316. FRANKLIN PIERCE (1804 - 1869) Fourteenth President of the United States who initiated the Gadsden Purchase, opening up the Northwest for settlement. Important partly-printed D.S. "Franklin Pierce" as President, 1p. folio, Washington, Aug. 22, 1856, the official appointment of George P. Bond to serve as "Chief Astronomer of the United States...to carry into effect the 1st article of the Treaty between the United States and Her Britannic Majesty of the 15th June 1846...". Co-signed at bottom by Secretary of State WILLIAM B. MARCY. Folds, with a small tape repair showing through slightly at exact center and at margins (could be matted-out), some toning from prior framing, generally very good with fine, bold signatures. George Phillips Bond (1826-1865) succeeded his father as director of Harvard College Observatory from 1859 until his death, took the first photograph of a star in 1850 (Vega) and of a double star in 1857 (Mizar), and he and his father jointly independently discovered Saturn's moon Hyperion. The reference to a treaty concerns the Oregon Treaty which settled the northern boundary of the Oregon Territory. In all likelihood, Bond was charged with assisting surveyors in some celestial aspect of their duties in settling the contentious claims $1,000 - 1,500.