Description:

Pierce Franklin 1804 - 1869

President Franklin Pierce grants executive pardon during last year of administration.

1pp partially printed and partially handwritten document signed by 14th U.S. President Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) as "Franklin Pierce" at center of pale blue paper. Signature is large and artistically delineated, intersecting with an asymmetrical looping flourish found above. The signature alone measures 4.25" x .75". In very good to near fine condition, with expected horizontal folds and a minor lower right corner fold. A few bleached and lightly foxed spots do not affect the bold and oversized signature. Page measures 7.375" x 8.25".

Franklin Pierce signed this executive pardon on September 12, 1856, during the last six months of his one-term administration. He had lost the Democratic Party's nomination for reelection three months earlier, in June 1856.

"I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of State to affix the Seal of the United States to the pardon granted to George A. Watson ... dated this day and signed by me and for so doing this shall be his warrant".

Presidential pardons are granted, in full or conditionally, to defendants convicted of crimes committed against the United States. Political scientist and Northern Illinois University professor P.S. Ruckman, Jr. analyzed the history of presidential pardons in his 1995 article "Federal Executive Clemency in United States, 1789-1995: A Preliminary Report". Franklin Pierce granted a total of 142 presidential pardons during his administration, fewer than his predecessor, 13th U.S. President Milliard Fillmore (1800-1874) at 170, and slightly fewer than his successor 15th U.S. President James Buchanan (1791-1868) at 152. George A. Watson was one of the 34 individuals pardoned by Pierce in 1856. Watson's exact charge is unknown; however, we can speculate about what it might have been by looking at a cross-section of Pierce pardons. Pierce pardoned individuals found guilty of misconduct on the high seas, counterfeiting, impersonating soldiers, and other federal offenses between 1853 and 1856.

Franklin friend and cabinet member William L. Marcy (1786-1857) served as Secretary of State between 1853 and March 1857. Marcy died less than a year after "affix[ing] the Seal of the United States" to Pierce's pardon of George A. Watson.

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