The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an act designed and proposed by Illinois senator Stephen Douglas proposed a bill that would as he stated “organize the Territory of Nebraska” and create two new territories which consisted of territory lands from Montana, Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. This act was proposed to repeal the Missouri Compromise line where slavery was prohibited.
When the 1850’s had come around, many people in the different parts of the US and its territories wanted to see western territories that were acquired from Mexico. By this time farmers had been moving towards the Pacific coast. People felt that a railroad was needed by this time and lots of southerners wanted a railroad system that went through areas such as Texas which was below the Missouri Compromise Line.
Stephen Douglas was one of the biggest supporters of this railroad system being built and one that went through Chicago and that would have the rail lines that travel through the Nebraska territory which was north of the 1820 Missouri Compromise where slavery had previously been banned. So he decided to create a bill that was designed to try and act as middle ground for the people in these territories. He came up with the compromise that it would be up to separate states and territories and that they could choose for “with or without slavery” for the areas and as their constitutions would see fit.
This new policy wrapped around a concept called Popular Sovereignty which was something that allowed states to choose their rights and rules. This new “Popular Sovereignty” would contest the Missouri Compromise and let the question of slavery be up to the territories and there governors. The southern senators and politicians wanted to repeal the 1820 Missouri Compromise and Douglas had seen this as the best way to get this best way passed and he put this element into the bill he was going to propose. He thought that if he agreed to this it could put the demand behind him so that everybody else could get what they wanted.
When the bill was reintroduced including the information about repealing the Missouri Compromise it was faced with some criticism from northern politicians about it’s slavery involvement. It was also criticized as a “gross violation of sacred pledge” as described by Salmon Chase from the state of Ohio. The “Nebraska Bill” as it was later called was passed on March 4 1854 with a vote of 37-14 and this was signed into law on May 30 1854.
In conclusion, this allowed slavery in both territories and this bill being passed would lead to some violent events in the near future including Bleeding Kansas and other protests for anti slavery activists. In Kansas, owning slaves had become legal and was growing larger. This event further advanced slavery and expanded its reach for a period of time and influenced a number of events that would come later in the advancement of slavery.
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