Prominent up-and-coming politician, Stephen Douglas, senator of Illinois (senate.gov),was planning to expand the transcontinental railroad and advocated for it to cross through Chicago, not only providing transportation to eager gold-seekers but creating an economic boom in his state. To accomplish this, the railroad would have to go through the Nebraska and Kansas territories to get straight across to California. To win support from southerners voters, he proposed the Kansas-Nebraska act.
(chicagotribune.com)
This act would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (ushistory.org) which stated that any states above the 36°30' line would be free states, while anything below that would be slave states. Douglas was well aware that by making the Kansas and Nebraska territories states, these two large, new free states would enrage the south because it would no longer be as balanced. To please the southern voters, he proposed a new plan, the Kansas-Nebraska Act (history.com), which would allow Kansas and Nebraska to be either slave or free states based on popular sovereignty-even though Kansas was over the 36°30' line.
(loc.gov)
Northerners were enraged, but the law was passed in 1854, ultimately resulting in the transcontinental railroad being able to go through Chicago, then straight through Kansas, as Douglas had originally intended (cop.senate.gov). By the power of popular sovereignty, Kansas was voted a slave state, and Nebraska was voted to be a free state. This sent both the north and the south into a tailspin. Now that slavery was in the hands of popular sovereignty over the 36°30' line, slaveholders rushed to Kansas to influence the vote and keep it a slave state.
(loc.gov)
To counteract this, northerners migrated to Kansas in an attempt to swing popular sovereignty as it was above the 36°30' line (britannica.com). This intense aftermath stained Douglas's political career, resulting in extreme backlash from those in the north. Although he achieved his goal of getting the transcontinental railroad through Chicago, the cost was much greater- the violent time period infamously know as ‘bleeding Kansas.’ The conflict between the pro and anti-slavery residents of Kansas resulted in not only political and social tension but the Pottawatomie massacre, where abolitionists murdered five pro-slavery people (civilwaronthewesternborder.org).
(britannica.com)
This bloodshed over slavery was the ultimate spark to the Civil War. In addition, the northerners feared that this would lead to other compromises not being obeyed, such as the compromise of 1850, which limited slavery in certain states. This chaos ensued by the Kansas-Nebraska act was only a glimpse of what was to come in the future.
Aside from leading to a key event that sparked the Civil War, the Kansas-Nebraska act is yet another example of how, from the beginning of the colonies until even after the emancipation proclamation, slavery has always been a source of tension in the united states. From the colonies, where slavery was faced with opposition from religious groups, to bleeding Kansas, where the tension between the pro and anti-slavery resulted in a violent massacre, and ultimately the Civil War. Douglas, in an attempt to create an industrial boom in his state and further his political career, severely underestimated the power of this explosive tension and it leading to a rapid chain of events, resulting in South Carolina influencing the other southern states to secede in 1860.
This was the last law with the intentions of keeping the balance of slavery and ultimately failed, not only by doing away with the effective legislation of the Missouri Compromise but by allowing for the pro-slavery and freesoilers to unleash their pent-up anger over the slavery debate on each other.
https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/kansas-nebraska-act
https://www.cop.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kansas_Nebraska_Act.htm
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kansas-Nebraska-Act
https://www.ushistory.org/us/31a.asp
https://www.britannica.com/event/Bleeding-Kansas-United-States-history
https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/encyclopedia/pottawatomie-massacre
https://www.senate.gov/senators/FeaturedBios/Featured_Bio_Douglas_Stephen.htm
https://www.ushistory.org/us/23c.asp
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3701sm.gct00483/?sp=22&r=0.221,0.01,0.718,0.322,0
https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661578/
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