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Kansas-Nebraska Act: Territories
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The Kansas-Nebraska Act failed to end the national conflict over slavery. Antislavery forces viewed the statute as a capitulation to the South, and many abandoned the Whig and Democratic parties to form the Republican party. Kansas soon became a battleground over slavery. On May 25, 1856, the militant abolitionist John Brown led a raid against proslavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas, killing five persons. The violence between the abolitionists and those who were proslavery soon gave the territory the name "Bleeding Kansas."
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As Kansans get ready for the 150th Anniversary of the signing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Governor Kathleen Sebelius has appointed William Muir III and Secretary Mike Hayden to the Kansas Territorial Sesquicentennial Commission. Each was appointed to the board as new members to serve terms ending 07/01/2005.
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Senator Stephen A. Douglas (D, Illinois), who sponsored and defended the Kansas-Nebraska Act in Congress, argued that letting each territory decide for itself whether to allow slavery would help ease tensions in the nation over the issue of slavery. "The bill will triumph and impart peace to the country and stability to the Union," he declared.
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The Kansas and Nebraska Act wanted to create the two new territories in the west allowing Kansas as a slave state, but Nebraska was to be entered into the Union as a free state. Northerners were antislavery. Southerners schemed to extend slavery into Kansas, so the act brought a new and greater struggle for control of the western territory.
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The Kansas–Nebraska Act was an Act of Congress in 1854 organizing the remaining territory within the Louisiana Purchase for settlement before its admission to the Union. It was contrived by and passed by those legislators who favored the political standpoint of the use of popular sovereignty to decide if a territory would be open to slavery. Its passage only exacerbated the rift between the Northern and Southern states over the issue of slavery and added fuel to the fire that became the American Civil War .
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Many critics objected to the Kansas-Nebraska Act because they were against the advancement of slavery. In fact, many argued, the bill had been introduced with the sole purpose of furthering the spread of slavery. "Not in any common lust for power did this uncommon tragedy have its origin," Sumner declared in his "Crime Against Kansas" speech. "It is the rape of a virgin Territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of Slavery; and it may be clearly traced to a depraved longing for a new slave State, the hideous offspring of such a crime, in the hope of adding to the power of slavery in the National Government."
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