TIFE for Jane Appleton began on a brilliant New Hampshire autumn's day, when, on November 19, 1834, she became the bride of Franklin Pierce. The seventy-two hours prior to the appointed day had proved most trying to her, for her family had done their utmost to stop the wedding. Since she had inherited a deeply ingrained Calvinist conscience, their opposition preyed heavily upon her. Her mother viewed the marriage of her daughter to a jovial backwoodsman as intolerable. Since the death of her husband, Jesse Appleton, formerly president of Bowdoin College, Elizabeth Means Appleton had changed from a strict, God-fearing woman with a mild sense of humor into a martinet cast in iron. Genteel poverty had instilled into her an acute attachment to this world's goods, while her Beacon Hill relatives had given her a keen sense of her social position. She tolerated her daughter's engagement only by convincing herself that it would never lead to the altar. Charming, self-assured, unpolished Frank Pierce, whose only fear was not to be liked, never appealed to his imperious mother-in-law. Mrts. Appleton might have relented in her antagonism, had she not been sustained by her Lawrence and Mason relations. Frank's impulsive manners mattered little to these stalwart champions of aristocracy when they considered his political affiliations. For many years the politically conservative and often theologically liberal Federalists had reigned supreme in New Hampshire. Jane's uncle, Jeremiah Mason, headed them. By 1834, however, the Democrats, radical in political theory and bigoted in matters of religion, had wrested the state from Federalist clutches. Like most of the frontier stock, the Pierces had long supported the Democratic platform, and, to make matters worse, Franklin Pierce represented his party in Congress. In spite of her family pressure Jane clung quietly to Frank,