mill suspected of housing artillery that they had to go through and take over.

They had to clear the place out. It was tough going. A lot of men died. Franklin was not involved in any of this. Oh, no. No, he was stood nearby watching because he was on standby. Ah, of course. Yes.

And who's in charge of the rotor? Not Franklin, to be fair. But then his men were called up. Yes! See all that fighting down there, lads? We're going to go in. We're going to finish it off. When do we charge, sir?

Wait for Franklin. And he's down. Let's go! No, no, it's okay. Franklin's recovered. His leg's fine. Oh, good. They charge him. Oh. Yeah. No, no, it's okay. Franklin's recovered. His leg's fine. Oh, good. They charge in.

Oh. Yeah. Just as the battle ends. They literally arrive and the fighting stops. Wonderful. It's a picture of him again running in, ceremonial sword aloft. Yeah. Charge!

Oh, son of a... Oh, well. Yeah, so that was that battle for Pierce. The US had, in theory, won, but they didn't really get anything from this. It was very much a Pyrrhic victory, this one. So a few days later, it's decided a different tactic will be taken. This time they're going to attack the Chapultepec Castle, which is a big fortress on the edge of the city.

If you can take that, the city's going to fall, basically. 2,000 men were selected to attack the fortification, held by roughly 800. Artillery starts at dawn, bombards the castle for an entire day. Night falls. They stop for a while. The next day, three attack columns were formed Franklin Pierce is at the head of none of them Because he's too busy in the sickness tent

Suffering from acute diarrhoea Oh for goodness sake For 36 hours, he does nothing but dribble Leak Yeah Yeah He does nothing but dribble. Leak. Yeah. Yeah. After 36 hours, he's just about well enough to get dressed.

He throws on his very dishevelled-looking uniform by this point. He must be looking a mess. Yeah, he looks in the mirror. Shall I bother shaking? No, there's no point. Yeah, so he sort of slumps onto his horse. Just the sorriest state of a soldier you've ever seen. Rides out so at least he can be part of the final battle for Mexico City itself.

He arrives just as Mexico surrender. Yeah. Judges in ceremonial sort of love. General Scott, I'm finally here. Oh, for God's sake! Mother! And so ends Franklin Pierce's glorious military campaign. When you said a bit of a coward earlier,

and I said, interesting you should say that, you can imagine that accusations of cowardice are certainly thrown at him after this. Yeah. And who knows, maybe he was. Maybe he just got very unlucky.

Very unlucky though, isn't it? Anyway, the war's over. Franklin hangs around in Mexico City for a while, just drinking

with fellow officers. Yay. Yeah, it's a bit of a clique forms of Democrat officers who all hate their Whig general.

Remember, Scott's a Whig. Oh, yeah. a wig yeah obviously all the officers are prominent men back home in various parts of the country so he just he makes connections good idea a bit of networking ah franklin the coward don't forget he's very charming and charismatic so i'm sure he's managed to win his friends i laughed it off very self-deprecating. Possibly. At one point, after a lot of drinking, one man challenges him to a duel. Oh dear.

So obviously he can't talk his way out too much. Well, actually he does talk his way out of this because he just refuses. He's not going to do it. Nope. No way. I didn't fire any shots during the war. I'm certainly not going to start now. So perhaps realising it was time to go,

Pierce asks Scott for a leave of absence. Six months after arriving in Mexico, he heads for home. There you go, that's his Mexico adventure. We call it an adventure. You could have literally left all that out. I think it was very important. As to his character. Yes.

Once home, he threw himself into his legal career and spent time with Jane and their remaining son, Benjamin. But it was not long before he was getting involved in the state's Democratic Party once more because Taylor becomes the president and the Compromise of 1850 is being discussed. With the whole Fugitive Slave Act and what to do with California and all of that. As you can probably imagine, Franklin Pierce, all in favour of the Compromise.

Yeah. Oh yes. Good for him. This sounds great. He was all about maintaining the Union, even if that meant literally selling people down the river. It was Soviet. That was his philosophy. Selling people down the river, even if that meant literally selling people down the river. Soviet, that was his philosophy. Selling people down the river, by the way.

I wrote that in my notes and I went, I wonder if that actually comes from this. It does. Oh, actually, yeah. Yeah, selling slaves down the Mississippi, Ohio River. So that's where that phrase comes from. That's factoid for you. Depressing factoid. Horrible. Yeah.

Anyway, Pierce went after his fellow Democrats who opposed the Fugitive Slave Act, seeing them as betraying the party Now by this time Taylor had died and Fillmore was starting to wilt under public opinion The Democrats start to feel like maybe this is our time

The Whigs have messed this up Surely, whoever's nominated will win the next election. Who do they nominate? Shall we find out? Yeah. Well, it's decided that all they really need is anyone who can beat a deeply unpopular accidental president. The jazz horse.

Yeah, I mean, surely this can't be too hard. So names are starting to be whispered, and soon enough, a sort of consensus was reached. The ideal candidate would be pro-compromise, because most in the Democratic Party, So names are starting to be whispered, and soon enough, a sort of consensus was reached. The ideal candidate would be pro-compromise, because most in the Democratic Party wanted the compromise to go through. Unlike the Whig Party, it was mainly Democrats who thought the compromise didn't go far enough, who didn't like the compromise. They wanted stronger support for slaves in the Democratic Party.

But most saw the compromise as a good thing. So they wanted a pro-compromise candidate. Another way to help calm a fractured party was to nominate a Northern Whig with Southern sympathies. You've got the Northerner. Some of the Northerners like him, but with Southern sympathies some of the South will like him. So who are they going to pick?

Well, there's a few choices. Several names. Big three though. We've seen all three of them before. Benton. No. First up, Lewis Cass. He ran against Taylor and lost. But he'd probably win this time. Yeah.

Next up, from Pennsylvania, James Buchanan. He was the Secretary of State under Polk, if you remember. Should I box his name? Yeah, box his name. I've heard of him. Yeah. And finally, if you remember. Shall I box his name? Yeah, box his name. I've heard of him. Yeah. And finally, Douglas.

Oh. I briefly mentioned him last time. He introduced the bills for the Compromise of 1850 when Clay's omnibus bill got nowhere. So he's the one who broke it up and put it through one at a time. Yeah. So he's Mr Compromise. Okay. So one of those three, all of them could do the job quite well.

Likely one of those are going to win. I'll be honest, I'm surprised. Yeah? Yeah. I guess Franklin wouldn't be, just because he's going to be the next president, that's why. Franklin is very much an up-and-coming politician in the Democratic Party, but he's not really quite at that level yet.

He's not a big hitter. No, you can tell he's going to be. He's flying through the ranks. But, yeah, he's not quite there yet. Okay. Sort of, as we will see. Because, obviously, he does win this. Yeah, yeah.

Spoiler. Yeah. Well, but back to these three, though. Cass and Buchanan were favourites of the older generation of Democrats, whereas Douglas appealed to a newer generation looking for fresh blood in the party. This group became known as the Young Americans. Original name there.

Yeah, the Young Americans attacked Cass and Buchanan as being, and I quote, old fogies. Ooh. Them be fighting words. Oh, that's a sick burn. Sick burn. Oh, yes. So, yeah, Douglas didn't like the two older men,

but the two older men didn't like each other either. No, that's right, then. Makes it easier. In fact, yeah, none of them got along, and due to this, as time ticked over, many in the party started to worry that no one was going to be able to get the two-thirds majority. Yeah. Because this seems to be split three ways,

and there's not much to or fro going on here. Very entrenched. Yeah. Then, Levi Woodbury died. Oh, oh no. I said many people. That's for sure. How do I arrange my face?

How much should I care about this? Who the hell is Levi Woodbury? Levi Woodbury was one of the leading candidates from New Hampshire. Now, I did say several names were a possibility. These were the big three. Woodbury wasn't one of the big three, but he was a potential name. Not anymore. He's dead. But that did mean that in New Hampshire, they now thought, well, Levi's dead.

Maybe we need someone else from New Hampshire to go for the presidency. Jane. Not Jane, no. Instead, people start whispering Franklin's name. Franklin. Franklin. Franklin. Now, Jane, funny you should mention her, in What's Becoming the Norm for Future First Ladies, was horrified by this idea.

No! When was the last time we had a first lady who didn't absolutely hate the idea of their husband becoming President? It must have been a while ago. Washington's wife, Martha. I don't think she was too keen on the idea. But yeah, she did not want this to happen

whatsoever, did Jane. And to begin with, Franklin equally sounded equally appalled by the idea, going as far to say that it was repugnant to him. Nonetheless, his name kept being whispered throughout the country as a possible compromise candidate. It helped that through his connections in the army, he'd made quite a few friends across the whole country. So he had some friends in some good places. Over the next few months, a sort of underground

support network seems to grow. I mean, it's not out in the open, but there's stuff going on behind closed doors. This was damaged at one point when it was revealed that Franklin had publicly stated that the Fugitive Slave Act was at times a tad inhumane. I've actually seen it in action. This is quite horrible. Oh dear. Yeah, and obviously a lot of Southerners weren't happy about that. Well, yeah. Yeah, you can't say anything against the Fugitive Slave Act. But then Franklin made it very clear, obviously nothing could be done, it's the law and the law must be upheld. Burke, a democratic editor from New Hampshire, wrote to Franklin and pleaded him to join the race.

Franklin eventually does so. He writes back to them, essentially saying yeah, go on, don't tell Jane. Shh. First time she'd hear of it, I would just say, I've got a speech to give. Yes. Now to counter the comments about the Fugitive Slave Act, which he was soon

regretting, Franklin sent private letters down south to reassure key people. He didn't want to say it publicly, because it would harm him in the north. So, just send some private letters out. I will do nothing to harm the compromise if I was to win this. Don't worry. So, the Democratic

Convention starts. Are you ready for some figures? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. So, three-way fight between Cass, Buchanan, and Douglas. Yeah. The first ballot. Did you bring any snacks with you to the Democratic Convention?

No. Oh, that's a shame. You're going to need something to get through the Democratic Convention. Oh dear. And maybe a hip flask. Oh dear. Yeah. Right, first ballot.

You ready? Cass, 116. Buchanan, 93. Douglas, 20. Oh dear. Yeah, okay. you ready cass 116 buchanan 93 douglas 20 oh dear yeah okay clear lead for cass but it's not enough that's not two thirds and a handful of votes to other people but i'm going to ignore those yeah franklin's name appears nowhere all right so second ballot cast cass 118 up to two. Buchanan, 95, up two. Douglas, 23, up three. There are some other votes going on as well. Ah, yeah.

They're just blatantly cheating. New numbers. Yeah. Counts a million. As you can see. Wait, how slow is this increase going to be? Oh, it's slow. I'm not going through all of them, don't worry.

Yeah, people settle down for a nice long convention at this point. This isn't shifting. By the 10th ballot, Cass and Buchanan had fallen to 101 and 87 respectively. Douglas was up to 50. So Douglas is starting to gain. Fast forward 10 more ballots. Wow. Yeah.

Ballot 20. Buchanan overtakes Cass. Cass now has 81. Buchanan 92. Douglas 64. Douglas is still making gains. Yeah. 20 ballots in, and things have only gotten tighter.

Because at the start, it was looking quite positive for Cass. Now they're starting to draw level. And we're now into the second day of the convention. So, let's pass forward ten more ballots. Cass' support pretty much dies away. Douglas picks up the votes. By the 30th ballot,

Cass only on 33. Buchanan, 91. Douglas, 92. Oh yeah, Douglas is in the lead. Oh, smug face on right there for him. Oh, yeah, he's loving it. Over the next couple of days, Douglas has been gaining on Cass and Buchanan.

They've slowly been losing support. It looks like Douglas might have this. I mean, we might need to do another 20 rounds or something, but Douglas has the momentum here. However, just two ballots later, ballot 32, Cass comes in with 93, Buchanan 74, Douglas 80. Ooh. Everyone just goes, oh, God.

Not again. How long have we got to be here? Yeah, it's back pretty much on level, and bloody Cass is in the lead again. It's becoming very clear to everyone that this is going nowhere, and perhaps a compromise was indeed needed. The convention's second day comes to an end. Whispers are done overnight.

People knock on each other's room. Hilarious misunderstandings go on. People are knocking on each other's doors and hallways and hotels and there's always elements of comedy when oh absolutely yeah someone knocks on the door goes back into their room to get something the other person opens their door can see no one looks around confused closes their door and then someone just runs across in their underwear we don't know why yeah random oh the jazz horse walks through yeah Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's all night. Yeah.

Shady deals going on. All day. So, day three of the convention. Those who have secretly been favouring Franklin Pierce all along finally put forward their plan. They have waited to the point where it becomes very clear that no one can win. And then they throw Franklin's name into the pot. So it's actually ballot 35

that Franklin Pierce's name first appears. And he gains 15 votes from Virginia. The next ballot, he's up to 30. He stays on 30 for 10 more ballots, whilst another person who I'm not going to mention because it confuses things starts to gain as well.

Finally, though, the dam bursts. After the 48th ballot, delegates from North Carolina, who had pledged to support Buchanan, broke ranks and declared they're going to support Pearce. This sets off a landslide, and suddenly Franklin Pearce gets 282 votes. Cass 2, Buchanan 0, Douglas 2.

One now. I'd like to see if there was a correlation between this sudden landslide and the alcohol running out. Quick! We're out of the brandy! Vote for anyone! So there you go. The old dark horse manoeuvre, which we have actually seen before with Polk. It's worked again, arguably even better here.

Franklin and Jane were staying in Boston at this time. Remember, they're not at the convention. And, yeah, news reaches them. Franklin apparently was stunned. Who? Yeah, I mean, he'd eventually given in and said, yeah, put my name forward. But, I mean, come on. Some big names going against him here. Jane fainted.

That's my trick. So there we go. The election was won. And as we've seen, the Whig Party were not in the best state at this time. They weren't really able to put up a unified attack on the young charismatic Franklin Pierce. An attempt was made to make Pierce seem anti-Catholic, interestingly. This is because a New Hampshire state constitutional convention had just been held, and Pierce had presided over

it. And in this convention, they had failed to reverse or replace a law that refused Catholics from holding office. So they said, oh, well, you're anti-Catholic. Now, Pierce had actually argued in favour of repealing the law. Yeah, yeah. But it was not voted for, so it didn't go through. To do this. Yeah. So Wicks attempted to use this to prove that Pierce was anti-Catholic.

However, after Fillmore's episode, you can probably understand the problem with this. First of all, Pierce didn't actually seem to be anti-Catholic when you looked into it at all. And secondly, the outgoing Whig president certainly does. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that didn't really work. And also, some Whigs were trying to court the Catholic vote. But that didn't help when your president was using anti-catholic

vocabulary so yeah more more success was had attacking pierce's military record as you could probably imagine and also his drinking problem uh the line he was a hero of many a wow fort bottle was one that stuck i'd love that catchphrase. It's quite good. Make sure you're a winner. However, it wasn't enough to really put a dent in Pearce's popularity. Of course, the main problem was that the Whigs had General Scott running for them and his support collapsed immediately, particularly in the South. Southern Whigs were just not going to go for him and the Whig party starts to split.

It never really recovers. Start saying goodbye to the Whig party. So yeah, there was a general feeling of apathy on the run up to the election. Turnout was the lowest it had been for a couple of decades, and it was a low that would only be beaten in 1920. Yes, a poor turnout. The trouble was that the North-South anti-pro-slavery divide had become bigger than the divide of the parties.

To the general public, Whigs and Dems started to just seem alike. anti-pro-slavery divide had become bigger than the divide of the parties. Yeah. To the general public, Whigs and Dems started to just seem alike. There's not really that much difference between them, so what's the point in going out and voting? On top of this, the collapsing Whig party led to the Democrats and Franklin Pierce simply walking it in. Pierce got 51% of the popular vote. Scott got 44%. So a sizable chunk of a victory there. Yeah. Pierce got 51% of the popular vote. Scott got 44%. So a sizable chunk of a victory there.

But that's not where it counts. The Electoral College is where it counts. And this was a landslide. 254 votes to 42. Oh. All but four states voted for Pierce. Gosh. Yeah.

So Pierce was to be the 14th president. Yeah. Yeah. However, still got a couple of things to do before his term starts. Jane's uncle had just died of a stroke. Yeah. Jane was very close to the uncle and so was young Benjamin. So, understandably upset, they travelled to Boston to go

to his funeral. It was a depressing time for the family. Understandably. Death in the family. So after the funeral, they just want to get back home. Franklin was a depressing time for the family, understandably. Death in the family. So after the funeral, they just want to get back home. Franklin's got to organise becoming president. About 1pm, they board a two-car train from Andover to head back to Concord. Franklin and Jane sat on one seat and Benjamin sat just behind them. Oh no. To get sucked out the window or something. Are you picturing them in their seats? I'm picturing them in their seats.

The train sets off. It picks up some speed. But they'd only been going for a few minutes when a loud clang rang out. And then a louder one. One of the train's axles suddenly fractured sending the carriage they were in tumbling down a

20 foot embankment. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah, the carriage tore apart, and I'll quote, like a broken cigar box. Yeah, so the whole thing just rips apart. When the mayhem, the banging, the dust, and the screaming stopped, Franklin and Jane found themselves very bruised, battered, in pain, but largely unharmed. However, the way the train had crumpled had sheared the back of their son's head off. He died instantly. Franklin was unable to hide this grisly sight from his wife. Holy... Yeah, you're looking quite shocked there.

Bloody hell. Yeah, do you want to add one more to your tally? Oh, I don't... It it's really sad isn't it and gruesome and just oh so that's how we're going to end this episode nice yeah so how how does someone become president literally two months after witnessing their son practically be decapitated guess we're gonna find We're going to find out next week. So there you go. So is that what you're expecting from today?

I don't really know. I don't really have any expectations. I've been told, I get the feeling he's not very good. You know, so my hopes aren't high. But we'll have to see next week or next time. Bit of a more of a rollercoaster journey in his life. Yeah, absolutely. There's laughter, there's tears, there's

horrific gruesome stories. Yeah. There's definitely more going on than the same film was like. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. But yes, like you say, we'll have to see how he does as president. Okay, great. Well, thank you very much for listening.

You can download us on Podbean iTunes and Stitcher no Podbean iTunes and you can please follow us on Facebook and Twitter send us a message talk to us

rate us rank us yeah and next time we'll see how Franklin does or doesn't yeah

okay great all that needs to be said then is goodbye goodbye Goodbye. Goodbye. Charge! Charge! Let's teach those Mexicans what's the good. Oh, they feel very well.

Where is everyone? Pierce? Pierce, over here. General Scott? Yes, hello. Where's all the fighting? Where's everybody gone? The Mexicans have surrendered. The war is over, Pierce. We've won. What? But I really wanted to fight. I look a new sword, new shield. Yes, the shield is interesting.

I'm sorry to say, Piss, I know how keen you were to get some battle experience. I was desperate to kill some enemy. Yes, I know. It's such a shame what happened to the chaps, shall we call them. How are they, by the way? Oh, still a bit sore, sir. Right, and the diarrhea? I'm still leaking a bit, but it's mostly stopped.

Right, OK. Corks are a wonderful invention. Yes, yes. Well, I'm afraid the fighting's over, and, uh... Damn it! Damn it, Walter! Hell! But it's... it's OK. The war's over down here, but we're still fighting in California, Pierce. G-g-g-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G-G- We're still fighting in California, Pierce. California? Oh, yes, yes. No, I hear skirmishes fighting.

Quite a resistance. Guerrilla warfare. It's getting quite nasty, I hear. Real rivers of blood kind of stuff. Oh. Yeah. Well, I'll be happy to go. I thought would say as much.

I've already written the recommendation. You're leaving on the morrow. On the morrow? Oh, okay. Oh! Oh! Ow! Oh! God, man, are you okay? Oh, no. Oh. I don't think I can go.

Oh, dear. What on earth is the problem? I just stubbed my toe on the back of the horse's leg. Oh, a toe stubbing. Don't worry, I've hired a carriage to take you there. By the time you get there, your toe will be completely healed. Oh, good. Uh, a carriage, you say? Oh, yes, a carriage. Oh, oh, travel.

Oh, I get so travel sick. That's why I've got these travel tablets. Don't you worry, I've got your back. Anything for you, Piers. I know how much you want your experience. God. Um, uh, oh, oh, I've just realized something. Yes?

What's the date? August the 27th. Oh, oh, no. What? That's so unfortunate. What's wrong? My horoscope. Oh.

fortunate. What's wrong? My horoscope. Oh. It says in August I shouldn't travel far, especially to the west. Oh, can't travel west. Yes. That's a shame. I mean, of course, from Mexico City where we are, California's

fairly northwest, really, so that's not really a problem. Anyway, off you go. Here's the carriage. Off you go. There's the carriage. Up you go. There's a good chap. What? Oh, sir. Has this carriage got a valid and up-to-date risk assessment?

Oh, yes, of course. I always fill out risk assessments. Intricate? Quintupulence. Blue pen or black? Both. Brilliant. I guess there's no reason for me not to go north-west of California.

I'll just get on this carriage then. There's a good chap. I know you're so excited to go. Anyway, have a brilliant fight. Goodbye. Goodbye, Pierce. Goodbye. Don't worry.

These two men are coming with you to make sure you definitely get there. I'm thinking of your safety. Thank you, Pierce. Goodbye. Don't worry, these two men are coming with you to make sure you definitely get there. I'm thinking of your safety. Thank you, sir. Ah, wonderful. Off he goes. Sir! Sir! The horse, sir, it exploded. And I think I'm feeling a bit faint. I may have lost a leg. Goodbye!