He did not succeed.

Every senator from the slave-holding States, except those from Missouri,--which was locally interested in having the territory organized,--voted against it;--and the measure, antagonizing other business in which Northern senators were more immediately interested, was laid upon the table two days before President Pierce was inaugurated.

The bill had fully recognized the binding force of the Missouri Compromise, and if it had passed, there could have been no pretense for the introduction of slavery in the territory of Nebraska.
REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE.
Directly after the assurance so impressively given by the President that the "repose" of the country on the slavery question "should suffer no shock during his administration," the bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska was again introduced in the Senate.

The motive for its defeat the preceding session was soon made apparent.
Mr.Archibald Dixon of Kentucky, the last Whig governor of that State, had been chosen to succeed Mr.Clay in the Senate.

But he did not succeed to Mr.Clay's political principles.