The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a major step leading to the Civil War. It overthrew the Missouri Compromise and gave the residents of new territories the power to decide whether to allow slavery. It more firmly wed slavery with states’ rights and created uncertainty about the extent of slavery in the western territories.
…it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it there from, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way…
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
Stephen Douglas's amendment to S. 22, Senate version of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, February 15, 1854
Preserving the Union pt 1
To achieve unity among the states, the nation’s founders did not confront the issue of slavery in the Constitution, but left it for future generations to resolve. In the 19th century, applications for statehood from western territorial legislatures threatened the balance of free and slave states in the Senate. Congress shifted the basis for determining the status of slavery in each territory from the territory’s geographical location to a vote by its inhabitants under the principle of ‘popular sovereignty.’ Slavery remained a burning issue that threatened the Union and eventually led to the Civil War.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a major step leading to the Civil War. It overthrew the Missouri Compromise and gave the residents of new territories the power to decide whether to allow slavery. It more firmly wed slavery with states’ rights and created uncertainty about the extent of slavery in the western territories.
…it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it there from, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way…
Records of the U.S. Senate, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
