In December, 1852, the president-elect of the United States, Franklin Pierce, traveling with his family on a train, was wrecked at Concord, New Hampshire.
Several of the passengers were killed, among them the young son of the president-elect, a fine lad of ten years, who died in his mother's arms.
The accident was thought to be due to dereliction of duty on the part of an intoxicated brake-man; and some of those who had received injuries, or those whose relatives had been killed in the disaster, brought suit against the railroad company.
But Mrs. Pierce, a devout Christian, would not permit the president-elect to become a party to the suit; on the contrary, she had him secure the services of the famous lawyer Benjamin Butler to defend the railroad, on the ground that she regarded the disaster and the great personal sorrow that it had brought to them as a special providence to prepare the president-elect better for the high office to which he was shortly to be inaugurated.
- (moreillustrations.com)
“Providence is shaping our ends; a plan is developing in our lives; a supreme and loving Being is making all things work together for good.” - F.B. Meyer.
Js 1: 2 – 4 (GNB): “My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. “
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