In 1852, the country was so divided that neither the Democratic Party nor the Whig Party were able to settle upon a candidate. The Democratic convention took 49 ballots to nominate dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce. The Democrats were decisive compared to the Whig Party which needed 53 ballots to nominate General Winfield Scott. Slavery was the root cause. Party affiliation, Democrat or Whig, was less important than North versus South.

Pierce had served in the New Hampshire legislature and U.S. Congress both as Representative and Senator. But he had been out of politics for ten years by 1852 and his anonymity helped make him a compromise candidate. He was mocked as a ‘dough face’, meaning a politician with pliable views. It was applied to Northerners sympathetic to the South. This enabled Pierce to win support in both regions of the country.

During the 1852 campaign Pierce’s opponents ridiculed his reputation for drinking and lackluster service in the Mexican-American war by calling him ‘hero of many a well-fought bottle’. As the Whig party was in the process of collapsing, Pierce became President in a landslide victory.

Foreign Affairs

Even in foreign affairs slavery was the main focus of Pierce’s presidency. He attempted to purchase Cuba from Spain to add another slave state to the Union. Pierce’s staff wrote a controversial document called the ‘Ostend Manifesto’ which justified taking Cuba by force if Spain refused to sell the colony. Northern opposition halted that effort. Cuba itself did not abolish slavery until 1886.

A private army recruited in America by military adventurer William Walker conquered part of Nicaragua in 1855 and was recognized as the official government by President Pierce. Walker appealed for Southern support by reinstating slavery which Nicaragua had eliminated in 1821. A coalition of Latin American countries defeated Walker and he was eventually executed by firing squad in Honduras in 1860.

Domestic Affairs

The Compromise of 1850 was possibly the last chance of keeping the Union together. In that Compromise, California was admitted as a free state, while the Utah and New Mexico territories, obtained in the Mexican-American War, would be allowed to decide for themselves about slavery. The Compromise also included a stronger Fugitive Slave Law, very unpopular in the North.

By the 1850s, both farmers and the railroads were interested in developing the remainder of the Louisiana Purchase: the Nebraska and Kansas Territories. To facilitate these developments, the lands needed to be organized and territorial governments established.