The Story of James Buchanan

The kansas nebraska act eventually passed and president franklin pierce signed it into law. Almost immediately, pro slavers and free soilers began flooding into the kansas territory each hoping to outvote the other on the issue of slavery. Both sides elected their own governors and state legislators. Pierce chose to recognize the pro slavery territorial government even though the blatant voter fraudulency with which it had been established clearly legitimatized it. By the summer of 18 56, bleeding kansas was embroiled in a small scale civil war.