Franklin Pierce was a Democratic congressman, party leader, Mexican-American war hero, and #1 on our list of Top 5 Drunkest Presidents. He was nominated as a compromise candidate in 1852 and, taking office in the wake of a terrible family tragedy, promised not to let slavery re-emerge as a national issue after the sectional crisis of 1850. But when Senator Stephen Douglas came calling with a plan to organize the Kansas-Nebraska territory, Pierce dove headlong into a new sectional crisis and sparked a violent prelude to the coming Civil War. Also: Our list of Top 5 Would Be Presidents looks at some of the most interesting failed presidential candidates and speculates about what might've been had they occupied the White House.
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| National Baby Show – New York Daily Herald (New York, NY) – May 11, 1855 |
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| National Baby Show – New York Daily Herald (New York, NY) – May 26, 1855 |
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National Baby Show – New York Tribune (New York, NY) – June 2, 1855 | | National Baby Show – New York Tribune (New York, NY) – June 12, 1855 |
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| Infant’s Shoes – Buffalo Morning Express (Buffalo, NY) – May 28, 1853 |
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| Toys for the Babies – Rutland Weekly Herald (Rutland, VT) – November 30, 1855 |
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| Edward Wadsworth and his wife Eliza – Hartford Courant (Hartford, CT) – December 17, 1853 |
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| George Hodges and his sleeping partner James Wilson – Belvidere Standard (Belvidere, IL) – August 7, 1855 |
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| John Woodward and his wife/slave Louisa – Evening Star (Washington, DC) – February 11, 1856 |
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| Patrick Hurley and his wife Amanda Jane Hurley – Evening Star (Washington, DC) – January 15, 1856 |
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| Amanda Jane Hurley responds – Evening Star (Washington, DC) – January 18, 1856 |
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| Dr. Locock’s Female Wafers – Bangor Daily Whig and Courier (Bangor, ME) – June 1, 1853 |
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| Reward for Horse Shooter – The Kansas Tribune (Lawrence, KS) – September 17, 1855 |
