Description:

Franklin Pierce AL Re: Slavery "resolutions introduced me by Genl. [Jefferson] Davis", Superb!

Franklin Pierce (1804-1869). Autograph Letter, 4pp, on one sheet of bifold stationery, 5.25" x 8.125", Nassau, New Providence, March 17, 1860. Unsigned. Flattened folds with separation. Curling and chipping at edges. Paper clip impression at top left. Very light discoloration. In very good condition.

This partial letter's recipient is Sidney Webster (1828-1910). When Pierce assumed the presidency in 1853, he selected Webster as his private secretary, and the two men remained friends until Pierce's death in 1869. Pierce begins by acknowledging Webster's most recent letter and encouraging Webster to finalize his career plans, "It would rejoice my heart to know that your plans are settled. The natural turn of your mind is perhaps to scan somewhat too critically...a career left to chance to the wind & waves of fortune is ordinarily no career at all."

Pierce then moves on to discuss party politics: "If Mr. D[ouglas] can carry three or four of the Southern States at Charleston he will be nominated and the South it seems to me will not, with Mr. S[eward] or some man representing substantially his views in the field, divide after the nomination. I have read with much care the resolutions introduced me by Genl. [Jefferson] Davis passed in caucus by the democratic members of the Senate...they were evidently the result of much consideration and care...and I think are sound throughout...I suppose the vote for all of them except the fourth will be unanimous - as I have often said to you before, I do not believe the rights declared in that resolution can ever be of practical importance. Still they are constitutional rights..."

Just one month prior to the date of this letter, Jefferson Davis presented a series of resolutions defining the relationship between the states under the constitution, including the assertion that Americans had a constitutional right to bring slaves into territories. These resolutions were seen as setting the agenda for the Democratic Party nomination, ensuring that Stephen Douglas (1813-1861) would be excluded from the party platform. Douglas articulated the Freeport Doctrine, which held that territories could effectively exclude slavery despite the Supreme Court's ruling in the 1857 case of Dred Scott v. Sandford. 

As the Democratic Convention of 1860 approached, some asked Pierce to run as a compromise candidate that could unite the fractured party, but Pierce refused. Douglas struggled to attract southern support, and Pierce backed Caleb Cushing (1800-1879), then John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875), as potential alternatives, but his priority was a united Democratic Party.

Franklin Pierce served as the 14th President of the United States from 1853-1857. A northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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