Franklin Pierce’s final resting place comes across as kind of a casual afterthought. It’s still more inspiring than his presidency.
| President | Franklin Pierce |
| Location | Concord, NH |
| Operated By | Concord Parks & Recreation Department |
| When Visited | July 6, 2017 |
| Who With | My friend, Sara |
| Presidential Significance | Franklin Pierce is buried here. |
| Pre-Visit Reading | Several Presidential ranking lists where Pierce does not fare well. |
It was late by time my friend Sara and I checked into our hotel in Concord, NH. That day, we had flown from our home in Florida to Boston, then visited Salem, MA, and Portland, ME, before ending up in Concord.
Since it was so late, there was only one person working the front desk at our hotel, and they were not at the desk when we walked in. We waited a few minutes, made some noise. Nothing. I think I may have even knocked on the door to the back office area.
Eventually, we were greeted by what had to be jolliest man to ever work the late shift at a Courtyard by Marriott. His eyes – how they twinkled! His dimples – how merry! His cheeks were like rose, his nose like a cherry! He had a broad face, and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly!
OK, it was Santa Claus. It had to be. There was no doubt in my mind that this was the guy, and he was apparently just using the off-months to keep tabs on the naughty and nice of New Hampshire. Just look at this actual photo I took of him during check-in:
If this guy was not the actual Santa Claus, he was a very convincing imposter.
Santa apologized for not being at the desk when we got there and proceeded to chat with us as he got us our room keys. After some friendly small talk where he seemed genuinely delighted to be meet us, he inquired about the purpose of our trip.
“So, what brings you to Concord?” he asked, smiling broadly. His warm expression revealed that he was brimming with love for his town and proud to welcome visitors.
“Well,” I said, “we’re really just passing through, but I’m a Presidential history buff, so I wanted to come visit Franklin Pierce’s grave.”
“Oh,” replied a deflated Santa, his countenance visibly deteriorating before our eyes. His pride instantly vanished. While he was nice enough to answer my questions on whether or not I should walk or drive to the cemetery the next morning (answer: it’s close enough to walk, but the route is not pedestrian-friendly the whole way, so I should drive), he was no longer the holly-jolly elf I had encountered a few minutes earlier. But what could I expect once I injected Franklin Pierce into the conversation?
Folks, Franklin Pierce was not a good President.
With our current divisive political environment, if you ask people who the worst President is, they’re likely to name one of our last couple leaders. As much as I am not a fan of the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, I do believe that things need time to settle before you can truly evaluate a President in comparison to other administrations. History is the best judge of a President’s legacy – and history says that Franklin Pierce sucked.
“But,” you might ask, “what was so horrible about Franklin Pierce? I mean, he’s pretty handsome as far as Presidents go.” And you would make an excellent point. Pierce was an attractive man, with a kind of a President-Grant-from-Scandal vibe working for him (Fitz, not Mellie). But, unlike being a TV POTUS, real-life presidenting takes more than just leading-man good looks.
So why was he so terrible? He was kind of an alcoholic loser, with a largely forgettable Presidency…except for the part where he unabashedly fanned the flames that turned into the conflagration that was the Civil War.
Pierce was all about expanding the size of the US, and with that, slavery. His Presidency, in the mid 1850s, came at a precarious time where tensions were high and any disruption to the delicate balance between pro- and anti-slavery forces could have fatal consequences. So when Senator Stephen A. Douglas decided he found the Missouri Compromise (and its provisions limiting the expansion of slavery) inconvenient, and thus sought to repeal it with the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Franklin Pierce was all “deal me in.” What could go wrong? (Pro tip: Google “Bleeding Kansas” for the answer.)
Besides that, there were some poorly-thought-out shenanigans where he tried to annex Cuba and supported a joke of a dictatorship in Nicaragua. When it was time for a second term, he like “let’s do this!”, but his own party was like “hard pass.” He filled his post-presidency years with such fun and fulfilling hobbies as drinking, talking smack about President Lincoln, drinking, and dying of cirrhosis of the liver. This last activity resulted in his1869 interment in Old North Cemetery, where I would encounter him 148 years later.
The morning of our visit, my friend and I drove the short distance from our hotel to the cemetery. Since there didn’t appear to be a parking lot, we parked in front of a building across the street housing a local radio station. There was a road to drive through the cemetery, but it was so small that it hardly seemed necessary.
I’ve been to a lot of Presidential burial sites, and I would have to say Pierce’s is the most “meh.” Typically, if a former POTUS is buried in a cemetery, it’s a large, impressive, historic cemetery. This one…hmmm. I mean, it was founded in 1730, so it is old. There’s that. But it’s really just a small-ish, flat plot of land with grass and a few trees, with no visible separation from adjacent homes and businesses. It’s kind of like a city park that meets the bare requirements for “green space,” but instead of some obligatory playground equipment, there are tombstones.
Fortunately, I had done some homework ahead of time and knew Pierce’s grave was in a small enclosure towards the back. Aside from the historic marker along the road, signage regarding Pierce was half-hearted at best (as evidenced by the the zip-tied printout featured at the top of this post).
When we got to Pierce’s grave, there were some men doing yard work in front of it. They paused so I could pay my respects (?) to Pierce. Pierce at least had a decent size marker for him and his family, with some flowers planted around it. My dear friend Sara reprised the role she has performed for me many times, that of a photographer conducting a mini-session for me while I pose in front of something Presidentially significant.
Following that, we took off for the rest of the day’s adventures. Pierce’s home was actually near the cemetery, but I’m not disappointed we didn’t visit it as we had a full schedule of other plans. And, I mean, it’s Pierce. Maybe I’ll go next time I find myself in Concord, New Hampshire.
Interestingly enough, Old North Cemetery would be the first of three cemeteries I’d visit that day. Later, after venturing into Vermont, we would visit Calvin Coolidge’s grave in the Plymouth Notch Cemetery (read my post on that here), followed by the iconic Flavor Graveyard at the Ben and Jerry’s Factory Tour & Ice Cream Shop in Waterbury.
Finally, I would be remiss if I ended this post without mentioning the other notable President from New Hampshire. That’s right, in a ranking of all Presidents that hail from the Granite State, Pierce comes in a distant second to the Honorable Josiah “Jed” Bartlet. That’s even after you factor in that Franklin Pierce was a real President and Bartlet is fictional.
Seriously, the West Wing is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. It’s on Netflix. Watch it.
