The Kansas-Nebraska Act raised the sectional controversy over slavery to a level that precluded reconciliation. Most controversial was the provision for a principle of government called “popular sovereignty,” which provided that settlers in the new territories could decide the issue of slavery for themselves. Not only did President Franklin Pierce lend his support to the provocative measure, he also declared his support for the South. Naturally timid, and plagued by alcoholism, Pierce yielded power over his administration’s policies to Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and other Southern leaders.