What were Franklin Pierces' feelings about slavery?

Answer 1

Franklin Pierce did not personally like slavery but was not an abolitionist. He believed that the framers of the Constitution were right when they agreed to tolerate slavery in order to form the United States and did he not side with those who were willing to split up the nation in order to end slavery in it. He might be called a doughface, which was slang for Northerners who didn't sympathize with the quest for freedom by the enslaved descendants of Africans in the Southern States. Also, he was not actively opposed to allowing the spread of slavery into the American West. He signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill which allowed the residents of a territory to allow or exclude slavery as they wished,. Pierce did not think that Congress or the President had the constitutional right end slavery. Slavery was a local issue, to be decided by the individual states and territories. In this view, our President was supported by other prominent leaders such as Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas.

During the War between the States, former President Pierce openly opposed the use of military force to make the Southern States rejoin the union. In fact, from his home in New Hampshire, he carried on wartime correspondence with his old friend and cabinet member Jefferson Davis who was now President of the Confederacy.

Answer 2

Pierce did not personally like slavery but he realized that people like Adams and Franklin who did not approve of slavery were willing to accept it in order to form the federal union. Pierce did not feel that the government could abolish slavery without passing a Constitutional amendment. He therefore objected to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.