Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce, a New Hampshire Democrat, won the presidency in 1852 as a compromise candidate acceptable to both North and South.

His signature act, the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854, repealed the Missouri Compromise and let settlers decide the slavery question by popular sovereignty. The result was 'Bleeding Kansas,' a wave of violence between pro- and anti-slavery settlers that foreshadowed the Civil War. His pro-Southern sympathies cost him Northern support, and his own party refused to renominate him.

Read the full biography on Wikipedia →