JANE MEANS PIERCE | A melancholy letter by a reclusive First Lady

JANE MEANS PIERCE

AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("J M PIERCE") AS FIRST LADY, TO "MY DEAR ANNE," COMMISERATING OVER THEIR SHARED GRIEF

4 pages (6 1/4 x 3 7/8 in.; 158 x 111 mm) on black-edged mourning paper, Washington 23 April 1853.

Jane Pierce wrote this poignant and despondent letter to a close friend for family member shortly after she and her husband took up residence in the White House. In January, Benny, the eleven-year-old son of President-elect and Mrs. Pierce, was killed in a gruesome train accident in New England. Mrs. Pierce, whose two other sons had also died young, maintained that this was God's punishment for her husband's political ambitions.

"Much I am mourning and in great bereavement, on this sad Thursday, my heart is also aching for you in your loss & grief so like to mine. I took up the newspaper in the morning with a sad heart—only to be made more so, by seeing that you were suffering so bitterly. Just fifteen weeks today was 'the desire of our eyes taken as with a stroke,' and now both of these only children, those precious ones, so full of life … are lain in the dust, no more to gladden our earthly vision." Despite her own overwhelming grief, Mrs. Pierce does try to offer some comfort to Anne in her own loss.

By this point, Mrs. Pierce had completely distanced herself from her husband and his presidency and did not even attend his inauguration. She left most of the social duties of the White House to others, including Varina Davis, the wife of War Secretary Jefferson Davis. Mrs. Pierce spent most days sequestered in the upstairs living quarters, writing letters to her dead son. However, after making her first official appearance as First Lady on New Year's Day 1855, she would occasionally act as White House hostess.