A brave sol-dier in the War of the Rev-o-lu-tion was Ben-ja-min Pierce,
the fa-ther of the boy who was to be our four-teenth pres-i-dent; and
it was in the old town of Hills-bor-ough, New Hamp-shire, that, on
No-vem-ber 22d, 1804, Frank-lin Pierce was born. The fa-ther was a big
strong man, fond of sports and fun of all kinds and much liked by all;
he was the chief man in Hills-bor-ough, and was at one time gov-ern-or
of his state. In such a home it is not hard to see that the life of
lit-tle Frank-lin would be full of work and play as well. He was sent to
good schools, and was just six-teen when he went to Bow-do-in Col-lege.
He was full of fun, and at once took the lead in the col-lege life; but
he worked hard at his books too; in 1824 he left col-lege, and took up
the stud-y of law, and soon be-came one of the bar. He was now at his
old home in Hills-bor-ough, and folks felt that he was a man of brains
and great force; he was sent to Con-gress, and held high of-fice in his
state while he was still a young man; and in the Mex-i-can War he showed
him-self as brave a man as his fa-ther had been. At last, in 1853, he
was made pres-i-dent. At this time, the strife as to the slave trade
was at its height; some states wished to have slaves, while some held
it wrong. At last Con-gress made a law that all new states should do
as they pleased. The first "World's Fair" was held in New York, just
at this time, in a great hall made of glass, which was known as "The
Crys-tal Pal-ace."
Pierce was in of-fice one term; at the end of that time he went back
home to Con-cord, Mas-sa-chu-setts, where he lived a qui-et life un-til
his death, on Oc-to-ber 8th, 1867.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN PIERCE.]
[Illustration: JAMES BUCHANAN.]