contemplative
Previously, the Missouri Compromise had prohibited slavery in the former Louisiana Territory north of the parallel 36°30′ north except within the boundaries of the proposed state of Missouri. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed settlers in those territories to determine through the ballot box whether they would allow slavery within each territory.
The act was designed by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The initial purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up many thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. But when a vote on whether to allow slavery into the territories was written into the proposal, this resulted in pro- and anti-slavery elements flooding into Kansas, leading to a bloody civil war there.
Douglas hoped popular sovereignty would enable democracy to triumph, so he would not have to take a side on the issue of slavery. The new Republican Party, was created in opposition to the act. President Franklin Pierce had considered other proposals on this issue, but Douglas and several southern Senators successfully persuaded Pierce to support this plan.
As the act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue rushed into the state to be present for the voting. The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted in so much violence between groups that the territory became known as Bleeding Kansas. Pro-slavery Border Ruffians, mostly from Missouri, illegally voted in the elections to set up the government. Despite the election results being tainted, Pierce recognized them anyway. When Free-Staters set up a shadow government, called the Topeka Constitution, Pierce termed this "an act of rebellion." He continued to recognize the pro-slavery legislature, which was dominated by Democrats, even after a Congressional investigative committee found its election to have been illegitimate. He dispatched federal troops to break up a meeting of the shadow government in Topeka.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act and its results in having Kansas admitted as a slave state provoked outrage among northerners, who already viewed Pierce as being in the pocket of slave-holding interests. Pierce earned a reputation as being untrustworthy and easily manipulated. Having lost public confidence, Pierce was not nominated by his party for a second term. As a result of threats and the passions inspired by Kansas, Pierce hired a full-time bodyguard, the first president to do so.
Many historians have ranked Pierce as among the least effective Presidents because he was unable to steer a steady, prudent course on this issue. This may be so or it may be that Pierce was in a no-win situation. What do you think?