After resigning, he edited a Republican Chicago newspaper called the Inter Ocean as well as wrote a number of plays, novels, and sketches.

Because of the corruption of his predecessor, Governor Pierce's appointment was treated with suspicion by residents of Dakota Territory.

He was a proponent of statehood and quickly signed a bill into law to authorize a state constitutional convention for southern Dakota Territory.

[3] In 1891, he purchased a half interest in the Minneapolis Tribune before selling it to become business manager of the Chicago Post and Times-Herald.

Pierce's last years were spent in British Columbia, Washington, and California before the time of his death at the Lexington Hotel in Chicago, aged 62.