{"id":36144,"date":"2024-09-13T22:14:53","date_gmt":"2024-09-14T05:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36144"},"modified":"2024-09-13T22:14:54","modified_gmt":"2024-09-14T05:14:54","slug":"franklin-pierce-discovers-the-body-of-nathaniel-hawthorne-in-new-hampshire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/09\/13\/franklin-pierce-discovers-the-body-of-nathaniel-hawthorne-in-new-hampshire\/","title":{"rendered":"FRANKLIN PIERCE DISCOVERS THE BODY OF NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE IN NEW HAMPSHIRE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

(newenglandhistoricalsociety.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The novelist stuck with the reviled ex-president to the end<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 1852,\u00a0Nathaniel Hawthorne<\/a>\u00a0did the unthinkable: He wrote a campaign biography for presidential candidate\u00a0Franklin Pierce<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics thought such hackwork beneath Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was, after all, the  acclaimed author of The Scarlet Letter <\/em>and The House of the Seven Gables<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathaniel Hawthorne didn\u2019t care. He had befriended Pierce during their student days in the 1820s at Bowdoin College<\/a>, and he would be loyal to him until the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierce ran for president of the United States as a Northerner sympathetic to the South. As president, he appointed Nathaniel Hawthorne as the U.S. consul in Liverpool, a plum job that paid him well to do little so he could continue his writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathaniel Hawthorne Stands By His Man<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Four years later, Pierce left office as one of the most reviled ex-presidents in history. He had tried to unify the North and South, but drove them further apart. Most of his friends, neighbors and political allies abandoned him, though Hawthorne never did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While serving as consul in England, Hawthorne had traveled the countryside. He wrote a series of sketches called Our Old Home<\/em>. Back home on July 2, 1863, he wrote the book\u2019s dedication to Franklin Pierce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It read, in part,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u2026it rests among my certainties that no man\u2019s loyalty is more steadfast, no man\u2019s hopes or apprehensions on behalf of our national existence more deeply heartfelt, or more closely intertwined with his possibilities of personal happiness, than those of FRANKLIN PIERCE.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

His publisher, James T. Fields<\/a>, begged him to leave it out. Nathaniel Hawthorne replied,  \u201cif he is so exceedingly unpopular that his name is enough to sink the volume, there is so much the more need that an old friend should stand by him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawthorne\u2019s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/a> ripped out the dedication before putting the book on his library shelf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White Mountains<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Months later, Pierce\u2019s wife Jane<\/a> died. Nathaniel Hawthorne stood by the side of the lonely, grieving ex-president as she was laid to rest.  Pierce noticed Hawthorne seemed in ill health and adjusted his collar to keep him warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spring of 1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne decided a trip to the\u00a0White Mountains<\/a>\u00a0in New Hampshire would be good for his health. Pierce agreed to go with him. Hawthorne\u2019s wife\u00a0Sophia<\/a>\u00a0told the ex-president he needed help getting in and out of carriages because of his weak eyesight and uncertain steps.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin Pierce by Matthew Brady<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two friends left Boston together and traveled to Pierce\u2019s home in Concord, N.H. They went to Dixville Notch once the weather was good enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 18, 1864, they returned through Plymouth. They turned in at the Pemigewasset Hotel, on the site of what is now the Plymouth Regional Senior Center and the Gadd block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nathaniel Hawthorne took a nap, ate a bit of food and drank a cup of tea before going to bed. Pierce, in a letter four years later, described what happened next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Death of Hawthorne<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPassing from his room to my own, leaving the door open and so placing the lamp that its direct rays would not fall upon him and yet enable me to see distinctly from my bed, I betook myself to rest too, a little after ten o\u2019clock,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut I awoke before twelve, and noticed that he was lying in a perfectly natural position, like a child, with his right hand under his cheek. That noble brow and face struck me as more grand serenely calm then than ever before. With new hope that such undisturbed repose might bring back fresh vigor, I fell asleep again; but he was so very restless the night previous that I was surprised and startled when I noticed, at three o\u2019clock, that his position was identically the same as when I observed him between eleven and twelve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHastening softly to his bedside, I could not perceive that he breathed, although no change had come over his features. I seized his wrist, but found no pulse; ran my hands down upon his bare side, but the great, generous, brave heart beat no more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The body of Nathaniel Hawthorne was returned to Concord, Mass., where he was laid to rest. His pallbearers included Louisa May Alcott<\/a>, Ralph Waldo Emerson<\/a>, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/a>, John Greenleaf Whittier and Louis Agassiz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin Pierce was not among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With thanks to Dead Presidents<\/a>. You can read more about Hawthorne\u2019s milieu in Concord \u2014 their lives, their loves and their work \u2014 in American Bloomsbury<\/a> by Susan Cheever. This story about Nathaniel Hawthorne and Franklin Pierce was updated in 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(newenglandhistoricalsociety.com) The novelist stuck with the reviled ex-president to the end In 1852,\u00a0Nathaniel Hawthorne\u00a0did the unthinkable: He wrote a campaign biography for presidential candidate\u00a0Franklin Pierce. Critics thought such hackwork beneath Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was, after all, the  acclaimed author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Nathaniel Hawthorne didn\u2019t… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36145,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36144\/revisions\/36145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}