Franklin Pierce, one of eight children of Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce, was born in Hillsborough, NH, on November 23, 1804. His father had served in the American Revolution and later became governor of New Hampshire . Pierce studied at Hillsborough Center, Hancock Academy, and Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1824 after rising from bottom to fifth from the top of his class. In 1829, he was elected to the state legislature, two years after his father. won the governorship election. Pierce was then chosen Speaker of the House in 1831. Franklin Pierce was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he voted the Democratic party line on nearly all issues. Life in Washington took its toll on Pierce. The city in 1830 was an unpleasant place. The politicians who served there mostly lived in squalid boarding houses. Bored and homesick, many found solace in alcohol. Drinking soon became a problem for Pierce. In 1834, the congressman married Jane Means Appleton, the daughter of Jesse Appleton, who had been president of Bowdoin College. Franklin and Jane Pierce apparently had little in common. Socially, Jane Pierce was reserved and shy, the opposite of her husband. She disliked Washington and usually refused to live there, even after Pierce became a U.S. senator in 1837. By 1841, Pierce and his wife had had enough of Washington, and he resigned from the Senate, moving his family to the New Hampshire. Returning to Concord in early 1848, Pierce continued his law practice and gave strong support for the Compromise of 1850. In June 1852 the Democratic national nominating convention, unable to choose between Stephen A. Douglas, James Buchanan, Lewis Cass and William Marcy, called Pierce on the 49th ballot. The 1852 presidential election brought Pierce into conflict with his former military commander, General Winfield Scott. Scott divided his party by suggesting he might pass changes to the Fugitive Slave Act. He promised a strong foreign policy and promised to respect states' rights. The freedom with which he promised to do favors and the difficulty he had in saying "no" to admirers brought him votes on election day, but at the cost of problems later, when he realized he had promised more than how much he could keep. At age 48, Pierce, now nicknamed "Young Hickory of the Granite Hills," became president. Jane Pierce was a deeply religious woman, and her beliefs penetrated nearly every aspect of the family's life..