1. Pre-Civil War Presidents Those that couldn’t stop the guns.

2. #12 Zachary Taylor A Whig War Hero Very non-political. He was the last slave owner to be president. He did not want slavery to expand. Supported the Compromise of 1850, but died before it was instituted. Reasoned with Britain over a canal in Nicaragua. Helped ed to ease tensions between the nations.

3. #13 Millard Fillmore Fillmore was Taylor’s vice president who succeeded the death of his predecessor. He had a poor up bringing and was apprenticed twice to cotton manufacturers. He was entirely a self-made man. He sent the US Navy to open trade with Japan. He was an anti-slavery Whig, but he nevertheless supported the Compromise of 1850, which included the Fugitive Slave Act.

4. #14 Franklin Pierce Pierce was a northerner and a Mexican War “hero” He was thought to be a handsome man, and very charming and likeable. Despite being from the North, he was sympathetic to the South. Pierce supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise, allowing the new territories to vote on the slave issue.

5. #15 James Buchanan The first bachelor president. Was a career politician who had vast experience. He did everything he could to add Kansas as a territory, and many believed he placated the Southern leaning slaveholders. Worked to halt the Panic of 1857, but without much success. Did little to stop secession or the Civil War.