all right this is openstax u.s history chapter 14 section 2 the kansas-nebraska act and the republican party so the debate over slavery in the western territories was put to a rest at least temporarily due to the compromise of 1850 according to that compromise there essentially wasn't any territory left in the united states to argue about manifest destiny had been achieved and you know the status of slavery in all the territories and states essentially had already been put there so things sort of died down just a little bit franklin pierce was elected president in 1852 didn't really talk too much about the issue of slavery he talked about this idea or this notion of young america which was to spread democracy and acquire overseas lands so you know the issue of slavery really wasn't uh to the forefront of political debates um you know after the compromise of 1850 however that all changed with the kansas nebraska act and the kansas nebraska act might be the most consequential maybe even the most important law that's ever been passed in american history and the reason is because it revived the issue of slavery in a way that ultimately led to the civil war so we might say of the kansas-nebraska act this revived the issue of slavery and sent the u.s down the path of civil war that's not to say that civil war was inevitable at this point um but certainly you know pushed the united states kind of down that uh down that trajectory so what's the kansas nebraska act all about okay so it begins with the desire to build a transcontinental railroad this goes back to the idea of manifest destiny wanting to link the united states from atlantic to the pacific so the transcontinental railroad is a train a railroad that reaches from the atlantic ocean to the pacific and they were deciding where they were going to build this whatever state or whatever city that the transcontinental railroad ran through in all likelihood would greatly benefit that city or state there were northerners who wanted to see this built in the north one of them was stephen douglas the same steven douglas who was the hero of the compromise of 1850 he was from illinois he wanted the train let's call it just the tr transcontinental railroad to go through chicago all right whereas other uh namely southern uh congressmen wanted the train to go through the south so you know this was kind of a bid to try and see who can get it first and so the kansas nebraska act initially was put forward as a way to create new states kansas and nebraska so to create new states in order to make way for the construction of this railroad in fact slavery was sort of an afterthought and what stephen douglas did in his grave error in introducing this bill and eventually getting it passed was he greatly underestimated just how important the issue of slavery was to the nation so what the kansas nebraska act did was it created two new states and the idea was to get these states admitted to the union as soon as possible to allow for the construction of this railroad you know construction or railroad companies certainly want some of the security uh to know that there are certain laws on the books like taxes and stuff like that it's much more it's much less risky to build a railroad through a state than it is through a territory so by speeding up the process this was kind of a way to jump start this railroad project uh in creating these two new states stephen douglas proposed that the status of slavery would be up for popular sovereignty that is it would be voted on and this is really the kind of key point in the kansas nebraska act is that it repealed a previous law set by congress and that was the missouri compromise because essentially this territory will recall the missouri compromise set a line right the missouri compromise line everything above the line was to be free soil everything below the line was to be slave the two new states that were created kansas and nebraska they were on the free side of this line so you know these were territories or states actually i should write it right way kansas was more southern right kansas nebraska these were two states that were on the free side of the line so according to congress back in 1820 kansas and nebraska should have been three states however now because this bill does pass barely passes i think by three votes or something like that now this territory that had previously been designated as free soil now is potentially open to slavery and this was planned by douglas because it was believed that kansas being a little bit more in the south would vote for the pro-slavery position and nebraska would be a free state and so that would kind of appease everyone right southerners would get one more slave state northerners would get a free state and douglas thought that that would be okay however you know this uh you know setting the precedent of potentially taking free soil and turning it into slave soil right or where slavery was illegal uh legal excuse me that was really unprecedented and that's really what northerners could not stand for you know in previous debates in most cases there was territory that you know the legality of slavery hadn't been determined by congress right and and it could go potentially either you know free or slave this was something different right this was soil that was already designated as free soil and now was being opened up to the potential possibility so the kansas nebraska act completely blew up the entire political system you know the whig party it for all practical purposes really you know doesn't really exist anymore right it literally kills the whig party because northerners and southerners are so deeply divided on this issue a new political party is created republican party this is a new party um created to oppose kansas nebraska and you know really what happens to the democratic party is that the democratic party becomes a purely sectional party becomes a party of the south right so we can think of the republican party really in this period as being the north party and the democratic party which you know existed in the age of jackson and did have some northern support you know more and more northerners are moving away from the democratic party into this new party but again you know this party is brand new it takes a little bit of time for them to gain some popularity but certainly in terms of consequences a major consequence of kansas nebraska is you know the ending of the second party system right so we might just take a note i'll just uh sort of make a quick quick blurb here kansas nebraska act ends the second party system right that of course is the democrats and the whigs a party system is any time that two political parties are competitive throughout the united states and you know really means that there are only two games in town so to speak that's consequence number one consequence number two is that it you know it essentially leads to outright violence the kansas-nebra nebraska act does in an episode called bleeding kansas we can think of bleeding kansas as like the civil war before the actual civil war all right so it's like a mini civil war right the actual civil war being from you know starting in 1861. so popular sovereignty is now the law of the land people in kansas and kansas is the contested state here because it borders missouri which is a slave state so kansas is going to be under the magnifying glass here but they're going to vote on the status of slavery in kansas and so those people who are pro-slavery all move to kansas in an effort to try and expand slavery those who are anti-slavery all move to kansas and try to prevent it from going that way and it turns into a bloody mess right bleeding kansas so border ruffians border roughings are pro-slavery voters from missouri right so these are people who cross over the border from the slave state of missouri cast an illegal ballot um in favor of the pro-slavery state of kansas uh and then uh you know essentially go back uh this results in the pro-slavery position winning the lecompton constitution is the pro-slavery constitution however northerners in congress say that it was illegally voted for right that there were illegal ballots that were cast the election is not legit and therefore they won't recognize the pro-slavery state of kansas meanwhile you have northerners who are sending aid and people into kansas to try to counterbalance the border ruffians one example is the new england immigrant aid society we might say an anti-slavery organization to combat slavery in kansas you know sending money and people to vote for the free position anti-slavery organization to combat slavery in kansas and this erupts in violence ultimately at the end of the day bleeding kansas results in 150 people being killed and these are pro-slavery oops the reason why we call it the civil war before the civil war is because the violence is perpetrated by pro-slavery and anti-slavery supporters right so pro-slavery versus anti-slavery violence and probably the most the most notorious incident of this was the actions of john brown john brown believed himself to be a sort of a you know an anti-slavery abolitionist warrior of some sort sent by god in order to get rid of slavery so we'll just call john brown a radical and violent cat tie slavery i'll just call person and at the potawatomi creek an incident known as the padawatami creek massacre uh several pro-slavery people are killed by brown we'll say killed running out of room here by brown right john brown kills a number of pro-slavery people um chopping them to pieces with uh with swords so all this violence ultimately spills over also into the congress charles sumner is a northern senator so in kansas right you have incidents like the pottawatomie creek massacre john brown pro and anti-slavery forces are going to kansas and literally fighting for their side 150 people are killed meanwhile in the congress right there are representatives from the north and the south who up until this time period these debates have gotten pretty heated right but the what happened to charles sumner what's known as the kaning of sumner also adds to the violence charles sumner gives a speech called the crime against kansas he is a northerner but also an abolitionist in this speech he really detests uh southern culture the pro-slavery institution and he attacks specific southern senators uh one or you know probably many people in the south believe that charles sumner went too far with this speech one individual who wanted to protect and did defend the honor of those southern senators who were called out was preston brooks preston brooks was a representative member of the house and he took his cane and beat the senator into a coma so we'll say of preston brooks he beat charles sumner into a coma or his speech um you know this incident the caning of sumner which is what it's called um you know charles sumner was seen as a martyr by northerners southerners viewed preston brooks as rightfully standing up for the honor and integrity of the people that charles sumner insulted it's also stated that people from around the south or at least those people who supported what bret preston brooks did actually sent him new cane so he got hundreds of new canes as a result of that but you know the bottom line is to say that not only does bleeding kansas lead to uh you know the the breakup of the political system or the breakdown of the political party system but really outright violence between two sides um which really was unprecedented up until this point when it came to the issue of you know slavery in the western territories um so in 1856 the political system is a complete disaster uh there's emergence of a new party either called the american party or the know nothing party this was an anti-immigrant party wanted to prevent the immigration especially of catholics from ireland they end up getting a considerable number of votes especially in northern cities the republican party which is new it's an aptis slavery party they run john fremont again there's not um you know this is a party that really popped up overnight they still do pretty well in the election of 1856 given that they're brand new you can see that here they replaced the old free soil party this is a political cartoon about uh slavery being forced down the throat of the free soiler and lastly the democratic party they elect james buchanan simply because he is the least controversial of the picks he really wasn't around to debate the kansas nebraska act so he's seen as you know you know a safe pick in some ways uh stephen douglas who had aspirations to become president um he couldn't run because you know the kansas nebraska act was so toxic you know stephen douglas goes from being the hero to being the zero now with this law um james buchanan and the democratic party end up winning the election but the problem about slavery in the western territories and the legality of slavery in kansas is it a slave state is it a free state that remains that remains a question