“ Although Pierce during his term in the Senate had severely criticized the Whigs for their removals of Democrats from office, he himself now adopted the policy of replacing Whigs by Democrats, and the country acquiesced. Pierce had no scruples against slavery, and opposed anti-slavery agitation as tending to disrupt the Union. The conduct of foreign relations was on the whole the most creditable part of his administration. The Koszta Affair (1853) gave the government an opportunity vigorously to assert the protection it would afford those in the process of becoming its naturalized citizens. ”

“ Although both parties had declared the Compromise of 1850 a finality, the Democrats alone were thoroughly united in support of this declaration, and therefore seemed to offer the greater prospect of peace. This fact, combined with the colourless record of their candidate, enabled them to sweep the country at the November election. Pierce received 254 electoral votes, and General Winfield Scott, his Whig opponent, only 42. The Democrats carried every state except Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee. No president since James Monroe had received such a vote. ”

“ At the battle of Contreras, on the 19th of August 1847, he was thrown from his horse and received severe injuries. At the end of the war he resigned his commission and returned to Concord. In 1850 Pierce became president of a convention assembled at Concord to revise the constitution of his state, and used his influence to secure the removal of those provisions of the constitution of 1792 which declared that only Protestants should be eligible for higher state offices. ”