Sometimes we need a history lesson. Sadly, our schools do not give us the real history of our nation, the personalities that shaped it and the values of one generation to another.
To understand today, we need to understand the past. This article discusses how similar Joe Biden is to the little remembered or known President Franklin Pierce. It is earie to see the commonalities.
“Franklin Pierce, the only president from New Hampshire, was a hard-working and decent man. Pierce had a troubled life. While Pierce had a luxurious childhood he had a difficult adulthood. All of Pierce’s children died. Two of his sons died in infancy while the third son was decapitated in a train derailment accident when he was eleven. Throwback Thursday: President Franklin Pierce’s Train Wreck (bostonmagazine.com) Pierce’s Vice President William R. King died of tuberculosis shortly into Pierce’s presidency. Pierce served out most of his presidency without a vice president. William Rufus de Vane King | Biography, Diplomat, Vice President, & Facts | Britannica In spite of Pierce’s political and personal troubles, he did not give up. He governed to the best of his ability. “
A Divided Country: Similarities between Pierce and Biden
Edward Kennerly, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views, 8/24/24 capoliticalnewsandviews.com
A president should strive towards strengthening America overseas and preventing divisions within the country. However, some presidents have done things that have weakened America’s reputation overseas and have inflamed political division in the country. Franklin Pierce increased sectional division within the United States leading to the Civil War while Biden went after his political opponents.
Biden has weaponized the FBI, the Justice Department, and the federal government against his political opponents. In the four short years Biden has been in office his administration has targeted his political opponents and weakened America’s standing overseas. The Biden administration has weaponized the justice department to go after Republicans who entered the capital on January 6, 2021. Most of the Republicans who entered the capital were guilty of only trespassing and obstructing a governmental proceeding yet many of them were charged with more severe crimes such as seditious conspiracy, obstructing law enforcement, and assaults on federal officers. Joe Biden’s Growing List of Failures | Opinion – Newsweek
The Biden administration used the Justice Department to indict former president Donald Trump for keeping classified documents after leaving the White House in Mara largo. However, Most presidents in the past thirty years have also taken papers with them after leaving the White House. Trump was also indicted by the U.S. district court for knowingly spreading lies that there was fraud in the 2020 election and that he actually won. Trump’s 4 indictments in detail: A quick-look guide to charges, trial dates and key players for each case – CBS News
Biden also implemented the Ministry of Truth to go after disinformation. The Ministry of truth was run by the Leader of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Nina Jankowicz. Both of these people are partisan leftists who believed that the Hunter Biden laptop scandal was political propaganda from the Trump campaign. More than 50 former intelligence officials said emails alleged to have been found on the laptop had signs of Russian disinformation. Mayorkas spread lies that the laptop scandal was disinformation to help Biden get elected. Mayorkas also publicly believes that there is no border crisis. Thankfully this agency has been dismantled. The Ministry of Truth is an Orwellian idea. Joe Biden’s ‘Ministry of Truth’ (thehill.com)
In regards to his foreign policy, Biden has weakened America’s reputation overseas. Biden ordered the complete withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan in 2021 leaving several American citizens dead, our soldiers dead, and billions of dollars worth of military equipment in the hands of the Taliban.
Since dropping out of the 2024 presidential election Biden announced that he was going to reform the Supreme Court. He suggested that he wanted to implement eighteen-year term limits for Justices and that presidents could appoint a new justice every two years. Additionally, he would support a binding code of conduct for the Supreme Court. These ethics rule would require that Justices disclose gifts and not be involved with public political activities. FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces Bold Plan to Reform the Supreme Court and Ensure No President Is Above the Law | The White House In response to these proposed reforms, Justice Gorsuch warned Biden to “be careful.” Gorsuch knows the dangers that future presidents may pose on the Supreme Court by radically changing the Supreme Court. Justice Neil Gorsuch warns Biden about Supreme Court reform: ‘Be careful’ (msn.com)
The political division culminated in the near assignation of President Trump on July 13, 2024. Trump, speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, was shot in the ear by Thomas Matthew Crooks. The Secret Service appeared to have seen the shooter before the incident but did not fire until after Crooks got off a few shots near the president. Liberal news networks such as CNN were video-tapping Trump speak at the start of the rally, something they do not usually do. Additionally, Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle had no good answer as to why the Secret Service had no one stationed on the roof where the shooter was nor why they did not kill the shooter before he got a shot off. If Trump had been killed that day the political division would have been much worse.
Politics is a stressful and sometimes dangerous job. Many presidents have had personal and political tragedies that have made their presidencies difficult. Some presidents have come near to being assassinated. Both Reagan and Trump were shot and almost killed while Lincoln lost his son to tuberculosis and had to deal with a nation at war. Other presidents such as Franklin Pierce have had personal and political tragedies that made their jobs difficult. However, these men all expressed real courage in the face of personal and political backlash.
Franklin Pierce, the only president from New Hampshire, was a hard-working and decent man. Pierce had a troubled life. While Pierce had a luxurious childhood he had a difficult adulthood. All of Pierce’s children died. Two of his sons died in infancy while the third son was decapitated in a train derailment accident when he was eleven. Throwback Thursday: President Franklin Pierce’s Train Wreck (bostonmagazine.com) Pierce’s Vice President William R. King died of tuberculosis shortly into Pierce’s presidency. Pierce served out most of his presidency without a vice president. William Rufus de Vane King | Biography, Diplomat, Vice President, & Facts | Britannica In spite of Pierce’s political and personal troubles, he did not give up. He governed to the best of his ability.
Biden, like Pierce, faced many troubles in his adult life. As a young U.S. senator, his first wife Neilia Biden, and 13-month-old daughter Amy died in a car crash. Later, when he was vice president, his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer. These events profoundly affected his personal and political life.
Franklin Pierce served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1829 to 1833, was member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire’s at-large district from 1833 to 1837, a United States Senator from New Hampshire from 1837 to 1842, and was a solider during the Mexican American War before being elected president.
In 1852 Pierce became the youngest elected president, at the time, at the age of 47. Due to losing their eleven-year son his wife, Jane Pierce, did not have an inaugural ball. Mrs. Pierce did not host many parties at the White House. She constantly wore black and avoided people. The death of their son left a dark shadow over Mrs. Pierce. She was no longer an optimistic person.
Pierce came into office having to deal with a divided nation. Sectional differences were rising. The country wanted to know whether the new territories such as Kansas and Nebraska would come in as free states or slave states. Pierce, a moderate Democrat, believed in popular sovereignty. He believed that citizens should determine whether their state wanted to come in as free or slave. Using this mindset Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act into law which allowed the people of those territories to determine whether Kansas and Nebraska were free or slave states. Anti-slavery Northerners and pro-slavery Southerners flooded into Kansas resulting in a mini civil war. Between 1855 and 1859 roughly 55 people were killed in Kansas. This became known as Bleeding Kansas. Kansas‑Nebraska Act ‑ Definition, Date & Significance | HISTORY
Additionally, Pierce supported the Fugitive Slave Act. The Fugitive Slave Act stated that free states must work towards ensuring that escaped slaves were returned to their masters. The fugitive slave act required the return of escaped slaves to their owners, even in states where slavery was illegal. The Dred Scott Case helped lead to the Civil War because the Supreme Court ruled that slaves were always property and could never gain their freedom. Fugitive Slave Acts ‑ Definition, 1793 & 1850 | HISTORY
Due to Bloody Kansas and the fugitive slave act Pierce was not able to earn the nomination of the Democratic party in 1856. Biden, like Pierce, lost support from the Democratic party and was pressured into dropping out of the 2024 presidential race.
Overall Pierce and Biden faced many personal tragedies that significantly impacted their personal lives and they both had to deal with a divided nation in which they made more divided by the end of their presidencies.
Edward Kennelly is a graduate student at the University of Memphis. He has written several articles in various newsletters throughout the years such as The American Thinker, Thinking Conservative, and the California News and Political Views. He has worked in politics for many years helping to elect Republicans across the country.
