Kansas-Nebraska Act and Bleeding Kansas

     The Kansas-Nebraska Act was an extremely controversial act passed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois in January of 1854 in order to quickly organize the Kansas and Nebraska territories to continue the expansion of settlement and commerce. While it did solve problems, the Kansas-Nebraska Act disavowed the Missouri Compromise, because if the voters in Kansas Nebraska voted to advocate slavery in their territories as a result of Douglas' allowance of popular sovereignty, then slavery would no longer be prohibited in the territory of the Louisiana Purchase of 36゜30' territory (fundamentals of Missouri Compromise). Douglas, hoping to unite his party of Democrats, discovered that his bill had done the opposite: as shown in the fact that it had only passed the House by a narrow margin of one vote. The angry Northerners now protested the bill and stated that they were succumbing to the power of slaves. The Southerners, who had originally remained silent through it all, not advocating, nor opposing the passing of the bill, now felt defensive against the Northerners and led Northerners into believing that there was a conspiracy to extend slavery beyond its given boundaries.