Kansas–Nebraska Act

The Kansas - Nebraska Act was submitted by U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas in the January 1854 draft legislation for the creation of the two territories, Kansas and Nebraska.

Thereafter, the northern part of the acquired through the purchase of the French colony of Louisiana government should (see Louisiana Purchase ) are divided into two territories, with Nebraska and Kansas to the north should be in the south. About the question of slavery, the ( white ) residents should decide for themselves. This law made ​​in 1856 in Kansas between opponents and supporters of slavery for bloody battles that became known as Bleeding Kansas and nearly led to civil war. Background was now declared unconstitutional Missouri Compromise, which had among other things, prohibited slavery north of the 36th parallel.

For the opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, under the leadership of Abraham Lincoln was born on February 28, 1854, the Republican Party. The U.S. Congress passed the law despite protests and after fierce debates; President Franklin Pierce signed it on May 30, 1854.

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