Kansas Nebraska Act Dbq

As the United States began to rapidly expand westward in the early 1800’s, it made for several effects on the country as a whole. Agreements were continuously being written up of which divided the perimeters of the newly explored lands to the west. From the Louisiana Purchase to California claiming statehood, the frenzy over the new territories was spreading as rapidly as the plague. One of the most contemplative issues that arose within this expansion boom was brought on by the Kansas- Nebraska Act of 1854. Although the Kansas- Nebraska Act was an attempt by Senator Stephen Douglas to organize the vast Nebraska territory west of Iowa and Missouri it renewed a decades old debate over slavery and caused the nation to fall more deeply into sectional…show more content…
This contributed to a real sense of urgency amongst the Northerners and Southerners alike, to settle the territory with sensible settlers, hence seizing political control of it. Following to the act, widespread voting irregularities in Kansas gave way to armed conflict between free- and slave-state settlers. Rival governments were established at Topeka (free) and Lecompton (proslavery). "Bleeding Kansas" proved to a majority of Northerners and many Southerners that popular sovereignty was not an acceptable middle ground between the sectional extremes of slavery restriction and extension. Politically it destroyed the ascendancy of the Democrats in the North. In the off-year elections following the passing of the act, the party was able to save only twenty-five of ninety-one free-state seats it had won in 1852. The end result of the act was an upset in the balance of power within the Democratic Party weakening a powerful voice of nationalism in a period of growing sectional bitterness. The act also contributed to the end of the Whig Party and to the rise of the Republican Party, which based its appeal on repealing the Kansas Nebraska act and halting the spread of slavery that had erupted in the time this act was in…show more content…
2009. Independence Hall Association. 4 Dec. 2012 <http://www.ushistory.org/us/31a.asp>
Donald, Randall. “Kansas- Nebraska Act.” 2007. The Civil War and Reconstruction. 3 Dec. 2012 www.civilwarhome.com/kansasnebraska
Forbes, Robert Forbes. The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery & the Meaning of America,University of North Carolina Pr, North Carolina, 2009.
Hodder, Frank Heywood. The Genesis of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, BiblioBazaar Reproductions, 17 Oct. 2010.
Boritt, Gabor S. "Douglas, Stephen Arnold." 2000 World Book Encyclopedia, 2000.

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[ 1 ]. Donald, Randall, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 2007, http://www.civilwarhome.com/kansasnebraska.html, 5 Dec. 2012.
[ 2 ]. Forbes, Robert Forbes. The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery & the Meaning of America,University of North Carolina Pr, North Carolina, 2009, p.90.
[ 3 ]. Hodder, Frank Heywood. The Genesis of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, BiblioBazaar Reproductions, 17 Oct. 2010, p. 12.
[ 4 ]. Forbes, Robert Forbes. The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery & the Meaning of America,University of North Carolina Pr, North Carolina, 2009,