During the 1850s, the United States grew more bitterly divided over the issue of slavery. A compromise on the issue passed by Congress, the Compromise of 1850 was supposed to offer a balanced approach that could be acceptable to proslavery and abolitionist (antislavery) groups. But one provision of the Compromise may well have been the final cause for abolitionists to unite: the Fugitive Slave Law. This law allowed Southern slavemasters to pursue escaped slaves into the North, often resulting in violent confrontations.

When Franklin Pierce began his duties as president of the United States in March of 1853, he felt firmly that the Compromise of 1850 had settled all the differences between North and South. He was wrong. As the nation grew more divisive (divided) and frustrated over the institution of slavery, government became less effective. By the end of Pierce's term, conflicts over slavery had cost the United...