349.  Pierce elected President, 1852.—­It was now Campaign time for a new election.  The Whigs had been successful with two old soldiers, so they thought they would try again with another soldier and nominated General Winfield Scott, the conqueror of Mexico.  The Democrats also nominated a soldier, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, who had been in northern Mexico with Taylor.  The Democrats and Whigs both said that they would stand by the Compromise of 1850.  But many voters thought that there would be less danger of excitement with a Democrat in the White House and voted for Pierce for that reason.  They soon found that they were terribly mistaken in their belief.

[Sidenote:  The Nebraska bill, 1854. Source-Book, 284-287.]

[Sidenote:  Douglas asserts Compromise of 1820 to be repealed.]

350.  Douglas’s Nebraska Bill.—­President Pierce began his term of office quietly enough.  But in 1854 Senator Douglas of Illinois brought in a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska.  It will be remembered that in 1820 Missouri had been admitted to the Union as a slave state.  In 1848 Iowa had been admitted as a free state.  North of Iowa was the free Territory of Minnesota.  Westward from Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota was an immense region without any government of any kind.  It all lay north of the compromise line of 1820 (p. 222), and had been forever devoted to freedom by that compromise.  But Douglas said that the Compromise of 1820 had been repealed by the Compromise of 1850.  So he proposed that the settlers of Nebraska should say whether that territory should be free soil or slave soil, precisely as if the Compromise of 1820 had never been passed.  Instantly there was a tremendous uproar.

[Illustration:  FRANKLIN PIERCE.]

[Sidenote:  The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854.]

[Sidenote:  Antislavery senators attack the bill.]

[Sidenote:  The Independent Democrats.]

351.  The Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854.—­Douglas now changed his bill so as to provide for the formation of two territories.  One of these he named Kansas.  It had nearly the same boundaries as the present state of Kansas, except that it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains.  The other territory was named Nebraska.  It included all the land north of Kansas and between the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains.  The antislavery leaders in the North attacked the bill with great fury.  Chase of Ohio said that it was a violation of faith.  Sumner of Massachusetts rejoiced in the fight, for he said men must now take sides for freedom or for slavery.  Some, independent Democrats published “An Appeal.”  They asked their fellow-citizens to take their maps and see what an immense region Douglas had proposed to open to slavery.  They denied that the Missouri Compromise had been repealed.  Nevertheless, the bill passed Congress and was signed by President Pierce.

[Illustration:  Territory opened to slavery.]