What was the outcome of the Kansas Nebraska Act?
The Kansas-Nebraska Act forced the repealing of the Missouri Compromise, which infuriated northerners. However, the Kansas-Nebraska Act easily passed the Senate on March 4, 1854 by a vote of 37 to 14 with southern Whigs voting in favor of the bill—even if southern Whigs voted against the bill, it still would have passed the Senate.
What was the purpose of the Nebraska Bill?
Alternative Title: Nebraska Bill. Kansas-Nebraska Act, (May 30, 1854), in the antebellum period of U.S. history, critical national policy change concerning the expansion of slavery into the territories, affirming the concept of popular sovereignty over congressional edict.
Why was Kansas admitted as a Free State?
Kansas-Nebraska Act. Kansas was admitted as a free state in January 1861 only weeks after eight Southern states seceded from the union. On January 4, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas, wanting to ensure a northern transcontinental railroad route that would benefit his Illinois constituents, introduced a bill to organize the territory…
Why did the northerners want the Nebraska Territory?
The incentive for the organization of the territory came from the need for a transcontinental railroad. Northerners wanted the road to follow a northern route. The Platte Valley, over which thousands of covered wagon emigrants had traveled to the far West, offered an excellent road bed.
Who was the author of the Nebraska and Kansas Bill?
The author of the bill—officially called “An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas”—was Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, eclipsed in history by his rival Lincoln, but for most of his lifetime a figure of far greater national consequence.
Who was involved in the organization of Nebraska?
To help make the dream of the Platte Valley railroad come true, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, an ardent supporter, repeatedly introduced bills in Congress providing for the organization of Nebraska Territory. In doing so, he ran afoul of southern ambitions to build the railroad west from some city of the South.
Why was Kansas known as the Bleeding Kansas?
Kansas Territory, because of its proximity to Missouri, a slave state, became a political and literal battleground for proslavery and antislavery forces. Contested elections, armed conflict, and recruitment of support from settlers with sympathies to the North and the South contributed to the label “Bleeding Kansas.”
Why was slavery against the law in Nebraska?
By the terms of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery was prohibited in the area where Nebraska would be formed. Southern politicians, cool about the organization of Nebraska for railroad purposes, were hostile to the admission of another free state into the union.
Who was president when the Nebraska bill was passed?
Despite fierce opposition from abolitionists and Free Soilers, as those who opposed extending slavery into new territories were known, the Senate passed the Nebraska bill. President Franklin Pierce signed it into law on May 30, 1854.
Why did Senator Douglas want to divide the Nebraska Territory?
Sen. Douglas wanted to divide the territory into the Nebraska Territory and the Kansas Territory; to gain support of the South, he decided slavery could be decided by popular sovereignty Land Rush Nebraska was too far north for plantations–people of Nebraska wanted territory without slavery.