Everything about Kansas-nebraska Act totally explained
The
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 created the territories of
Kansas and
Nebraska, opened new lands, repealed the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, and allowed the settlers to decide whether or not to have slavery within those territories. The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Mideastern Transcontinental Railroad. It wasn't problematic until
popular sovereignty was written into the proposal. The new
Republican Party, which formed in reaction against allowing slavery where it had been forbidden, emerged as the dominant force throughout the North. The act was designed by
Democratic Senator
Stephen A. Douglas of
Illinois. The act established that settlers could decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, in the name of "
popular sovereignty" or rule of the people. Opponents denounced the law as a concession to the
Slave Power of the
South.
Causes and Effects
Kansas Territory, south of the 41st parallel, and the
Nebraska Territory, north of the 41st parallel. The most controversial provision was the stipulation that each territory would separately decide whether to allow slavery within its borders. This new act abrogated the claims agreed upon in the Missouri Compromise act of 1820, which had prohibited slavery in any new states to be created north of latitude 36°30'. Since Kansas and Nebraska would be north of that line, the citizens of both territories would be permitted to vote on whether or not to allow slavery.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Act orchestrator Stephen Douglas and private citizen Abraham Lincoln aired their disagreement over the Kansas-Nebraska Act in three public speeches during September and October 1854.
(External Link
) The most comprehensive argument against the Act, the "
Peoria Speech", was given by Lincoln in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16.
(External Link) He and Douglas both spoke to the large audience, Douglas first and Lincoln in response two hours later. Lincoln's three hour speech
(External Link), transcribed after the fact by Lincoln himself, presented thorough moral, legal and economic arguments against slavery, and set the stage for Lincoln’s political future
(External Link)
Hostilities
Pro-slavery settlers came to Kansas mainly from neighboring
Missouri. Their influence in territorial elections was often bolstered by resident Missourians who crossed into Kansas solely for the purpose of voting in such ballots. They were dubbed
border ruffians by their opponents, a term coined by
Horace Greeley, and formed groups like the
Blue Lodges. Abolitionist settlers moved from the East with express purpose of making Kansas a free state. A clash between the opposing sides was inevitable.
Successive territorial governors, usually sympathetic to slavery, attempted unsuccessfully to maintain the peace. The territorial capital of
Lecompton, Kansas, the target of much agitation, became such a hostile environment for free-soilers that they set up their own unofficial legislature at
Topeka.
John Brown and his sons gained notoriety in the fight against slavery by brutally murdering five pro-slavery farmers in the
Pottawatomie Massacre with a broadsword. Brown also helped defend a few dozen
free soil supporters from several hundred angry pro-slavery supporters at the town of
Osawatomie.
Hostilities between the factions reached a state of low-intensity
civil war, which was extremely embarrassing to
Pierce, especially as the nascent
Republican Party sought to capitalize on the scandal of
Bleeding Kansas. Routine ballot-rigging and intimidation practiced by pro-slavery settlers failed to deter the immigration of anti-slavery settlers, who won a demographic victory in the race to populate the state.
Constitution
The pro-slavery territorial legislature ultimately proposed a state constitution for approval by referendum. The constitution was offered in two alternative forms, neither of which made slavery illegal. Free Soil settlers boycotted the legislature's referendum and organized their own, which approved a free state constitution. The results of the competing referendums were sent to Washington by the territorial governor.
President
James Buchanan sent the
Lecompton Constitution (which allowed slavery, but disallowed import of new slaves) to Congress for approval. The Senate approved the admission of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton Constitution, despite the opposition of Senator Douglas, who believed that the Kansas referendum on the Constitution, by failing to offer the alternative of prohibiting slavery, was unfair. The measure was subsequently blocked in the
United States House of Representatives, where northern congressmen refused to admit Kansas as a slave state. Senator
James Hammond of
South Carolina (famous for his "
King Cotton" speech) characterized this resolution as the expulsion of the state, asking, "If Kansas is driven out of the Union for being a slave state, can any Southern state remain within it with honor?"
Results
The Kansas-Nebraska Act divided the nation and pointed it toward civil war. It is commonly acknowledged as the beginning of the
Antebellum period of American history. The act itself virtually nullified the
Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the
Compromise of 1850. The turmoil over the act split both the Democratic and
Know Nothing parties and gave rise to the Republican Party, which split the United States into two major political parties- North (Republican) and South (Democratic).
Eventually a new anti-slavery state constitution was drawn up. On
January 29,
1861,
Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state.
Nebraska was admitted to the Union as a state after the Civil War in 1867.
Further Information
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