Franklin Pierce (1804-1869; see entry in volume 2) took office in troubled times. Debate over the institution of slavery had grown fierce and threatened to tear apart the Union. For Pierce, as for a majority of federally elected officials of the time, the moral crisis over slavery was of less importance than the principle that individual states had the right to determine their own laws within the framework of the U.S. Constitution, which acknowledged the existence of slavery.

The conflict between abolitionists (those against the institution of slavery) and those supporting slavery was unresolvable. The Compromise of 1850 was the most recent attempt to balance the different sides, to equalize Congressional power between the North and South, and to maintain the principle of states' rights. Pierce intended to enforce the Compromise, including the Fugitive Slave Law that enabled Southern slaveholders to pursue runaway slaves across...