U.S. Presidents with Confederate Ties-- Part 2: Franklin Pierce

Though he was from New Hampshire,  Democrat Franklin Pierce, who served from 1853-57,  was also a critic of both Abraham Lincoln and the war.  

A vocal Southern sympathizer, Pierce spoke on July 4, 1863, the day after the end of the Battle of Gettysburg and the day of the surrender of Vicksburg, of the  "fearful, fruitless, fatal Civil War ... and upon the theory of emancipation, devastation, subjugation."

Pierce added that "how futile are all our efforts to maintain the Union by force of arms."

--Old Secesh