In good condition. Cloth boards exhibit light scuffing to edges. Corners are bumped. Head and tail of spine collapsed. Gilt lettering and illustration on spine bright and clean. Water dampness stain found on rear board. Previous ownership signature on front pastedown and back of frontispiece: Mary E. Callahan. Front/rear end-pages missing. Foxing throughout text-block. Front gutter split. No known marginalia. Rear paste-down is chipped. Binding intact. Please see photos. 

Franklin Pierce (1804-1869) was the 14th President of the United States, serving from 1853 to 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. Conflict between North and South continued after Pierce's presidency, and, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern states seceded, resulting in the Civil War. Pierce took part in the Mexican-American war as a brigadier general in the US Army. Democrats saw him as a compromise candidate uniting Northern and Southern interests, and nominated him for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. 

COLU1852AFHB

HK411