What issues did Franklin Pierce face?

Answer 1

The issue of slavery was ever present when Pierce took office. The fugitive slave law portion of the Compromise of 1850 stirred up anti-slavery feelings. Hopes that the compromise would end the division over slavery began to fade. South Carolina was actively maintaining a right to secede from the union and other Southern states were listening.

As president he had to deal the Kansas-Nebraska Act proposed by rival Democrat Stephen A. Douglas. He decided to support it vigorously, but it turned out to be a total failure, leading to a border war known as bleeding Kansas which he failed to deal with in any effective way.

He instigated what became known as the Ostend Manifesto which demanded that Spain either sell Cuba to the US or lose it to a war with the US. After this document became public there was so much public outrage that he had to formally repudiate it. Besides uproar at the suggestion of a war to win territory , Cuba was looked on as a potential slave state.