Kansas-Nebraska Act The Kansas-Nebraska act (1854) was a U.S. law that authorized the creation of Kansas and Nebraska, west of the states of Missouri and Iowa and divided by the 40th parallel. It repealed a provision of the Missouri compromise of 1820 that prohibited slavery in the territories north of 36 degrees and 30' and stipulated that the inhabitant of the territories should decide for themselves the legality of slave holding. Democratic senator of Illinois Stephen A. Douglas pushed the Kansas-Nebraska bill. In Garranty's The American Nation shows evidence that Douglas had a great political interest in the passing of this bill because he also served as the director of Illinois central line. Therefore, it would have been in his best interest for the transcontinental railroad to pass through the northern states or to be exact through Chicago. The facts show that Douglas, "To win over the southerners Douglas agreed to divide the region into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska, and then fateful concession to repeal the part of the Missouri compromise that excluded slavery from land north of 36 degrees 30'."(Garraty pg.402) This move could be of great help to him, because if he should seek election for president in the future he would have the support of the south. Muzzey author of The American Adventure also shows evidence that the Kansas-Nebraska bill was " a bid for southern support in the next democratic convention." (Muzzey pg.485) In 1852 Douglas sought for presidential nomination but had only the support of the north, and it was necessary in those days for candidate to win southern support in order to gain the presidency or nomination [nomination for the presidency]."(Elson pg. 5... ... middle of paper ... ...asure practically ended support for that party in the South. The northern Whigs joined antislavery Democrats and know-nothings to form the Republican Party in July 1854. A conflict soon developed in Kansas between pro-slavery settlers from Missouri and antislavery newcomers who began to move into the territory from the northeastern states. Fighting between the two groups continued for several years, aggravating the sectional controversy played a major role in the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Bibliography: Elson, Henry W., History of the United States (1904) p. 573 Basset, John S., Short History of the United States (1913) p. 487 Muzzey, David S., The American Adventure (2 vols.: 1927) p. 485 Morrison, Samuel E., et al, The growth of the American republic (2 vol.: 1969) p. 586 Garraty, John A. The American Nation (1991) p. 402
It also gave the South another slave state in Missouri and the north a free state in Maine. Although each region gained a state in the Senate, the south benefited most from the acquisition because Missouri was in such a pivotal position in the country, right on the border. Later on with the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Missouri had a big role in getting Kansas to vote south because many proslavery Missourians crossed the border into Kansas to vote slavery. The Missouri Compromise also helped slavery because the line that was formed to limit slavery had more land below the line than above it. Therefore, slavery was given more land to be slave and therefore more power in the Senate, when the territories became state.
In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected as president of the United States of America, the repercussions of which led to civil war. However it was not only Lincoln’s election that led to civil war but also the slavery debate between the northern and southern states and the state of the economy in the United States. Together with the election of Lincoln these caused a split, both politically and ideologically, between the North and South states which manifested into what is now refereed to as the American Civil War.
The Missouri Compromise was a very successful yet flawed document that stalled the civil war for at least thirty years. The compromise framed the westward expansion of slavery. It set many laws in regards to slavery that would hold the northerners from lashing out at the southerners and sharing the war even earlier. Lastly it separate the economic, political and ethical interests and beliefs of the northern, southern and western regions of the U.S. Although it delayed the Civil war by at least thirty years, it was inevitable. Eventually the issue of slavery would have to be faced head on. Slavery was either going to be tolerated everywhere or no where at all. The North had decided that slavery wouldn't be tolerated and the south seceded from the united states.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a great victory for the south. The greatest benefit to the south was the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which established the sacred 36-30 line. If the Missouri Compromise had stayed in place, there would have been no more possibility for the expansion of slavery, since there was no land left south of the 36-30 line; under the Missouri Compromise southern expansion was hampered by the existence of the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the line being repealed, it was possible for slavery to exist in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska because of popular sovereignty.
Divine, Robert A. America past and Present. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education/Longman, 2013. 245. Print.
But the feeling of relief that spread throughout the country proved to be the calm before the storm. On December 14, 1853, Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa introduced a bill in the Senate. The bill proposed organizing the Nebraska territory, which also included an area that would become the state of Kansas. His bill was referred to the Committee of the Territories, which was chaired by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Douglas had entered politics early and had advanced quickly; at 21 he was Illinois state's attorney, and by age 35 he was a U.S. Senator.
...h and the South wanted the territory for themselves. The North wanted to expand its industrial fingers to better their economy, but the South wanted more land for plantations to also better their economy. First, the Wilmot Proviso established popular sovereignty as the new factor that decided what side was going to obtain the land. This angered the South because they were frightened that their voice would be lost, and subsequently slavery would be demolished. However, the North felt anger after Stephen Douglass proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed any white male settler to decide if the new territory would be slave or free. With Southern white men trying to make the territories slave territories, the North were furious and started bleeding Kansas, which arguably was the spark that ignited the Civil War.
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to create new territories. Stephen Douglass wrote the act in an effort to attract the transcontinental railroad to his home city of Chicago. Douglass needed Kansas, and Nebraska, to become official territories to make it happen. Douglass believed the act would help Chicago economically, and aid his hopes of becoming president by ending The Missouri Compromise. Popular sovereignty replaced geographic restrictions as the decided factor on the issue of slavery. The opportunity to move slavery further north galvanized the south, and outraged the n...
At first glance, the compromise seemed have settled everything concerning the expansion of slavery, but it actually settled nothing. It merely put off the problem to a later time. Whether slavery should be allowed in the area gained in the Mexican War was still unanswered. The South and the North would continue fighting over unorganized territories. In fact, since the government decided not to intervene in the slavery issue, the people had to decided whether they want slavery or not. When they couldn’t decide for themselves, they turned to violence. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was “an 1854 bill that mandated “popular sovereignty”–allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether slavery would be allowed within a new state’s borders” (Foner). This was a logical extension of the Compromise of 1850 because it echoed the “popular sovereignty”. The act had the people living in the territory decide if they wanted slavery. Because of this the North and the South got into a fight over Kansas. This caused sectional
Tempers raged and arguments started because of the Missouri Compromise. The simple act caused many fatal events because of what was changed within the United States. It may not seem like a big thing now, but before slavery had been abolished, the topic of slavery was an idea that could set off fights. The Missouri Compromise all started in late in 1819 when the Missouri Territory applied to the Union to become a slave state. The problem Congress had with accepting Missouri as a slave state was the new uneven count of free states and slave states. With proslavery states and antislavery states already getting into arguments, having a dominant number of either slave or free states would just ignite the flame even more. Many representatives from the north, such as James Tallmadge of New York, had already tried to pass another amendment that would abolish slavery everywhere. Along with other tries to eliminate slavery, his effort was soon shot down. The fact that people couldn’t agree on whether or not slavery should be legalized made trying to compose and pass a law nearly impossible.
Slavery was one of the factors that played a key role in the causes of the Civil War. The Missouri Compromise was a debate began as to whether Maine and Missouri would enter the Union as free or slave states. To be fair to the rule of the Mason-Dixon Line, Maine was admitted as a free state, and Missouri, even though it was also in the north, would enter as a slave state. The Compromise of 1850 dealt with whether California, Utah, and New Mexico would be slave or free. California was admitted as a free state, but since it made the ratio of slave to free states unequal, " it also stated that the territories of New Mexico and Utah would determine for themselves whether to become slave or free states."(Wise) The Kansas-Nebraska Act decided that any territory that became a state would have the right to vote on whether it would be slave or free, which made Northerners angry because it changed the terms of the Missouri Compromise. The constant flux of the issue of slavery grew during the years leading up to the war, as the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1859, and the Kansas-Nebraska act con...
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was one of the first events that demonstrated Lincoln’s disapproval yet tolerance for slavery. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, proposed by Stephen A. Douglas and signed by Franklin Pierce, divided the region into two territories. The territory north of the 40th parallel was the Kansas Territory and the south of the 40th parallel was the Nebraska Territory, the controv...
3. Divine, Breen, Fredrickson, Williams, eds., America Past and Present Volume II: since 1865 sixth edition (New York: Longman 2002).
In conclusions, the Civil War was an inevitable conflict because of slavery. All aspects mention requires slavery for there to be a conflict. In addition, all states that seceded from the Union indicated that slavery was their main issue. Unless the North continued to allow slavery in the South and the expanding western territories, the conflict was sure to occur. Moreover, once the idea of money became an issue for slave owners, there was no doubt a war would ensue. Each compromise initiated by the federal government fell short of pleasing either party and violence occurred in Kansas. Slavery is the core of the inevitable Civil War and it took war to abolish it.
...be maintained between free and slave states. Than Kansas- Nebraska act added more tension as new territories were to be added and whether the new states would be free or slave. But violence occurred resulting in Bleeding Kansas that became causes for the Civil war.