Skill 7: Summarize Douglas's attempt to solve the issue of slavery with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.
Douglas(Little Giant) and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854
Stephen A. Douglas was born in 1813 in Illinois where he picked up pro-compromise regions. Douglas took part in the 1850 compromise and was held responsible for coming back to the slavery issue after the compromise. It is possible that publishing his ideas may have started as early as 1844 in which he came up with a plan to organize the territories west of Iowa and Missouri. Douglas was going to separate them into to territories ( Nebraska and Kansas). Not only this but Douglas wanted a railroad going from his home in Chicago and San Fransisco, to do this Douglas made a deal with the southerners that originally wanted a railroad from Memphis to New Orleans.
Douglas believed that in organizing the territories the west was to join the nation, which in his perspective was what everyone out west wanted. Douglas also thought that if the nation expanded and unified, his party (democratic) would strengthen. In the process of fulfilling his beliefs Douglas thought Popular sovereignty would be the way to run these new territories. By running it this way people were able to vote as a territory on weather or not slavery was just on their soil. This idea was brought back from the compromise of 1850. Nebraska agreed to sovereignty, however slavery was not legal in its location. Nebraska located at the 36,30 was in anti-slavery territory.
Douglas had assumed that for every one slave state there was to be a free state and in this case he was correct. To gain the support of the South on the placement of Nebraska, Douglas supported the Missouri Compromise which was not looked highly upon by the North, but pleased the South. Slavery was legalized above the line, which in turn caused major turmoil in the congress. On January 23, 1854 Douglas decided it was time to go through with his plan and sent a bill to congress to create Nebraska in the North and Kansas in the South.
The government struggled with this bill because passing it would also mean repealing the Missouri compromise and the establishment of popular sovereignty in the new North and South territories. After a few bumps in the road and several passing months the Nebraska-Kansas Act went into effect in may of 1854.
The act turned out to be quite effective for a while. People rushed to the territories to gain their spot on the land. All too soon however, the act became ineffective. The North wanted the embellishment of slavery and were creating towns against slavery, while the south went against this it is not the law of the territory, it was not allowed. The South quickly acted upon the abolitionist's town known as Lawrence. This was the final straw of the North and South attacking each other, it was time for retaliation. The North came back and murdered five pro-slavery settlers at Pottawatomie Creek. This act was known as Bleeding Kansas led by John Brown, it was also called a mini civil war.
"If the people of Kansas want a slave holding state let them have it, and if they want a free state they have a right to it, and it is not for the people of Illinois, or Missouri, or New York, or Kentucky, to complain, whatever the decision of Kansas may be." ~Stephen A. Douglas