Kansas-Nebraska Act
- Southerners did not want to admit Nebraska as state because (according to the Missouri Compromise) it would have to be free
- Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois drafted Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854
- Nebraska was so far north that it would need to become a free state--Douglas had to win over southerners to allow Nebraska to be admitted
- Douglas had plans to eventually build transcontinental railroad--needed the territories in Union
- Proposed that new territory, Kansas, would be inclined to allow slavery (“The Kansas-Nebraska Act”)
- Slavery status of states outlined in the Compromise of 1850 territories was not specified--popular sovereignty seen as solution (McArthur 19, 21; Compromise of 1850)
- Act controversially effectively repealed Missouri Compromise by stating that Compromise of 1850 “’superseded’ the Missouri Compromise boundary” (McArthur 24, 26; Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854)
- Heavily debated because Northerners were adamantly against slavery being potentially spread to areas previously guaranteed to be free
- Northerners were worried because they didn’t have strong presence in affected area (originally thought it could not become slave state) and may not be able to get to territories in time to vote against slavery
- President Franklin Pierce signed the bill into law on May 30, 1854
- Race to get to Kansas and vote for or against slavery began (McArthur 40)