Around this time of year, with the holidays and special days swirling about us, our thoughts inevitably turn to just one thing: How can we best celebrate Franklin Pierce’s birthday this year?

For those of you who may not be from around these parts, allow me to remind you that Franklin Pierce was the nation’s 14th President and the only President to come from the state of New Hampshire. He was a mere 47 when he won election in 1852, becoming the youngest man to that time ever to serve in the White House. His birthday falls on November 23rd, meaning there is always a potential conflict over whether to celebrate his anniversary or Thanksgiving, This year he was honored and a wreath laid at his grave in Concord, allowing everyone time to re-group for the turkey day observance.

But before dining on our Thanksgiving feast, may we pause for a brief moment to recall President Pierce. Born in Hillsborough in 1804, a scant 20 years after the conclusion of the American Revolution, he was active in state politics and served terms in the U.S. House and Senate. He was elected to the nation’s highest office after Democrats couldn’t agree on any other candidate, and he never successfully healed the lingering wounds in his own party. To wit, things went so badly that when the time came for re-election in 1856, his party denied his candidacy.

The biggest problem for President Piece — other than his dour wife Jane, who didn’t think much of the position of First Lady and declined to get involved in the expected social activities — was his friendliness with southern slaveholders. While never endorsing slavery, he walked a thin line between its advocates and northern abolitionists that eventually broke. His view that people in each new territory rather than Congress should decide whether or not to permit slavery led opponents to form the Republican Party, which of course elected Abraham Lincoln four years after Pierce left office.

Pierce also appeared on the wrong side of history during the Civil War when he (oops) denounced Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, and followed that with (oops again) a statement calling the war “fatal” for the Union just days before the battle at Gettysburg made clear the Union victory. After those gaffes, Pierce apparently went home, shut up, and died in 1869.

His reputation has never recovered very much, I’m afraid. In the rankings of US Presidents, Pierce usually shows up near the bottom along with his successor James Buchanan, the obese William Howard Taft, William Henry Harrison (who died after one month in office) and the forgettable Millard Fillmore. Still, he’s our own, so we celebrate him — or at least acknowledge him — every November. At least the occasion always serves as a reminder that we should cheer up because Thanksgiving is close by.