today we're looking at the kansas-nebraska act
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the questions down in the description also I'd love to see your answer to question number five
in the comments below so the kansas-nebraska act if you really you want one piece of legislation
that we could argue leads us to the Civil War it's really the kansas-nebraska act of 1854
and this act again centers around slavery so if we're looking to here just a few years earlier
than earlier we had the compromise of 1850 remember the compromise of 1850 California
in turn as a free state upsetting that balance between free and slave states but in exchange
the South had gotten stronger Fugitive Slave laws in Fugitive Slave Act and it had left the issue
of slavery in new territory such as Utah and New Mexico up to settlers with the idea of popular
sovereignty now remember this whole compromise had been crafted basically by Henry Clay but
by 1854 Henry Clay was dead and there was a new congressman who had really come along and helped
push the compromise of 1850 through 1850 through and was now ruling with this one of the strongest
leaders in Congress and that was Illinois senator Stephen Douglas and at the time in 1854 there were
plans for a Transcontinental Railroad to begin construction the only problem was the railroad
companies needed the territories of Kansas and Nebraska to be organized in territories before
they could start building and so the plan was they were gonna build this railroad course from
the LES coast and it was going to connect back east in Chicago now Stephen Douglas he was of
course a senator from Chicago this would help his state out if he could get this bill passed
but ironically Stephen Douglas had also purchased property in Chicago where the end of the railroad
would be at and he stint he stood to make a lot of money off this himself if he could get this
bill through Congress southerners they fought fiercely against this bill because they knew
that these territories of Kansas and Nebraska were both located above that 3630 line that was
set out in the Missouri Compromise and so they do when they can these territories became States they
would come in as free states and so southerners are like that's gonna throw off the balance
even more because we just allowed California to come in as a free state so they were absolutely
against it all right now Stephen Douglas here Oh caryn necessarily about this issue of slavery he
just simply wanted to get the railroad built so Douglas proposes instead of sticking to the 3630
line rules set forth and it was very compromise how about we just say popular sovereignty again is
going to decide slavery in these new territories so again remember popular sovereignty was that
you know the idea that when these states apply for statehood the citizens of the state would vote for
whether or not they wanted slavery in their states so as soon as this gets proposed of course this it
sets off a firestorm of debate in in Congress uh senator solomon chase of ohio he basically
said you know that this is a gross violation of a sacred pledge charles sumner who was one of the
biggest you know leading abolitionist i guess you would say in the in in congress he said this he
said it is going to turn the New Territories into a dreary region of despotism with despotism means
cruel absolute power and it would be inhabited by masters and slaves so the debate is really getting
fierce about this whole organizing of Kansas and Nebraska now despite the debate and the attacks
Stephen Douglas continues pushing this through Congress same time President Franklin Pierce at
the time and he's in favor of the bill being passed and so the bill goes for a vote in the
Senate it passes 37 to 14 in the house it's a little bit closer 113 to 100 it passes and then
on May 30th of 1854 President Pierce signs it into law now the fallout from this bill is tremendous
I mean it causes huge division in the country even we're slowing the compromise of 1850 first
it basically erases that 3630 line set forth in the Missouri Compromise so now slavery can
expand anywhere it wants to in the West as long as the citizens of that state vote that they want
slavery they're second the bill really begins to break up the political parties the huge parties
were the course the Democrats and the Whigs people begin to identify themselves as either northern or
southern democrats or northern or southern Whigs and people who really against Douglas and really
against the expansion of slavery they begin to form a new party known as the Republicans okay
we're gonna course see them slowly form here in the mid to late 1850s until eventually they are
going to have their first president there in 1860 but also the hope practice of popular sovereignty
in the West you know yes it's a democratic principle but when it actually goes into
practice there in these new states when they're voting on the shooter's issue of slavery it causes
huge problems and we're gonna get to that when we talk about bleeding Kansas but finally one
last huge outcome of this that is realizable years later a lawyer in Springfield Illinois
he is absolutely irate about the kansas-nebraska Act he's irate about Douglass's actions and he
doesn't want to see slavery spread to the West and this this lawyer he had he had been in political
offices before but had basically retired and said he was done with politics but now after
the kansas-nebraska Act he says he has to do something about this he has to take Douglas out
of office now of course you're probably getting it here that lawyer was of course Abraham Lincoln
alright so the kansas-nebraska Act is gonna set him on a course that eventually gonna lead for
him becoming president alright so hopefully you learn something there and thanks for watching
you