LESSON 8: KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT, 1854
Student Handout 1: Problem
ANTEBELLUM AMERICA
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Kansas-Nebraska Act
The year is 1854 and you are President Franklin Pierce. It is a tense time for the country.
There are thousands of abolitionists in the North who have been agitating against slavery.
They don’t speak for a majority of Northerners, but they’ve been causing a lot of debate.
Southern congressmen have acted to prevent antislavery petitions from being read in
Congress by what is called the “gag rule.”
The two political parties have, until recently, been able to keep the agitation over slavery
in the background. Since each party consists of proslavery and antislavery groups, each
has stressed issues other than slavery. The Democrats have been effective in stressing
westward expansion, or Manifest Destiny. The Whigs have emphasized a high tariff to
keep the “Conscience Whigs” (abolitionist) and “Cotton Whigs” (proslavery Southern
planters and Northern manufacturers) united in the party. Unfortunately for the Whigs,
the country is prospering with a low tariff, so slavery is more of a dominant issue for
them. The Fugitive Slave Act mobilized the abolitionists (Conscience Whigs), furthering
the division within the party. Southerners in border states (such as Missouri) feel that the
Fugitive Slave Law isn’t working because there is Northern resistance. In 1852, the
abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin roused even more resentment in the North against
slavery, selling more than 300,000 copies. The Democrats won the 1852 election in a
landslide, partly because they stayed united behind the Compromise of 1850, while the
Whigs split over it. Since a majority of Americans seems to favor a compromise on the
issue of slavery in the territories, the Democrats gained the support of the voters over
the Whigs.
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LESSON 8: Handout 1, Page 2
Into this difficult situation, Senator Stephen Douglas of
Illinois has introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In this act,
the Pacific Railway route would be in the North, running
west from Chicago out to California. In order to get Southern
votes for the bill, Douglas has asserted that the Missouri
Compromise line would be void (the line runs at the southern
boundary of Missouri; north of that line, slavery is outlawed).
The bill says that the territories north of the line are now
open to popular sovereignty. This means that the people in
those territories can choose whether to allow slavery. The bill
also divides the area into northern (Nebraska) and southern
(Kansas) territories. Many Americans think the split into two
territories was done to make one a free state and one a slave
state. Douglas believes that popular sovereignty always leads
Stephen Douglas
to free territories and states. So, why get upset about the
Missouri Compromise line, when the areas will end up free of slavery anyway?
Slaveholders throughout the South like the act. It adds the possibility of another slave state
to balance new free states. Missouri slaveholders are afraid that if Kansas becomes a free
territory or state, they would be surrounded on three sides by free areas to which slaves
could flee. The new act holds the possibility that Kansas could become a slave state,
preventing Missouri from being surrounded. Slaveholders in Missouri are a small minority
of the total population of the state, and yet are used to achieving political victories.
Those against slavery feel the Kansas-Nebraska Act is bad
for the country even if slavery does not spread to either
territory, since it ends the national government’s stated
policy to oppose the spread of slavery, as it had done in the
Northwest Ordinance and the Missouri Compromise.
Senator Salmon Chase of Ohio argues that the KansasNebraska Act is part of a conspiracy by the “Slave Power”
of Southern leaders to spread slavery everywhere in
the territories. For many Northerners, the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise shows that the South will throw
Salmon Chase
out compromises to spread slavery. They feel the KansasNebraska Act is a grave threat to the Union. Senator Chase says that Northerners should
protest against the act in every way possible rather than allow the Missouri Compromise
to be repealed.
Will you support the Kansas-Nebraska Act? Explain.
Permission granted to reproduce for classroom use only. ©2009 Social Studies School Service. (800) 421-4246. http://socialstudies.com
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