Pierce, Franklin (Administration of)

Democrat Franklin Pierce (1804–69) served one term as the 14th president of the United States from 1853 to 1857. Although Pierce was from New Hampshire, he was largely viewed as a southern sympathizer who desired to protect the legality of slavery and the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Pierce was most noted for his signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, granting the voters of those territories the right to decide slavery's legal status through the doctrine of popular sovereignty. His administration was unable to stem the widespread ...