[PW] ? Quotations from Bowdoin Alumni (Quotation Query #650)

[T. F. Mills]

On 21 Apr 2008 at 9:34, AllenAmet at aol.com wrote:

> Pierce,  Franklin:
> "I never justify, sustain, or in any way or to any extent  uphold this cruel, 
> heartless, aimless unnecessary war." Letter to Jane Pierce  3 March 1860
> ------------
>  just curious -- what war was that, in 1860?

The date appears to be incorrect.  I am pretty sure it should be 3 March 1863 (mid-US Civil 
War), and should begin "I WILL never justify...."

Pierce entered the presidency in 1853 with compromise and peace in the ascendant, but by 
the time his term ended in 1857 he had made civil war almost inevitable.  The Kansas-
Nebraska Act, to which Pierce assented in secret negotiations, provoked both the Border 
War, better known to us as "Bleeding Kansas" (over which Pierce ineffectively presided by 
supporting an illegitimate pro-slavery territorial government), and the creation of the 
Republican Party which brought Abe Lincoln into the presidency in 1860.  The Border war 
cost Pierce the Democratic nomination in 1856.  (He remains the only sitting president not re-
nominated by his own party.)  Violence ended in 1859, but it was a prelude to the US Civil 
War.  By 1863 Pierce had a lot of excuses to make for his troubled conscience, if anybody 
was still listening, but he apparently refused to see his role in povoking both the Border War 
and the Civil War.  The recipient of his letter was his wife, who was never happy with his 
political life.  She was the daughter of a Bowdoin president.


T.F. Mills                            (Colorado, USA)
temporary email:         phasco at earthlink.net
(pending resurrection of regiments.org mail)