Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was the 14th president of the United States, holding office from 1853 until 1857. He appointed Mobile Register editor John Forsyth Jr. as minister to Mexico, a position Forsyth retained under the Pierce's successor James Buchanan, until sometime in 1858. Pierce was not renominated for a second term largely because of his association with the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act that opened those territories to slavery and was unpopular in the North. The Act would further divide the country during the sectional crises and help bring about the American Civil War.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress