Lauren Williams
Period 11
Group 5
The United States was united by the addition of states through Manifest Destiny and territorial expansion, which inflicted feelings of Nationalism, until the existence of slavery was threatened. Disagreements over whether the newly acquired territory should be slave or free led to the Kansas – Nebraska Act, which did not prevent slave rebellions or the Wilmot Proviso that proposed the outlawing of slavery.
The Kansas – Nebraska Act, proposed by Senator Stephen Douglas, was passed on May 30, 1854 (“Kansas”). The act divided the land west of Missouri into two territories, Kansas and Nebraska. The new legislation allowed each territory to decide whether it would be slave or free (Gavin).
Douglas had expressed a distinct want for a transcontinental railroad. This railroad would connect Chicago directly to California, but many states were against the proposal. In spite of the benefits that the railroad would offer, the Southern States refused to have federal funds spent on a railroad that would pass strictly on territory that was closed to slavery. In an attempt to appease the Southern States, Douglas introduced the Nebraska Bill, also known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act split the large area of Nebraska into two sections, Nebraska and Kansas.
Also, I will be explaining what the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was. January of 1854 Sen. Stephen Douglas wrote a bill that would divide the land in the west of Missouri into two states Nebraska and Kansas. Douglas wanted popular sovereignty for both states; this would allow the residents of the two states to vote on if slavery would be legal in new states. Groups against slavery were against Douglas’s push for popular sovereignty, because without the ability to vote slavery would not be allowed in the new
Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 Throughout the ideas of sectionalism within the Northern and Southern states, The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 has caused a division within borders, paved the way for the issue of slavery to increase, and the result of Bleeding Kansas. The issue between the borders had to be resolved, as to the decision of Kansas becoming a free or slave state. President Abraham Lincoln spoke out against the idea, “Lincoln laid out his objections to the Act and resurrected his political career in a brilliant speech at Peoria on October 16, 1854”. (Monroe, R.D.) Lincoln also wondered how it was morally right to treat people based off of popular vote, “Lincoln criticized popular sovereignty, questioning how it was that this doctrine
Moreover, there was much trouble in Kansas such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Kansas-Nebraska Act stated that two states, Kansas and Nebraska would be made up out of what was left of the Louisiana Purchase. These two territories could decide if they about slavery. Later, the people of Kansas wanted to separate their state into antislavery and pro-slavery groups. In March of 1855, elections for this idea began.
The Kansas Nebraska Act was a bill in 1854 that mandated "popular sovereignty." This allowed people settling in a territory to decide whether to have slavery or not within their borders. This Act was proposed by Stephan A.Douglas. Douglas was also Abraham Lincoln's opponent in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. The bill overturned the boundary by latitude to separate slave territory and free territory. "
Have you ever wondered how we founded Kansas and Nebraska into America? Well it wasn’t as easy as just finding it and claiming it, it took a lot of controversy over slavery. The Nebraska Act was the one who really started a major argument over slavery and whether or not it should be in those states. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was important, it was significant to American History, and it led to the Civil War. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was significant to American history because it caused another party to form, and it led to the Civil War because it had split up the Union.
The North, which were anti-slavery, argued that Congress had the power to prohibit slavery in the new state. Meanwhile, the South,which were pro-slavery, believed that states, rather than the government, should have the right to decide whether they wanted slavery or not therefore they argued that the State of Missouri had the right to decide whether they wanted to be a slave state or not and that it should not be up to the Congress to decide. In an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress between slave and free states, Congress passed the Missouri Compromise which allowed Missouri to be a slave state and allowed Maine into the Union as a free state to resolve crisis, which a member of Congress, Henry Clay, offered. The history surrounding the nineteenth century led to the establishment of the Missouri
America’s urgency and continuous interest to expand Westward helped drive the idea of “Manifest Destiny” within the budding nation. Within the early 1800s Americans believed that it was right and justified to expand west and claim the unorganized area to the west. Manifest Destiny helped to drive the young and evolving nation of America by creating changes within its political system, its societal ideologies, and its ever-expanding economy. In the late 1700s to early 1800s politics was mainly influenced by the realm of the wealthier, upper class; politicians would attempt to grab the attention and endorsement of men who owned large amounts of land and money.
Douglas also being a believer in popular sovereignty started arguing that residents rather than congress should decide the status of slavery in a territory. In order to fulfil his wishes he created the Kansas Nebraska act 1954, the act divided the large chuck of incorporated land into Nebraska and
Additionally, vital political actions carried out by the federal government during the 1850s, led to more division between abolitionists and proslavery Southerners, as the decisions were more one-sided. Major events leading to this war included the Compromise of 1850, introduced by Henry Clay, who intended to unite the North and South, preventing secession, which John Calhoun strongly encouraged. However, the set of laws passed within Clay’s compromise led to more territorial conflict in the west. Next, the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854 was written by Stephen A. Douglas, who wanted to organize the territory of Nebraska. However, the act resulted in the outbreak of extreme fight and bloodshed in the border of Kansas, because of popular sovereignty and the Missouri Compromise being repealed.
The goal of this act was to make the people of those countries vote and decide to be free or slave. Nebraska is Brown’s birthplace. This solution of Kansas-Nebraska Act failed because it created competition between antislavery and proslavery. Therefore, they established a war and bloodshed between the two proslavery and antislavery. In 1885, a pro-slavery from Missourians came to Kansas; said that they would vote for slave and kill anyone else who do not vote for the slave.
Implemented in 1854, this revoked the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade slavery in the North. Even though Kansas would not be considered as a Northern state, it became a place of bloodshed as pro- and anti-slavery aspects expanded into the territory, strengthening the rising tension that was already present between the two parties. Pieter Geyl confirms that the North and South were ‘divided by a moral issue of the first magnitude,’ with one party ‘detesting slavery and, the other glorifying it as the basis of its social system.’ ‘Bleeding Kansas’ was an important component in understanding that the different ideologies of slavery between the people of Kansas at this time, resulted in their inability to compensate personal values for communal peace. As this act was aimed to save the North, to unify rather than divide, the Kansas-Nebraska Act resulted in the opposing contention. Reporter William Russell from the London Times had additionally claimed that the ‘tone’ and ‘speech’ of Southerners when alluding to people from the North were said in spite and hostility.
According to the “Kansas-Nebraska Act,” “When the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was passed, the Missouri compromise was repealed (They got rid of the rule). The act organized the Kansas-Nebraska territories on the principle of popular sovereignty” (1). This means that while the new act would allow the people to vote to be a slave or free state this means that the Missouri 36°30 line would be ignored and the North would get angered. It states, “A bitter contest followed between pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters for the control of Kansas. Between 50 and 200 people died during the fighting” (Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1).
The new compromises struck by legislators no longer had the same effect as earlier ones because neither side was truly willing to compromise. For the North, many believed that slavery shouldn’t be allowed in any of the new territories and a small but growing minority thought that slavery should immediately abolished in the entire country. These strong beliefs only strengthened the Southern belief that if the North had their way, the South would be a permanent minority and that their way of life would be forced to end. These hardened stances were the most easily observed in the Kansas territory after the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law. Pro and anti-slavery groups became increasingly violent until the conflict was known throughout the country as Bleeding Kansas.
Manifest Destiny is a unique, yet mysterious fundamental series of events in American history. No other country’s history contains such an eventful history as the United States. Amy Greenberg’s book, Manifest Destiny and American Territorial Expansion, provides documented evidence that settlers believed they were destined for expansion throughout the continent. In other words, many religious settlers believed that it was a call from God for the United States to expand west. On the other hand, people believed that Manifest Destiny vindicated the war against Mexico.