the national administration. It is attributable to his sagacity and
energy, that New Hampshire--then under a federal governor--was saved the
disgrace of participation in the questionable, if not treasonable,
projects of the Hartford Convention. He identified himself with the
cause of the country, and was doubtless as thoroughly alive with
patriotic zeal, at this eventful period, as in the old days of Bunker
Hill, and Saratoga, and Yorktown. The general not only took a prominent
part at all public meetings, but was ever ready for the informal
discussion of political affairs at all places of casual resort, where--in
accordance with the custom of the time and country--the minds of men were
made to operate effectually upon each other. Franklin Pierce was a
frequent auditor of these controversies. The intentness with which he
watched the old general, and listened to his arguments, is still
remembered; and, at this day, in his most earnest moods, there are
gesticulations and movements that bring up the image of his father to
those who recollect the latter on those occasions of the display of
homely, native eloquence. No mode of education could be conceived,
better adapted to imbue a youth with the principles and sentiment of
democratic institutions; it brought him into the most familiar contact
with the popular mind, and made his own mind a part of it.

Franklin's father had felt, through life, the disadvantages of a
defective education; although, in his peculiar sphere of action, it might
be doubted whether he did not gain more than he lost, by being thrown on
his own resources, and compelled to study men and their actual affairs,
rather than books. But he determined to afford his son all the
opportunities of improvement which he himself had lacked. Franklin,
accordingly, was early sent to the academy at Hancock, and afterwards
to that of Francestown, where he was received into the family of
General Pierce's old and steadfast friend, Peter Woodbury, father of