VOA慢速英语--Franklin Pierce: Ineffective

 

VOA Learning English presents America’s Presidents.

Today we are talking about Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States. He took office in 1853 at age 48. At that time, he was the youngest person elected to the White House.

Pierce was known for being social – and for his good looks. But his personal life was full of tragedy, and he was not an effective chief executive.

Over time, he has come to be remembered as one of the country’s worst presidents.

Early life

Franklin Pierce was born in the northern state of New Hampshire. He was one of eight children.

He attended school regularly as a child, and he went on to Bowdoin College in Maine. There, he developed his skills as an excellent public speaker. He also became an able lawyer.

Pierce’s abilities carried him far. But his personal connections helped, too.

His father became the governor of New Hampshire. Shortly after, Pierce was elected to the state legislature. He soon became a member of the U.S. Congress – first as a member of the House of Representatives, and then as a senator.

Several important things happened in Pierce’s personal life during those years in Washington, DC. He married Jane Means Appleton. They soon had a son, but the child died after only three days. The couple went on to have two more boys.

In Washington, Franklin Pierce also developed friendships with many people from the South. They defended the right of states to permit slavery. Although he was from the North, Pierce came to share the opinions of his Southern friends. He grew to dislike anti-slavery activists¹, who were known as abolitionists.

As a politician, Pierce was a member of the Democratic Party and strongly supported the ideas of President Andrew Jackson. But politics did not appeal to his wife. She also did not like her husband’s habit of drinking alcohol with his friends. Jane Pierce belonged to the temperance movement, which urged Americans to avoid the use of alcoholic² drinks.

So Pierce resigned his job in the Senate and moved back to New Hampshire.

There, he stopped drinking alcohol and earned fame as a lawyer and public speaker. But tragedy struck again: his second son became sick and died. ?

Fainting Frank

Pierce remained active in politics in New Hampshire. He helped the Democratic candidate for president at the time, James K. Polk, win votes in the state.

When Polk entered the White House, he gave Pierce a position as a general in the Mexican-American War.

Pierce did not earn the respect of his troops. In one battle, he passed out after he fell off his horse and crushed his leg. Some of his men, seeing what happened, fled the battlefield. Others called him “Fainting Frank.”

Although Pierce had his critics, he returned to New Hampshire as a leader in the state’s Democratic Party. Yet no one expected him to become president of the United States.

Pierce’s nomination³ came during the Democratic national convention in 1852. Party leaders could not agree on a candidate. They were split among the three top choices.

So the party turned to Pierce. They liked the fact that he was not well known or had taken any strong positions as a lawmaker. As a result, fewer people could object to him, they reasoned.

Pierce did very little during the election campaign. He did not need to. Many voters, especially in the South, did not like his opponent.

When the election was held, Pierce won easily.

But before he took office, another terrible thing happened. Franklin and Jane Pierce were traveling by train with their youngest son Benjamin, who was 11-years-old. The train went off the rails. Bennie was killed instantly in front of his parents.

Neither Franklin nor Jane Pierce ever really recovered. Jane believed their son’s death was a punishment from God for her husband becoming president.

Presidency⁴

As president, Pierce faced an extremely difficult situation. The country’s ongoing⁵ dispute about whether and where to permit slavery was becoming more intense. Under Pierce, the dispute centered on the areas of Kansas and Nebraska.

At the time, both areas were considered territories, not states. And each territory was above the line of the Missouri Compromise of 1820. That act, approved by lawmakers nearly 35 years before Pierce took office, banned slavery in northern areas, including what would become Kansas and Nebraska.

But pro-slavery settlers demanded that Kansas and Nebraska voters – a group comprised of white men – decide the issue for themselves. A majority of U.S. lawmakers agreed.

Under pressure, President Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854.

The measure was one of the most important in U.S. history. It overturned the Missouri Compromise and cancelled the ban on slavery. It incited⁶ years of intense of violence between pro-slavery and anti-slavery activists. And it pushed a divided nation even further apart.

The troubles also showed Pierce to be an ineffective president. He could not ease the tensions over slavery, nor unite the country behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

And he delayed using his power to stop the violence in Kansas until it was far too late.

Finally, his sympathy for pro-slavery groups angered many in the North, including people in his own party.

The Democrats⁷ did not nominate him again at the next election.

Legacy⁸

After four years as president, Pierce returned to New Hampshire. He rarely socialized and began drinking alcohol again.

After his wife died in 1863, Pierce seemed to disappear from public life. Americans heard little about him until his death in 1869.

But he lived to see the ultimate tragedy of the Civil War that he – like other presidents before him – had failed to prevent.

Words in This Story

regularly - adv. on a regular basis

habit - n. something that a person does often in a regular and repeated way

pass out - phrasal verb. to become unconscious? or fall asleep

faint - v. to suddenly become unconscious?

instantly - adv. immediately

ultimate - adj. greatest or most extreme

1 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

3 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

6 incited   

刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He incited people to rise up against the government. 他煽动人们起来反对政府。
• The captain's example incited the men to bravery. 船长的榜样激发了水手们的勇敢精神。

7 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。