Pierce Administration - Pierce Becomes President
The Franklin Pierce Administration
Franklin Pierce's presidency began three years after the Whig and Democratic Parties reached a legislative compromise in 1850 to set aside the divisive debate over slavery. Economic interests and a minority of enlightened moral objectors, however, were destined to reopen the question. The Pierce administration helped reignite the debate by enforcing the compromise's Fugitive Slave Act, which required the return of escaped slaves to their owners in the South and by supporting the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (See also, James Monroe Administration). Thus, Pierce's administration contributed to the further deterioration of relations between North and South.
Pierce Becomes President
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