The Kansas-Nebraska Bill caused territorial problems that destroyed the National Party system. It was introduced by Stephen A. Douglas, one of the leading men behind the Compromise of 1850, and in opposition to sectional quarreling. The bill was to establish the Kansas and Nebraska territories. He wanted to send an transcontinental railroad into the area to help increase the economic activity in his home state of Illinois and encourage settlement of the Great Plains area. Since no Company would build a railroad until the area had been organized, Douglas introduced the bill.
The Kansas-Nebraska Bill showed a fallacy in the Compromise of 1850's ideal of popular sovereignty. Popular sovereignty had given each territory the right to chose whether or not it would allow slavery. The problem was that Kansas and Nebraska lay within the land acquired under the Louisiana Purchase. Under the Missouri Compromise, slavery had been forbidden in all territories in the Louisiana purchase- from latitude 36°30' north to the order with Canada. Southern politicians demanded that the 36°30' law be removed. With a slight notion of the consequences of such an action, Douglas included it in is bill, which was passed in May of 1854.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act caused much more trouble than either Douglas or the southern politicians had anticipated. First was trouble with the Fugitive Slave Act. The Free- Soilers and other abolitionist groups immediately turned their wrath toward Douglas. They said that the Slave Power was gaining too much influence and the northern fear of slavery heightened. The Fugitive Slave Law, initiated by Douglas in the Compromise of 1850, came under sudden attack as well. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, Maine, Ohio, and Wisconsin passed personal-liberty laws, meant to interpose with the Fugitive Slave Law. "These laws," claimed southerners " interfered with the Fugitive Slave Act by providing counsel for alleged fugitives and requiring trial by jury." Political Parties also felt the devastating effects of the Kansas- Nebraska Act. It ended the national and two party system and created sectional party's in the north and south. The Whig party in the north was shattered as its northern and southern members could no longer come to agreement on anything. The Democratic Party, Douglas's party, most, if not all, of its northern support, but survived, and Democrats in the North lost sixty-six of their ninety-one positions in Congress, and control of all but two free-state legislatures were lost the them. Joshua Giddings, Salmon Chase, and Charles Sumner, were a part of the Democratic Party, but after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, they visciously attacked Douglas's principles in a paper called "Appeal of the Independent Democrats." These men and Abraham Lincoln believed that slavery had too much influence in politics. Lincoln said that the Kansas- Nebraska Act "put slavery on the high road to extension and perpetuity and that constituted a moral wrong and injustice." In response to Lincoln's appeals, many members of the Whigs, Democrats, Free-Soilers and other Parties met and formed a new Republican Party. As a result, the Republicans won many votes in the north and the Democrats were struggling to remain afloat. Because the Kansas-Nebraska Act had destroyed the Whig Party, Republicans, Democrats and various other party's joined the race to get former Whig supporters on their side. Eventually, the Republicans won the race, attracting support from a variety of areas.
The worst consequence of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was n the territory of Kansas. Claim jumper and citizens clashed frequently in Kansas. Abolitionist groups, aimed at getting a majority of the vote in Kansas sent armed Free- Soilers to settle the land. In response, southerners sent settlers as well. Soon blood was spilled, and the entire nation came to know of "Bleeding Kansas." During elections, many slavery advocates from the slave state of Missouri migrated to Kansas to give a boost to pro-slavery votes. When Free-Soilers attempted to create a separate society, slavery advocates destroyed the town Lawrence, and in response to that, John Brown, a religious, antislavery fanatic, murdered five pro-slavery citizens. Soon guerrilla's stalked Kansas fighting over land and slavery. The violence in Kansas was carried into Congress as pro-slavery Representative Preston Brooks beat anti-slavery Charles Sumner with a cane.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act ridded the country of the "sacred agreement," the Missouri Compromise, and threw the nation into conflict. From the destruction of the Whig party to the inception of the New Republican Party the Act caused more problems than it attempted to solve. The Kansas-Nebraska Act became one of many problems that would lead up to the American Civil War.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
During the elections of 1860, the United States was divided by decisions concerning slavery. The Missouri territory came to the United States as part of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The House of Representatives put forward an amendment to the admission of Missouri that would prohibit the introduction of slaves into Missouri and freeing the children of slaves at the age of 25. The Senate passed the bill admitting Missouri without the amendment, but it was rejected by the House, pushing the controversy into 1820. The Great Compromiser, Henry Clay, proposed the following elements of a sectional compromise: That Missouri be admitted to the Union as a slave state (as the population of the territory apparently desired).That slavery was to be prohibited from the new American territories in the Louisiana Purchase north of 36/30’ north latitude (the southern boundary of Missouri). States to the south of the line (the new Arkansas Territory) would decide the slavery issue for themselves. Missouri became the 24th state on August 10, 1821. The Missouri Compromise was canceled in 1854 with the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.…
- 926 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
In addition, there were some major Civil War laws of the Western Expansion, such as the Missouri Compromise of 1820, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was an effort to conserve a balance of power between the slaveholding states and free states, by the U.S Senate and the House of Reps. The slaveholding states feared of being outnumbered in the Congressional Representation. They feared because they would lack the power to protect their interest in property and trade. After much debate the law passed the Senate on March 2nd, 1820 and passed the House of Reps on February 26th, 1821.…
- 312 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act opened another battleground to the controversy. By leaving the slavery question up to popular sovereignty, Congress initiated a race between abolitionist and proslavery forces to control Kansas. Abolitionists encouraged free-soil advocates from New England and New York state to move to Kansas. Ministers like Henry Ward Beecher supported this emigration and encouraged their parishioners to help fund free-soil advocates. Meanwhile, proslavery forces urged slaveowners to relocate with their slaves. Southerners from Missouri and farther southeast made the move. The resulting conflict and bloodshed between the two groups earned the area the nickname Bleeding Kansas.4…
- 4060 Words
- 17 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act that was passed by Congress in 1854 increased the already building tension between the North and the South. It caused a civil war in Kansas and many people believed that it was one of the causes of the American Civil War. The disastrous effects that were caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act serves as an example of what could happen if people in America today were to become as divided over an issue as they were over…
- 542 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
By this time, so many more Northerners had become opposed, morally, to slavery and had spoken out against. Many people were opposed to slavery because the white families had a very hard time competing against the inexpensive labor of the slaves and could not rise above to grasp what everyone wanted, the American dream. When the Kansas-Nebraska Act was put into place in the hopes that popular choice would make Kansas a slave state and Nebraska a free state which would maintain balance and would also organize even more territory coming in from the Louisiana Purchase in order to further the railroad construction. This conflict instigated dramatic change in addition to the change created by negating the Missouri Compromise Line. Because it repealed the Missouri Compromise in which slavery was not to expand north of the 36’30 line and also because many in Kansas were thoroughly against slavery, both morally, and for their financial well-being which led to the event known as Bleeding Kansas where bloodshed had become evident over the dispute, this change also involved the end of peaceful compromise. Those opposed to the spread of slavery like John Brown went to Kansas and killed pro-slavery Southerners. Those who thought the political strategy of popular sovereignty would maintain balance were proved wrong when the territory became chaotic.…
- 820 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
While there had already been tension building between the North and the South, the addition of new territory added new fuel to the fire. If the new states that emerged from the Louisiana Territory were all free, then the balance of power in the U.S. Senate would tilt decisively against slavery or vice versa . From the moment that the expansion of the United States emerged, there was conflict. Eventually after many years of debate the Missouri Compromise came to be in 1820. The Missouri Compromise was devised by Henry Clay . It was an attempt to defuse the tension causes by the addition of the Louisiana Purchase. It gave the pre-slavers the decisive state they needed to hold their position in congress. After much debate was had about which states would be free or slave states with the addition of the Louisiana Purchase, a compromise was worked out. To appease both sides Missouri would be admitted as a slave state and Maine (which used to be apart Massachusetts) would have the status of a free state, and minus Missouri, slavery was to be excluded at a certain latitude . With the Missouri Compromise; all states south of Missouri would be slave states and all states north of it would be free. The addition of Missouri as a slave state just ignited the already hot debate about the legitimacy of slavery. While the Louisiana Purchase would eventually help to…
- 1319 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
He negotiated the Act that opened Kansas and Nebraska territories for settlement. It also advocated for territorial legislatures to have the power to decide on all slavery issues (Carnes & Garraty, 2012, p.354). The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise. Northern states vehemently opposed the Act as it led to an increase in the locality of slavery. In passing the law, the nation took the greatest single step in its march towards the abyss of civil war.…
- 962 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Election time came around to decide whether or not Kansas would be a free or slave state in 1854. During the election, hundreds of pro-slavery men from Missouri came and casted fraudulent ballots, which outvoted anti-slavery settlers. So Kansas adopted the same laws of Missouri including “Slave Code.” This angered the anti-slavery forces which then concluded into a civil war of Kansas. This war will be known as Bleeding Kansas.…
- 255 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The Kansas-Nebraska Act set the stage for what began “Bleeding Kansas” and ultimately the Civil War. As settlers began moving west of the Mississippi River, they moved into the area which is present-day Nebraska. Since the area was not yet a structured state, the people could not live there. The area that was wanted was located in a part of the United States that had outlawed slavery due to the Missouri Compromise of 1820. This, in turn, caused representatives in Congress to have no interest in creating a Nebraska territory. Senator Stephen A. Douglas was the driving factor behind the Kansas-Nebraska Act. With the goal in mind that Nebraska would become a territory, the Kansas- Nebraska Act would allow each territory the ability to choose whether or not they supported slavery. With this being enacted, it was a direct violation of the Missouri Compromise. The bill that allowed territories to decide for or against slavery, also known as popular sovereignty, split the Whig party into two different groups; the northern Whigs and the southern Whigs with the northerners organizing the Republican Party.…
- 471 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Bleeding Kansas also took part in causing the Civil War. Bleeding Kansas was a war between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery activists. It took place between 1855 to 1861 (Ponce). Missouri was a slave state and Kansas had not yet decided to be pro-slavery or anti-slavery, and because the two sections did not agree with each other, that caused a war. “Yet the violence that broke out in the 1850s was an unintended consequence of the territory’s organization” (Ponce). President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in May 1854. Kansas could settle anywhere under the doctrine of popular sovereignty and allowed residents to determine their state institutions for themselves (Ponce). “While its geography should have meant a free Kansas, residents…
- 277 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Before the Civil War, the territory of Kansas was unsettled as a slave state or a free state. This caused a conflict over who should settle this territory, right before the Civil War. This conflict was also called “Bleeding Kansas”. Later on, popular sovereignty, played a key role before the Civil War.…
- 452 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The Western Frontier was seen as a profitable enterprise by many people in the 1850s. In Ripon, Wisconsin in 1854, the Republican Party was formed with contrasting views to other political parties; they wanted no slavery in any territory purely because the Republicans wanted the west to be open only to free white labor. The Republican Party’s groundbreaking platform showed the downfalls to slavery economically, rather than just socially as abolitionists preached. This economic issue of slavery further heated the debate over slavery and divided the political parties and states further. Furthermore, the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 was another pass at the economic prospects of the west. Stephen Douglas of Illinois had created this act for his own financial gain seeing as he was a director of the Central Railroad of Illinois and he wanted the train to run through Chicago. But in order to do this, the plains had to be settled above the line of the Missouri Compromise. Because of the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854, Stephen Douglas got what he wanted, and ultimately settled the plains in Kansas and Nebraska in order to expand business into the western territories which would lead to future economic prosperity, while still dividing the Americans further. Finally, the Panic of 1857-1859, caused by a collapse in the international demand for grain, overproduction in the…
- 1289 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Rarely has there ever been a time of rest in this world full of restlessness. Not now, and certainly not back in 19th century America. Bleeding Kansas (also known as Bloody Kansas) was a brutal time after Kansas was created when pro and anti slavery forces couldn’t agree on the topic of slavery in America. From 1855 to 1859, the period before the Civil War was one of viciousness and barbarity. Before getting into the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Missouri Compromise, which was previously established in 1820, must be introduced.…
- 509 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
In his speech, Lincoln addresses Stephen’s Douglas’ infringement of the Missouri Compromise by his enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. During the Mexican American War, members of Congress constantly discussed how the acquisition of lands would be handled in regards to slavery. Whether a state would be free or slave was up to congress. David Wilmot, a member of the House of Representatives, stated that if any new land was acquired from the turn out of the war, slavery should be illegal in that area. This idea was known as the ‘Wilmot Proviso’, in which many members of the House happily agreed.…
- 1283 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
Douglas in 1858. The Republicans charged that the Democrats wanted to legalize slavery in all the states not just in U.S. territory. They used this to attack many democrats, especially the sponsor of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Stephen A. Douglas. Illinois Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln to challenge Stephen A. Douglas for his U.S. Senate seat. In his first campaign speech, he communicated how the North was afraid that the South wanted to expand slavery to the whole nation. He said, “A House divided against itself cannot stand,” which is from the Bible, “-I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved-I do not expect the house to fall-but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all other.” Abraham Lincoln said this in Springfield, Illinois, June 16,1858. They both had many debates throughout the year. They talked about the expansion of slavery. Lincoln was against the expansion of slavery. He said slavery was “a moral, a social, and a political wrong” and said that African Americans had rights under the Declaration of Independance, but he never said slavery should be abolished. Douglas said that popular sovereignty was the best way to address slavery because it was the most democratic. The Supreme Court said popular sovereignty was unconstitutional because people can not…
- 2142 Words
- 9 Pages
Good Essays