RateItAll: The Opinion Network

He didn't react at all to the crisis situation that existed his entire presidency.

Like his predacessor, Franklin Pierce was a firm supporter of states' rights and the principle of popular sovereignty with regards to slavery. When Pierce assumed office, the South made it very clear that they wanted to expand slavery into the western territories in present-day Nebraska and Kansas. However, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibited this. Southerners wanted this overturned. A plan was drawn up in the Congress that strongly favorited letting local white citizens decide the slavery issue. Although Pierce feared the political backlash that the plan would bring, he caved in to pressure and signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May of 1854. Immediately, proslavery agitators streamed into Kansas in an effort to encourage local citizens to vote in favor of allowing slavery in the region. Abolitionists streamed in from the North to encourage local citizens to ban slavery. The territorial governor of the region, Andrew Reeder, to the South, seemed sympathetic to the abolitionist cause. Proslavery leaders in the region demanded that Reeder be fired, and the President once again caved into the pressure and appointed a proslavery Wilson Shannon to the post. Abolitionists were enraged and tried to install their own government in the region. Kansas soon became completely lawless. Hundreds were slain and towns were burned to the ground. Kansas had became a warzone. Pierce, however, resisted sending federal troops to restore order. Bloodshed continued in Kansas for the remainder of Pierce's term and on into the Buchanan Presidency. In the final analysis, Pierce's determination to ensure the solvency of slavery caused him to give into every demand of the South, which unquestionably led to the strengthening of their morale and brought us into the final steps on the road to the Civil War.