Kansas-Nebraska Act

Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln-Douglas Debate Square. , In the 1850's, Stephen A. Douglas, United States Senator from Illinois, was chairman of the powerful Senate Committee on Territories. After the admission of California as a state in 1850, Douglas began to work, along with others, to secure the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Douglas favored a northern route so as to benefit Illinois and Chicago. Investors were reluctant, however, to support building a railroad where state governments had not already been established. As a result, Douglas wanted to speed the admission of Kansas and Nebraska as states. , As can be seen from the first quotation highlighted from the text of the newspaper article of July 6, 1854, the Missouri Compromise required that both Kansas and Nebraska remain free states. The problem hinged on the fact that Kansas was being settled by mostly pro-slavery advocates. Douglas argued for what he called Popular Sovereignty, letting the people of a state or territory decide for themselves whether or not to be a free or slave state, rather than Congress making the decision. , As it became clear that Kansas might be admitted as a slave state, thereby breaking the Missouri Compromise, Abolitionists rose up in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Even members of Douglas' own Democratic Party, known as the anti-Nebraska Democrats, opposed the legislation. But the powerful Douglas prevailed and the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed. , It was the Kansas-Nebraska Act's breaking of the Missouri Compromise that brought a Springfield lawyer, Abraham Lincoln, out of his private law practice and back into politics, setting the stage for a challenge to Douglas' re-election in 1858. , Address. To the People of the United States ~ , The eighth section of the act for the admission of Missouri into the Union, known as the Missouri Compromise law, by which the introduction of slavery into the regions now known as Kansas and Nebraska was forever prohibited, has been repealed. The law which in 1820 quieted a controversy which menaced the union, and upon which you have so long reposed, is obliterated from the statute book. We had no reason to expect any such proposition when we assembled here six months ago, nor did you expect it. No state, no citizen of any State had demanded the repeal. , It would not become us, nor is it necessary to suggest the measures which ought to be adopted in this exigency. For ourselves, we are ready to do all in our power to restore The Missouri Compromise, and to execute such further measures as you in your wisdom shall command, and as may be necessary for the recovery of the ground lost to freedom and to prevent the further aggression of slavery. Solomon Foot; chairman.