An original postal cover hand-addressed and free-franked by Franklin Pierce. The envelope bears a clear “Washington City” circular date stamp (March 30) and is addressed in Pierce’s hand to Silas Foster in Florence, Louisa County, Iowa Territory. The cover measures approximately 3 by 4 inches. It is presented in a tasteful display alongside a period engraving of Pierce, housed in a frame measuring approximately 12.5 by 15.5 inches overall.
This item was almost certainly mailed prior to Pierce’s presidency, likely during his tenure as a U.S. Senator from New Hampshire (1837–1842), when members of Congress were permitted to send mail without postage using a handwritten “Free” marking. The Iowa Territory designation further supports an early 1840s date.
Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Conflict between North and South continued after Pierce's presidency, and, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern states seceded, resulting in the American Civil War.
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