query: the passage of the kansas-nebraska act led directly to the establishment of which political party

pos: Kansas–Nebraska Act split both the Democratic and Whig parties and gave rise to the Republican Party, which split the United States into two major political camps, the Republican North and the Democratic South. Senator Stephen A. Douglas and former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln aired their disagreement over the Kansas–Nebraska Act in seven public speeches during September and October 1854. Lincoln gave his most comprehensive argument against slavery and the provisions of the act in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, the Peoria Speech. He and Douglas both spoke to the large audience, Douglas first and Lincoln in response, two hours later. Lincoln's three-hour

pos: Sam Houston Act led to his departure from the Democratic Party. In 1855, Houston began to be publicly associated with the American Party, the political wing of the nativist and unionist Know Nothing movement. The Whig Party had collapsed after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Know Nothings and the anti-slavery Republican Party had both emerged as major political movements. Houston's affiliation with the party stemmed in part from his fear of the growing influence of Catholic voters; though he opposed barring Catholics from holding office, he wanted to extend the naturalization period for immigrants to twenty-one years. He was

pos: Opposition Party (Northern U.S.) Constitutional Union Party. It represented a brief but significant transitional period in American politics from approximately 1854 to 1858. For the preceding 80 years, one of the major political issues had been the battle between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the United States, which had been fought more on the basis of regional and class affiliations than strictly along party lines. However, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 fractured the Whig Party along pro- and anti-slavery lines, and led ultimately to the formation of the Republican Party, which strongly attracted anti-slavery Whigs and Democrats. For many, the

pos: Kansas Republican Party million registered voters in Kansas, about 45% registered as members of the Republican Party, about 25% registered as members of the Democratic Party, and about 30% registered as unaffiliated with any political party. Kansas and the Republican Party owe their mutual existence to the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise. The Compromise had outlawed slavery above the 36⁰30' latitude in the Louisiana territories. Eliminating the Missouri Compromise left the question of whether Kansas would be a slave or free state up to the Kansas voters. Anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers came into Kansas in order

pos: Franklin Pierce Whigs split along sectional lines; the conflict destroyed them as a national party. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was passed in May 1854 and ultimately defined the Pierce presidency. The political turmoil that followed the passage saw the short-term rise of the nativist and anti-Catholic American Party, often called the Know Nothings, and the founding of the Republican Party. Even as the act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue poured into the territories so as to secure the outcome they wanted in the voting. The passage of the act resulted in so much violence between groups that

pos: Rufus P. Spalding back to the South from Ohio under the Fugitive Slave laws. Spalding was a major figure in the creation of the Ohio Republican Party. Following the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854, anti-slavery politicians from various parties met in the Town Street Methodist Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio to form what became the Fusion Party. At the convention, Spalding chaired the Resolutions Committee. The committee drafted six resolutions, including one that pledged that the party would render inoperative the portion of the Kansas-Nebraska act which abolished freedom in the territory withdrawn from the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Fusion

pos: Stephen A. Douglas had hoped that the Kansas–Nebraska Act would help ease sectional tensions, and he was surprised by the intensity of Northern backlash to his proposal and to Douglas himself. He later remembered, "I could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of my own effigy." Democrats suffered major losses in the 1854 elections, which saw the emergence of the nativist Know Nothing movement and the anti-slavery Republican Party. The Illinois legislature replaced Senator James Shields, a Douglas ally, with Lyman Trumbull, an anti-slavery Democrat. After the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery and pro-slavery settlers flocked to Kansas Territory in

pos: People's Party (Indiana) People's Party (Indiana) The Indiana People's Party was a short-lived American political party in the state of Indiana. It participated in the United States House of Representatives election of 1854, and continued to function until 1860, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party attracted former Democrats and Whigs who were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which extended slavery in the United States. Henry S. Lane was essential in organizing the People's Party in Indiana. Lane's influence over the older Whigs brought most into the People's Party, while abolitionists joined because of the anti-Kansas-Nebraska Act platform. Lane also helped

pos: Israel Washburn Jr. Israel Washburn Jr. Israel Washburn Jr. (June 6, 1813 – May 12, 1883) was a United States political figure. Originally a member of the Whig Party, he later became a founding member of the Republican Party. In 1842, Washburn served in the Maine House of Representatives. In 1854, angry over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Washburn called a meeting of 30 members of the US House of Representatives to discuss forming what became the Republican Party. Republican gatherings had taken place in Wisconsin and Michigan earlier in the year, but Washburn's meeting was the first in the U.S. Capital,

pos: Israel Washburn Jr. B. Washburne, Cadwallader C. Washburn, William D. Washburn, Samuel Benjamin Washburn, and Charles Ames Washburn. He died in 1883 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is buried at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor, Maine. The town of Washburn, Maine is named in his honor. Israel Washburn Jr. Israel Washburn Jr. (June 6, 1813 – May 12, 1883) was a United States political figure. Originally a member of the Whig Party, he later became a founding member of the Republican Party. In 1842, Washburn served in the Maine House of Representatives. In 1854, angry over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Washburn

pos: Free Soil Party Van Buren won 10.1% of the popular vote and Whig nominee Zachary Taylor defeated Cass. The Compromise of 1850 reduced tensions regarding slavery, but some remained in the party. In the 1852 presidential election, Hale won 4.9% of the popular vote as the party's nominee. Passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 revitalized the anti-slavery movement and the party membership (including leaders such as Hale and Chase) was largely absorbed by the Republican Party between 1854 and 1856 by way of the Anti-Nebraska movement. In 1848, the New York State Democratic convention did not endorse the Wilmot Proviso, an act

pos: Democratic Party (United States) when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery. In 1854, angry with the Kansas–Nebraska Act, anti-slavery Democrats left the party and joined Northern Whigs to form the Republican Party. Behind the platforms issued by state and national parties stood a widely shared political outlook that characterized the Democrats: The Democrats split over the choice of a successor to President James Buchanan along Northern and Southern lines as factions of the party provided two separate candidacies for President in the election of 1860, in which the Republican Party gained ascendancy. The radical pro-slavery Fire-Eaters led a walkout at both

pos: Thurlow Weed and Seward became leaders of the New York Anti-Masonic Party, and Weed established the "Albany Evening Journal". Weed supported the American System of Henry Clay and helped establish the Whig Party in the 1830s. He helped Seward win election as Governor of New York and supported the successful presidential candidacies of Harrison and Taylor, though both died in office. Weed led the New York Whigs for much of the 1830s and 1840s but abandoned the Whigs following the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. He helped organize the Republican Party and supported Frémont's nomination at the 1856 Republican National Convention. He

pos: History of the United States (1849–1865) repealed the Missouri Compromise. President Franklin Pierce supported the bill as did the South and a fraction of northern Democrats. The act split the Whigs. Northern Whigs generally opposed the Kansas–Nebraska Act while Southern Whigs supported it. Most Northern Whigs joined the new Republican Party. Some joined the Know-Nothing Party which refused to take a stance on slavery. The southern Whigs tried different political moves, but could not reverse the regional dominance of the Democratic Party. With the opening of Kansas, settlers rushed into the new territory. Both pro- and anti-slavery supporters rushed to settle in the new territory. Violent

pos: American frontier leaving little opportunity for free white men to own farms. Few Southern planters were actually interested in Kansas, but the idea that slavery was illegal there implied they had a second-class status that was intolerable to their sense of honor, and seemed to violate the principle of state's rights. With the passage of the extremely controversial Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, Congress left the decision up to the voters on the ground in Kansas. Across the North a new major party was formed to fight slavery: the Republican Party, with numerous westerners in leadership positions, most notably Abraham Lincoln of Illinois.

pos: Anna Ella Carroll Whigs. At the time much political realignment was going on nationwide. The same year the Republican Party was formed. The Southern pro-slavery Democrats took over control of their party's leadership in Congress due to the defeat of many Northern Democrats following the passage of the unpopular Kansas–Nebraska Act in May. In Maryland, large numbers of immigrants, largely Irish and German Catholics, had flooded into Baltimore during the Great Famine in Ireland and the 1848 Revolutions in Germany. They took work in the port and railroad yards. Due to this rapid increase in population density, there was competition with free people

pos: Origins of the American Civil War was superior to that of the South, and increasingly persuaded of the South's ambitions to extend slave power beyond its existing borders, Northerners were embracing a viewpoint that made conflict likely; however, conflict required the ascendancy of a political group to express the views of the North, such as the Republican Party. The Republican Party—campaigning on the popular, emotional issue of "free soil" in the frontier—captured the White House after just six years of existence. The Republican Party grew out of the controversy over the Kansas–Nebraska legislation. Once the Northern reaction against the Kansas–Nebraska Act took place, its leaders acted

pos: Hannibal Hamlin as an opponent of the extension of slavery. He was a conspicuous supporter of the Wilmot Proviso and spoke against the Compromise Measures of 1850. In 1854, Hamlin strongly opposed the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise. After the Democratic Party endorsed that repeal at the 1856 Democratic National Convention, on June 12, 1856, he withdrew from the Democratic Party and joined the newly organized Republican Party, causing a national sensation. The Republicans nominated Hamlin for Governor of Maine in the same year. He carried the election by a large majority and was inaugurated on January

pos: 1854 United States House of Representatives elections the Know Nothings) and the Opposition Party formed a coalition government which elected Nathaniel P. Banks as House Speaker even though the Democratic Party won the election with the largest plurality of seats. The Opposition Party included members of the Whig Party (which would soon collapse), the People's Party of Indiana, Anti-Nebraska candidates, and members of the nascent Republican Party. The major issue of this midterm election was the recently passed Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Bleeding Kansas conflict that resulted from it. The Act infuriated much of the North, as it repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and opened the

pos: John Albion Andrew he was being held. Anger over that year's passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (which overturned the limitation of slavery's expansion under the Missouri Compromise of 1820) revitalized the Free Soil movement. Andrew was elected chair of a committee to manage a nominating convention for the 1854 elections. This meeting resulted in the first organization of the Republican Party in Massachusetts. Its slate was undermined by Henry Wilson's defection to the Know Nothing movement, which swept the state's elected offices that year. The Republicans reorganized in 1855, but Andrew was not involved in the party processes that resulted in the eventual

pos: History of the United States Republican Party History of the United States Republican Party The Republican Party, also referred to as the GOP (abbreviation for Grand Old Party), is one of the world's oldest extant political parties. The party values reflect economic conservatism, classical conservatism (modern day American conservatism) and corporate liberty rights. It is the second oldest existing political party in the United States after its primary rival, the Democratic Party. The party emerged in 1854 to combat the Kansas–Nebraska Act, an act that dissolved the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty.

pos: Hannibal Hamlin the beginning of 1857, after which he returned to the Senate. Hamlin was an active opponent of slavery; he supported the Wilmot Proviso and opposed the Compromise Measures of 1850. In 1854, he strongly opposed passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Hamlin's increasingly anti-slavery views caused him to leave the Democratic Party for the newly formed Republican Party in 1856. In 1860, Hamlin was the Republican nominee for Vice President; selected to run with Abraham Lincoln, who was from Illinois, Hamlin was chosen in part to bring geographic balance to the ticket and in part because as a former Democrat, he

pos: Salmon P. Chase Liberty Party. In 1848, he helped establish the Free Soil Party and recruited former President Martin Van Buren to serve as the party's presidential nominee. Chase won election to the Senate the following year, and he opposed the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. In the aftermath of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Chase helped establish the Republican Party, which opposed the extension of slavery into the territories. After leaving the Senate, Chase served as the Governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1860. Chase sought the Republican nomination for president in the 1860 presidential election, but the party chose Abraham Lincoln

pos: Abraham Lincoln Democrat, and had received few votes in the earlier ballots; his supporters, also antislavery Democrats, had vowed not to support any Whig. Lincoln's decision to withdraw enabled his Whig supporters and Trumbull's antislavery Democrats to combine and defeat the mainstream Democratic candidate, Joel Aldrich Matteson. In part due to the ongoing violent political confrontations in the Kansas, opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act remained strong in Illinois and throughout the North. As the 1856 elections approached, Lincoln abandoned the defunct Whig Party in favor of the Republicans. He attended the May 1856 Bloomington Convention, which formally established the Illinois Republican Party.

pos: Anti-Nebraska movement seemed to benefit most from the dissolution of the Whigs, but after various complicated political maneuverings (sometimes involving local "fusion ticket" alliances), by 1856 the anti-slavery Republican Party, the organized successor to the anti-Nebraska movement, was one of the two largest parties in the United States (see United States presidential election, 1856). Salmon Chase was one of the prominent figures in the anti-Nebraska movement. Abraham Lincoln re-entered politics as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (after a period when he devoted himself to his law practice), and was a prominent local anti-Nebraska speaker in central Illinois. Anti-Nebraska movement The Anti-Nebraska

pos: Fusion Party Fusion Party Fusion Party is a name for multiple political parties in United States history. The different parties that used the name don't share any particular political positions; instead, confederations of people from disparate political backgrounds united around a common cause individual to their situation—often opposition to a common enemy—and used the name Fusion Party to reflect the aggregate nature of their new party. The Fusion Party was the original name of the Republican Party in the state of Ohio. In 1854, anti-slavery parties were forming in many northern states in opposition to the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854. While

pos: Republican Party (United States) Republican presidents. They accomplished this partially through gerrymandering and controversial lame-duck legislation. Founded in the Northern states in 1854 by abolitionists, modernizers, ex-Whigs and ex-Free Soilers, the Republican Party quickly became the principal opposition to the dominant Democratic Party and the briefly popular Know Nothing Party. The main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil. The first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement, at which the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery

pos: John P. Hale the party's presidential nomination in 1848, but the 1848 Free Soil Convention instead nominated former President Van Buren. He won the party's presidential nomination in 1852, receiving 4.9% of the popular vote in the general election. After the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Hale joined the nascent Republican Party and returned to the Senate. He served until 1865, at which point he accepted an appointment from President Abraham Lincoln to serve as the Minister to Spain. He held that post until he was recalled in April 1869, at which point he retired from public office. Hale was born in Rochester,

pos: Popular sovereignty The federal government did not have to make the decision, and by appealing to democracy Cass and Douglas hoped they could finesse the question of support for or opposition to slavery. Douglas applied popular sovereignty to Kansas in the Kansas Nebraska Act which passed Congress in 1854. The Act had two unexpected results. By dropping the Missouri Compromise of 1820 (which said slavery would never be allowed in Kansas), it was a major boost for the expansion of slavery. Overnight outrage united anti-slavery forces across the North into an "anti-Nebraska" movement that soon was institutionalized as the Republican Party, with

pos: Kansas–Nebraska Act of low-intensity civil war, which was damaging to Pierce. The new Republican Party sought to capitalize on the scandal of Bleeding Kansas. Routine ballot-rigging and intimidation, practiced by both pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers, failed to deter the immigration of anti-slavery settlers, who eventually became the majority of the population. Prior to the organization of the Kansas–Nebraska territory in 1854, the Kansas and Nebraska Territories were consolidated as part of the Indian Territory. Throughout the 1830s, large-scale relocations of Native American tribes to the Indian Territory took place, with many Southeastern nations removed to present-day Oklahoma, a process ordered by the

pos: History of the United States Republican Party the 1970s and 1980s". The Republican Party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soil Democrats such as Salmon P. Chase, who were opposed to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, submitted to Congress by Stephen Douglas in January 1854. The Act opened Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory to slavery and future admission as slave states, thus implicitly repealing the prohibition on slavery in territory north of 36° 30′ latitude, which had been part of the Missouri Compromise. This change was viewed by Free Soil and abolitionist Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by the slave-owning

pos: Joshua Reed Giddings the annexation of Texas, the Mexican War, the Compromise of 1850, and the Kansas–Nebraska Act, all of which contributed to expansion of slavery in the West. Following the war with Mexico, Giddings cast the only ballot against a resolution of thanks to General Zachary Taylor. With increasing political activism related to slavery, Giddings shifted from the Whig party to the Free Soil Party, "which undoubtedly cost him a seat in the United States Senate", with the Whigs opposing him. In 1854–55, he became one of the leading founders of the Republican party. Giddings campaigned for John C. Frémont and Abraham

pos: 1860 United States presidential election a northern Democrat with sympathies for the South. During the mid-to-late 1850s, the anti-slavery Republican Party became a major political force in the wake of the Kansas–Nebraska Act and the Supreme Court's decision in the 1857 case of "Dred Scott v. Sandford". By 1860, the Republican Party had replaced the defunct Whig Party as the major opposition to the Democrats. A group of former Whigs and Know Nothings formed the Constitutional Union Party, which sought to avoid secession by pushing aside the issue of slavery. The 1860 Republican National Convention nominated Lincoln, a moderate former Congressman from Illinois, as its

pos: George Washington Julian the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and won election to the United States House of Representatives, but was defeated in his attempt to secure a second term. During his time in Congress, he became a staunch supporter of land reform policies such as the Homestead Acts. After leaving Congress, Julian served as the Free Soil Party's vice presidential nominee in 1852, and the ticket won 4.9% of the popular vote. After the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Julian became a leader of Indiana's nascent Republican Party, and he won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1860. He helped

pos: Abraham Lincoln the presidency. Speaking in his Kentucky accent, with a very powerful voice, he said the Kansas Act had a ""declared" indifference, but as I must think, a covert "real" zeal for the spread of slavery. I cannot but hate it. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world ..." Lincoln's attacks on the Kansas–Nebraska Act marked his return to political life. Nationally, the Whigs were irreparably split by the Kansas–Nebraska Act and other efforts to compromise on the slavery issue. Reflecting

pos: Edwin Hurlbut and active as a Jeffersonian Democrat, but just prior to the founding of the Republican Party in Madison, Wisconsin. in 1854, he wrote the platform for the American Party, which held that all political parties should be held by Americans born in this nation, make slavery a local issue, stand for prohibition, and rule it a state issue to make rivers and harbors navigable. The publishing of the book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 1852, and the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in March 1854 further polarized the nation concerning the expansion of slavery, but it was an incident in March

pos: Origins of the American Civil War 1850, which many Northerners found to be extremely offensive, and required that Northerners assist Southerners in reclaiming fugitive slaves. Amid the emergence of increasingly virulent and hostile sectional ideologies in national politics, the collapse of the old Second Party System in the 1850s hampered politicians' efforts to reach yet another compromise. The compromise that was reached (the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act) outraged many Northerners, and led to the formation of the Republican Party, the first major party that was almost entirely Northern-based. The industrializing North and agrarian Midwest became committed to the economic ethos of free-labor industrial capitalism. Arguments that slavery

pos: James Tinker is difficult to argue that he succeeded any particular incumbent). He was succeeded in the next Assembly by James Catton, a Whig. When on March 13, 1854, a public meeting was held in the English Settlement meetinghouse to discuss the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Tinker was appointed president of the meeting (John Hockings was one of the speakers). The meeting unanimously passed resolutions opposing passage of the bill and opposing further extension of slavery. On October 14, 1854, Tinker was among the Rochester delegates to the Racine County convention of the new Republican Party. He continued to hold local offices: in 1857

pos: 78th New York State Legislature Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Barnburners were against the permission of slavery in new Territories or States, but were now the minority in the party. The small faction of the Free Soil Party which advocated abolition of slavery, now known as the "Free Democratic Party", endorsed the Whig nominees Clark and Raymnond. The Whig Party was in the process of disintegrating. The radical anti-slavery Whigs formed the Anti-Nebraska Party, the moderate anti-slavery wing became the Republican Party in other States, but still retained the Whig label in New York. Most of the Whigs which favored a compromise, or preferred to sidestep the

pos: History of the United States Congress threw their support to Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce and broke with Henry Clay over the Compromise of 1850) and the anti-slavery Northern(who stood behind Clay's compromise and supported the party's nominee Winfield Scott) would also help give the Democrats not only control both houses of Congress, but also the US Presidency as well. In the 1854 elections, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, sponsored by Senator Stephen Douglas, was put against vehement opposition. The opposition to this act led to the formation of the new Republican party. In early 1856, the Know Nothing Party assembled nativists and former Whigs but the Democrats regained

pos: George Washington Julian and lost the election to Franklin Pierce and William R. King. (Hale and Julian only received 155,210 popular votes, less than 5 percent of the total.) Julian also lost a bid for election to Congress in 1854, when the Kansas-Nebraska Act reopened the slavery debate and accelerated major changes in the country's political party system. Julian joined the People's Party, the precursor to the new Republican party in the state, and became the leader of its antislavery faction. In 1856 Julian was a delegate to the convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that established the Republican Party. Julain served as chairman of

neg: Presidency of Franklin Pierce and vigorously enforced the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Influenced by the Young America expansionist movement, the Pierce administration completed the Gadsden land purchase from Mexico, clashed with Britain in Central America, and led a failed attempt to acquire Cuba from Spain. Pierce's administration was severely criticized after several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto, which called for the annexation of Cuba, by force if necessary. His popularity in the Northern free states declined sharply after he supported the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified the Missouri Compromise. Passage of the act led directly to a long and violent conflict

neg: Sam Houston Democratic National Convention ultimately nominated a compromise nominee, Franklin Pierce, who went on to win the election. In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas led the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which organized Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory. The act also repealed the Missouri Compromise, an act that had banned slavery in territories north of parallel 36°30′ north. Houston voted against the act, in part because he believed that Native Americans would lose much of their land as a result of the act. He also perceived that it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery. Houston's opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska

neg: Edwin Hurlbut enough momentum for the establishment of political groups such as the Liberty Party and Free Soil Party. It was in 1842 that Edwin Hurlbut had his experience in Wilmot's office (see above). The Wilmot Proviso was in 1846, Harriet Tubman began her work, and the new Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 further propelled the slavery controversy. The publication in 1852 of Harriot Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", the publication of Appeal of the Independent Democrats, and the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in early 1854 further stoked the fires against slavery. Prior to the Joshua Glover case, which motivated Hurlbut

neg: Abraham Lincoln and slavery slaves, but he did not call for the immediate end of slavery everywhere in the U.S. until the proposed 13th Amendment became part of his party platform for the 1864 election. In 1842, Abraham Lincoln had married Mary Todd, who was a daughter of a slave-owning family from Kentucky. Lincoln returned to the political stage as a result of the 1854 Kansas–Nebraska Act and soon became a leading opponent of the "Slaveocracy"—the political power of the Southern slave owners. The Kansas–Nebraska Act, written to form the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, included language, designed by Stephen A. Douglas, which allowed

neg: Oliver P. Morton elected to serve as a circuit court judge, but resigned after only a year; he found that he preferred to practice law. By 1854 he was active in Indiana politics. Initially, Morton was an anti-slavery Democrat, but living in a region dominated by the Whig Party he had little hope of furthering a political career without changing his party affiliation. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854), which repealed the Missouri Compromise's ban on slavery in the western territories, beyond Missouri, had a divisive effect on both parties. As the Democrats divided over the issue, Morton took a stand with the

neg: Salmon P. Chase Free Soil ticket. Chase's goal, however, was not to establish a permanent new party organization, but to bring pressure to bear upon Northern Democrats to force them to oppose the extension of slavery. During his service in the Senate (1849–1855), Chase was an anti-slavery champion. He argued against the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska legislation and the subsequent violence in Kansas, Chase cut back on his efforts to influence the Democrats. He was a leader in the movement to form a new party opposing the extension of slavery. He tried

neg: Presidency of Franklin Pierce support of many Southern Whigs, ensured the bill's passage in May 1854. In both the House and the Senate, every Northern Whig voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act, while just under half of the Northern Democrats and the vast majority of Southern congressmen of both parties voted for the act. Even as the Kansas-Nebraska Act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue poured into Kansas so as to influence the status of slavery in Kansas. The passage of the act resulted in so much violence between groups that the territory became known as Bleeding Kansas. Thousands of

neg: Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska and Fox, and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska tribes in Kansas. Because jurisdiction over criminal matters had already been transferred to the State of Kansas by the passage of the Kansas Act of 1940, the government targeted the four tribes in Kansas for immediate termination. In February 1954, joint hearings for the Kansas tribes were held by the House and Senate Subcommittees on Indian Affairs. The Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation tribal leader, Minnie Wishkeno Evans (Indian name: Ke-wat-no-quah) led the effort to stop termination. Tribal members sent petitions of protest to the government and multiple delegations went

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act months, as many Anti-Nebraska political rallies were held across the north. Douglas remained the main advocate for the bill while Chase, William Seward, of New York, and Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts, led the opposition. The "New-York Tribune" wrote on March 2: The unanimous sentiment of the North is indignant resistance. ... The whole population are full of it. The feeling in 1848 was far inferior to this in strength and universality. The debate in the Senate concluded on March 4, 1854, when Douglas, beginning near midnight on March 3, made a five-and-a-half-hour speech. The final vote in favor of passage

neg: Stephen A. Douglas Democrats in the House to vote against the Wilmot Proviso, which would have banned slavery in any territory acquired from Mexico. The Illinois legislature elected Douglas to the United States Senate in 1847, and Douglas emerged as a national party leader during the 1850s. Along with Henry Clay, he led the passage of the Compromise of 1850, which settled some of the territorial issues arising from the Mexican–American War. Douglas was a candidate for president at the 1852 Democratic National Convention, but lost the nomination to Franklin Pierce. Seeking to open the west for expansion, Douglas introduced the Kansas–Nebraska Act

neg: Joseph A. Wright Senate responded by creating a commission to look into the accusations made by the Governor. Although only a few minor infractions were found, the committee agreed that the circumstances surrounding the passage of the bill were questionable and recommended the bank's charter be revoked, but no action was taken. In 1854, the first cracks in the state Democratic Party began to show after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Congress. Bright and his faction, a majority of the party, began forcing out anti-slavery members of the party leadership, using support of the act as a litmus test of party

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act response was one of outrage, interpreting Douglas's actions as part of "an atrocious plot." Especially in the eyes of northerners, the Kansas–Nebraska Act was aggression and an attack on the power and beliefs of free states. The response led to calls for public action against the South, as seen in broadsides that advertised gatherings in northern states to discuss publicly what to do about the presumption of the Act. Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian", or

neg: Franklin Pierce enforce neutral standards for civil service while also satisfying the diverse elements of the Democratic Party with patronage, an effort which largely failed and turned many in his party against him. He was a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and led a failed attempt to acquire Cuba from Spain. He signed trade treaties with Britain and Japan, while his Cabinet reformed their departments and improved accountability, but these successes were overshadowed by political strife during his presidency. His popularity declined sharply in the Northern states after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified

neg: Bloomington Convention the main Democratic competitor, the Whig Party. The slavery debate was briefly quelled by the Compromise of 1850, which settled several questions about the legality of slavery in new territories. However, the Kansas–Nebraska Act, proposed four years later, reignited tensions. The act would create two new territories and determined that slavery status there would be determined by a popular vote of residents. Illinois had been a free state since its inception. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was designed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas and supported by his colleague James Shields, both Democrats. William Alexander Richardson led support of the bill in the

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Kansas–Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and President Franklin Pierce. The initial purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. The popular sovereignty clause of the law led pro- and anti-slavery elements to flood into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down, resulting in Bleeding Kansas. The availability of tens of millions of acres of fertile farmland

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act Kansas–Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and President Franklin Pierce. The initial purpose of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was to open up thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad. The popular sovereignty clause of the law led pro- and anti-slavery elements to flood into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down, resulting in Bleeding Kansas. The availability of tens of millions of acres of fertile farmland in the area made it necessary to create

neg: Anti-Nebraska movement seeking to organize a new political party devoted to anti-slavery-extension principles, while others did not intend to repudiate their existing political affiliations, but merely wished to ally with those of diverse political views on the single issue of opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Simultaneously, the Whig Party was disintegrating at the national level, and there was competition between those who wished to take advantage of this situation to organize a major new party based on anti-slavery-extension principles, and those who wished to organize a new party based on anti-immigration and anti-Catholicism. At first in many areas the "American Party" or Know-Nothings

neg: Caning of Charles Sumner discourse" that eventually led to the American Civil War. In 1856, during the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis, Sumner denounced the Kansas–Nebraska Act in his "Crime against Kansas" speech, delivered on May 19 and May 20. The long speech argued for the immediate admission of Kansas as a free state and went on to denounce the "Slave Power"—the political arm of the slave owners: Sumner then attacked the authors of the Act, Senators Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and Andrew Butler of South Carolina, saying, In which Sumner was alluding that Butler was the Don Quixote of slavery. In addition, Sumner mocked

neg: Rose–Baley Party once been used as an ambulance, which was pulled by a pair of mules. According to Baley, political and economic factors prompted two Hedgpeth and two Baley families to leave northwestern Missouri for California in early 1858. One factor was the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which admitted Nebraska into the Union as a free territory and granted Kansas the right to decide on the legality of slavery within the state. The resulting tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups fueled conflict near the Missouri state line, affecting its western counties, including Nodaway, where the Baleys and Hedgpeths lived. In Baley's

neg: Abraham Lincoln compromise measure; the proposal would take the issue of slavery out of the hands of Congress by allowing the electorate of each territory to decide the status of slavery themselves. The proposal alarmed many Northerners, who hoped to stop the spread of slavery into the territories. Despite this Northern opposition, Douglas's Kansas–Nebraska Act narrowly passed Congress in May 1854. For months after its passage, Lincoln did not publicly comment on the Kansas–Nebraska Act, but he came to strongly oppose it. On October 16, 1854, in his "Peoria Speech", Lincoln declared his opposition to slavery, which he repeated en route to

neg: 1856 Chicago mayoral election 1856 Chicago mayoral election In the 1856 Chicago mayoral election Thomas Dyer defeated former mayor Francis Cornwall Sherman. The race was shaped by the divisive national political debate surrounding the issue of slavery, particularly debate surrounding the controversial Kansas–Nebraska Act. The election was treated by many as a referendum on the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The election was held on March 10. First-term incumbent Know Nothing mayor Levi Boone did not seek reelection. His tenure had been very unpopular, and his anti-immigrant policies had led to a strong blowback from Chicago's immigrant community. Taking place several years prior to the start of

neg: 1856 Democratic National Convention The party faced continued North-South sectional division over slavery-related issues, especially the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and subsequent violence known as "Bleeding Kansas" from the civil strife in the Kansas Territory during its campaign for statehood. Two notable Democratic politicians, President Pierce and Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois, were seen as being at the center of the controversies, which led many party members to look elsewhere for a new compromise candidate for president. Called to order at noon on Monday, June 2, by the National Committee chair Robert Milligan McLane, Samuel Medary was made the temporary president. The first day,

neg: Samuel F. Tappan action following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. At the age of 23, Tappan was one of a group of 29 New England settlers who came to found what later became Lawrence, Kansas, in August 1854 as part of the New England Emigrant Aid Company's "pioneer party". They were trying to arrange for anti-slavery advocates to settle in Kansas before the vote on whether it should be free or a slave state. He staked a claim to land that abutted the claim of the homeopathic physician Dr. John Doy, formerly of Rochester, New York. He was also a correspondent for Horace

neg: Presidency of Franklin Pierce parties opposed to the Democrats and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In several states, opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Democratic Party merely labeled themselves the "Opposition." Members of the Know Nothing movement defeated numerous Northeastern and Southern congressional candidates from both the Whig and Democratic parties. Most Northern Know Nothings opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and anti-slavery groups allied with the Know Nothing movement in several states despite the discomfort many anti-slavery leaders felt towards nativism. In Pierce's home state of New Hampshire, hitherto loyal to the Democratic Party, the Know-Nothings elected the governor, all three representatives, dominated the legislature, and

neg: Presidency of Franklin Pierce W. Geary as governor of the territory, but tensions remained high by the time Pierce left office. Passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act coincided with the seizure of escaped slave Anthony Burns in Boston. Northerners rallied in support of Burns, but Pierce was determined to follow the Fugitive Slave Act to the letter, and dispatched federal troops to enforce Burns' return to his Virginia owner despite furious crowds. The simultaneous repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act alienated many Northerners, including those who had formerly accepted the Fugitive Slave Act as a sectional compromise. Textile

neg: Presidency of James Buchanan the South. The Compromise of 1850 had temporarily defused the situation, but every Northern defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act (passed as part of the compromise) inflamed tensions in the South. The 1852 publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" further divided opinion. In 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had excluded slavery from territories north of the 36°30′ parallel. Each new state would instead decide upon the status of slavery under the concept of popular sovereignty. The bill was very unpopular in the North, and its passage contributed to the collapse of the Whig Party and the rise

neg: Know Nothing Democratic Party. The collapse of the Whig Party after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act left an opening for the emergence of a new major party in opposition to the Democrats. The Know Nothings elected congressman Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachusetts and several other individuals in the 1854 elections and created a new party organization known as the American Party. Particularly in the South, the American Party served as a vehicle for politicians opposed to the Democratic Party. Many also hoped that it would seek a middle ground between the pro-slavery positions of many Democratic politicians and the anti-slavery positions

neg: Kansas Territory would do well not to stop in Kansas Territory, but keep on up the Missouri River until they reach Nebraska Territory, which was anticipated to be a free state. Before the first arrival of Free-State emigrants from the northern and eastern States, nearly every desirable location along the Missouri River had been claimed by men from western Missouri, by virtue of the preemption laws. During the long debate that preceded the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, it had become the settled opinion at the North that the only remaining means whereby the territory might yet be rescued from the grasp

neg: Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska 21 January 1954 clarified that the reference to "Potawatomi" in the Resolution meant the Potawatomi, the Kickapoo, the Sac and Fox Nation of Missouri in Kansas and Nebraska and the Iowa tribes in Kansas. Because jurisdiction over criminal matters had already been transferred to the State of Kansas by the passage of the Kansas Act of 1940 the government targeted the four tribes in Kansas for immediate termination. In February, 1954 joint hearings for the Kansas tribes were held by the House and Senate Subcommittees on Indian Affairs. The Prairie Band of Potawatomi Nation tribal leader, Minnie Evans (Indian name:

neg: Midwestern United States slavery. The term "Bleeding Kansas" was coined by Horace Greeley of the "New York Tribune"; the events it encompasses directly presaged the Civil War. Setting in motion the events later known as "Bleeding Kansas" was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, opened new lands that would help settlement in them, repealed the Missouri Compromise, and allowed settlers in those territories to determine through popular sovereignty whether to allow slavery within their boundaries. It was hoped the Act would ease relations between the North and the South, because the South could expand slavery to new

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act of the 36°30' parallel. Douglas met privately with Dixon and in the end, despite his misgivings on Northern reaction, agreed to accept Dixon's arguments. From a political standpoint, the Whig Party had been in decline in the South because of the effectiveness with which it had been hammered by the Democratic Party over slavery. The Southern Whigs hoped that by seizing the initiative on this issue, they would be identified as strong defenders of slavery. Many Northern Whigs broke with them in the Act. The party eventually died by the division over the issue. A similar amendment was offered in

neg: Stephen A. Douglas claimed that Douglas "has no very vivid impression that the Negro is human; and consequently has no idea that there can be any moral question in legislating about him." Nonetheless, the Kansas–Nebraska Act won passage in both houses of Congress, albeit narrowly in the House of Representatives. In both the House and the Senate, every Northern Whig voted against the Kansas–Nebraska Act, while just under half of the Northern Democrats and the vast majority of Southern congressmen of both parties voted for the act. Northern opponents of the act saw it as a triumph for the hated Slave Power. Douglas

neg: Saline River (Kansas) river was known as the "Grand Saline." The Pawnee and the Kansa, who used the area as hunting and trapping ground, claimed land along the Saline until the 1850s when American settlers began to arrive. The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 established Kansas Territory, which included the entire length of the Saline River. By 1873, the U.S. government had forcibly removed the Kansa to a reservation in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). In August 1867, Cheyenne warriors massacred a party of railroad workers in Ellis County, an incident which led to a battle between the Cheyenne and Buffalo Soldiers from Fort Hays

neg: Anti-Nebraska movement Anti-Nebraska movement The Anti-Nebraska movement was a political alignment in the United States formed in opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and to its repeal of the Missouri Compromise provision forbidding slavery in U.S. territories north of latitude 36° 30' N. (At the time, the name "Nebraska" could loosely refer to areas west of the Missouri River.) Most in the anti-Nebraska movement considered the Kansas-Nebraska act to be a unilateral pro-Southern revision to the supposedly final Compromise of 1850, and a nefarious violation of the terms of the Missouri Compromise. Many were deeply alarmed by the prospect of new

neg: Marais des Cygnes Massacre Site covers about , including the ravine in which the Marais des Cygnes massacre took place on May 19, 1858. The ravine is accessed by a short walk from the site's visitors center, and is marked by interpretive signage. The visitors center is located in a stone house, built in the 1870s by Charles Hadsall. Bleeding Kansas is the name given to the struggle between pro- and anti-slavery factions for control over the Kansas Territory following passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The act specified that slavery in that territory would be determined by a popular vote of the territory's

neg: Sam Houston President James K. Polk's prosecution of the Mexican–American War. Houston's Senate record was marked by his unionism and opposition to extremists from both the North and South. He voted for the Compromise of 1850, which settled many of the territorial issues left over from the Mexican–American War and the annexation of Texas. He later voted against the Kansas-Nebraska Act because he believed it would lead to increased sectional tensions over slavery, and his opposition to that act led him to leave the Democratic Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination of the American Party in the 1856

neg: Thomas Wentworth Higginson the rest of his life. In 1852, Higginson became pastor of the Free Church in Worcester. During his tenure, Higginson not only supported abolition, but also temperance, labor rights, and rights of women. Returning from a voyage to Europe for the health of his wife, who had an unknown illness, Higginson organized a group of men on behalf of the New England Emigration Aid Company to use peaceful means as tensions rose after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The act divided the region into the Kansas and Nebraska territories, whose residents would separately vote on whether to

neg: Presidency of Franklin Pierce Democratic Party that had started with Jackson, and led to a period of over seventy years when the Republicans mostly controlled national politics. David Potter concludes that the Ostend Manifesto and the Kansas–Nebraska Act were "the two great calamities of the Franklin Pierce administration ... Both brought down an avalanche of public criticism." More important, says Potter, they permanently discredited Manifest Destiny and "popular sovereignty" as political doctrines. Historian Kenneth Nivison, writing in 2010, takes a more favorable view of Pierce's foreign policy, stating that his expansionism prefaced those of later presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, who served at

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act was 37 to 14. Free-state senators voted 14 to 12 in favor, and slave-state senators supported the bill 23 to 2. On March 21, 1854, as a delaying tactic in the House of Representatives, the legislation was referred by a vote of 110 to 95 to the Committee of the Whole, where it was the last item on the calendar. Realizing from the vote to stall that the act faced an uphill struggle, the Pierce administration made it clear to all Democrats that passage of the bill was essential to the party and would dictate how federal patronage would be

neg: Dred Scott v. Sandford case was merely a question of "whether Cuffee should be kept in his normal condition or not". At that time, "Cuffee" was a common slave name and there often used to refer to a black person, as slavery was a racial caste. Prior to "Dred Scott", Democratic Party politicians had sought repeal of the Missouri Compromise. They were finally successful in 1854 with the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. This act permitted each newly admitted state south of the 40th parallel to vote as to whether to be a slave state or free state. With "Dred Scott", the Supreme Court

neg: Lawrence, Kansas derisively called this political idea "squatter sovereignty".) Douglas eventually made popular sovereignty the backbone of his Kansas-Nebraska Actlegislation that effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and created the territories of Kansas and Nebraskawhich finally passed in Congress in 1854. Around this time, the Christian abolitionist Rev. Richard Cordley noted that "there was a feeling of despondency all over the north" because the bill's passage "opened Kansas to [the possibility of] slavery [which] was thought to be equivalent to making Kansas a slave state." This was largely because nearby Missouri allowed slavery, and many rightly assumed that the first settlers

neg: Kansas–Nebraska Act the country at large: each fought with a pertinacity, bitterness, and rancor unknown even in Wilmot Proviso days." In Congress, the freesoilers were at a distinct disadvantage. The Democrats held large majorities in each house, and Douglas, "a ferocious fighter, the fiercest, most ruthless, and most unscrupulous that Congress had perhaps ever known" led a tightly disciplined party. It was in the nation at large that the opponents of Nebraska hoped to achieve a moral victory. "The New York Times", which had earlier supported Pierce, predicted that this would be the final straw for Northern supporters of the slavery forces

neg: Bleeding Kansas of the 604 voters were residents of the Kansas Territory; in another, 35 were residents and 226 non-residents. At the same time, Northern abolitionists encouraged their own supporters to move to Kansas in the effort to secure the territory as a free state, flooding Kansas with so-called "free-soilers" or "Free-Staters". Many citizens of Northern states arrived with assistance from benevolent societies such as the Boston-based New England Emigrant Aid Company, which was founded shortly before passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act with the specific intention of transporting anti-slavery immigrants to the frontier. To help countermand the voting fraud, around 1,200 New

neg: John A. Quitman in July 1853 for a filibuster expedition of his own. The preparations to invade Cuba were nearly complete, with several thousand men prepared to go, when in May 1854 the administration reversed course and undertook steps to stop what it had almost put into motion, presumably because it felt that in the wake of the furor over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act the action to add slaveholding territory such as Cuba would cause irreparable damage to the Democratic Party in the North. On March 4, 1855, Quitman was elected to the Thirty-fourth Congress for the Democratic Party, and served

neg: Rage of Party Rage of Party The Rage of Party is the name often given to the tumultuous period in English politics directly after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 until c. 1715. This period was characterized by political instability brought about by increased partisanship within Parliament and frequent elections. Eleven Parliaments met in this period, partly as a result of the Triennial Act, which meant a general election had to be held every three years. In fact, on average an election was held every two and a half years. The period ended with the Hanoverian succession and the passage of the Septennial Act

neg: Bleeding Kansas and closer to the slave state of Missouri, would vote to allow it, and thereby the balance of slave and free states would not change. Regarding Nebraska this assumption was correct; the idea of slavery had little appeal for Nebraska's residents and its fate as a free state was already solidly in place. In Kansas, however, the assumption of legal slavery underestimated abolitionist resistance to the repeal of the long-standing Missouri Compromise. Southerners saw the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act as an emboldening victory; Northerners considered it an outrageous defeat. Each side of the slavery question saw a chance to

neg: Political career of John C. Breckinridge to increase Kentucky's allocation in a rivers and harbors bill were unsuccessful but popular with his Whig constituents. In January 1854, Douglas introduced the Kansas–Nebraska Act to organize the Nebraska Territory. Southerners had thwarted his previous attempts to organize the territory because Nebraska lay north of parallel 36°30' north, the line separating slave and free territory under the Missouri Compromise. They feared that the territory would be organized into new free states that would vote against the South on slavery issues. The Kansas–Nebraska Act allowed the territory's settlers to decide whether or not to permit slavery, an implicit repeal of

neg: Victor Riesel an investigation into labor racketeering. Kennedy's investigations (as well as subsequent labor scandals) led to the establishment of the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management. This committee's investigations led directly to the passage of the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, which imposed financial reporting requirements on labor unions, limited the power of trusteeships, established many member and employer rights, and created additional unfair labor practices governing unions. The acid attack vastly boosted Riesel's national popularity. He began a regular television program on WRCA-TV, and a regular weekly radio program on WEVD. He continued to write

neg: 1856 Chicago mayoral election the American Civil War, the election was shaped by the tenuous national debate surrounding slavery. The campaign was particularly shaped by debate surrounding the Kansas–Nebraska Act (such as whether or not popular sovereignty should be applied in determining the status of new states as slave or free states). This debate was so central to the election that, rather than affiliate with traditional political parties, both (Democratic) candidates for mayor instead ran under the banner of "Pro-Nebraska" (Dyer) and Anti-Nebraska (Sherman). Democratic US Senator Stephen A. Douglas, an author of the Nebraska-Kansas Act who was seeking the 1856 Democratic presidential nomination

neg: Robert S. Kelley Democratic newspaper at Liberty, Missouri, called the "Democratic Platform", and continued its publication until the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, when he discontinued the "Platform" and established a pro-slavery paper in Atchinson, Kansas called the "Squatter Sovereign". Dr. J. H. Stringfellow joined Kelley in this venture as partner and associate editor. This was in 1855, during the intense excitement attending the settlement of Kansas and Nebraska. The paper was the leading organ of the Democracy, and took ultra Southern grounds. Concerning his experience at the time, Kelley said: "There was no such thing as concession at the time. We were

neg: Wyandot people were promoting Kansas as the route for the proposed transcontinental railroad. Although the federal government did not recognize Walker's election, the political activity prompted the federal government to pass the Kansas-Nebraska Act to organize Kansas and Nebraska territories. An October 1855 article in "The New York Times" reported that the Wyandot were free (that is, they had been accepted as US citizens) and without the restrictions placed on other tribes. Their leaders were unanimously pro-slavery, which meant 900 or 1,000 additional votes in opposition to the Free State movement of Kansas. In 1867, after the American Civil War, additional members

neg: Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech was made in Peoria, Illinois on October 16, 1854. The speech, with its specific arguments against slavery, was an important step in Abraham Lincoln's political ascension. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, written to form the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, was designed by Stephen A. Douglas, then the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories. The Act included language that allowed settlers to decide whether they would or would not accept slavery in their region. Lincoln saw this as a repeal of the 1820 Missouri Compromise which had outlawed slavery above the 36°30'

neg: J. Neely Johnson began his political career by running as a Whig in the 1852 election, in which Johnson was elected to the California State Assembly as one of four members representing Sacramento. During his time in the Assembly, Johnson nearly broke a local editor's nose after accusing the editor of writing an insulting article about him. The editor aimed a pistol at Johnson, but was tackled by onlookers before he could fire. In 1854, both the state and federal wings of the Whig Party were on the verge on collapse due to party splits over the Kansas–Nebraska Act. In the wake of

neg: Kansas Territory passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, hundreds of Missourians crossed into the adjacent territory, selected a section of land, and then united with fellow-adventurers in a meeting or meetings, intending to establish a pro-slavery preemption upon all this region. As early as June 10, 1854, the Missourians held a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post west from Fort Leavenworth, at which a "Squatter's Claim Association" was organized. They said they were in favor of making Kansas a slave state if it should require half the citizens of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there. According to these emigrants, abolitionists

neg: Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech colorful terms: Lincoln's speech in many ways foreshadowed the political future that he would soon embark upon: Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech Abraham Lincoln's Peoria speech was made in Peoria, Illinois on October 16, 1854. The speech, with its specific arguments against slavery, was an important step in Abraham Lincoln's political ascension. The 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act, written to form the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, was designed by Stephen A. Douglas, then the chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories. The Act included language that allowed settlers to decide whether they would or would not accept slavery in their region. Lincoln

neg: Emerson Etheridge and South over the issue of slavery. Though not opposed to slavery, Etheridge rejected its expansion into new territories. He was one of nine Southern representatives to vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, his main concern being the act's repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Following the collapse of the Whig Party in the mid-1850s, Etheridge, like many Tennessee Whigs, joined the nativist American ("Know Nothing") Party. Assailed for his vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he was nearly defeated for reelection in 1855, edging his Democratic challenger, Thomas J. Freeman, by just over 500 votes with more than 15,000 cast.

neg: Compromise of 1850 I feel sure, have been no civil war." The Compromise proved widely popular politically, and both parties committed themselves in their platforms to the finality of the Compromise on sectional issues. The strongest opposition in the South occurred in the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, but Unionists soon prevailed, spearheaded by Georgians Alexander Stephens, Robert Toombs, and Howell Cobb and the creation of the Georgia Platform. The peace was broken only by the divisive Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 introduced by Stephen Douglas, which had the effect of repealing the Missouri Compromise and led directly to the formation

neg: Presidency of James Buchanan polygamy, Young largely accepted federal authority after the conclusion of the Utah War. After the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854, two competing governments had been formed in Kansas Territory. The anti-slavery settlers organized a government in Topeka, while pro-slavery settlers established a seat of government in Lecompton, Kansas. For Kansas to be admitted as a state, a constitution had to be submitted to Congress with the approval of a majority of residents. Under President Pierce, a series of violent confrontations known as "Bleeding Kansas" occurred as supporters of the two governments clashed. The situation in Kansas was watched

neg: Ralph Metcalf (New Hampshire politician) Plymouth, and later in Newport. In 1845 he was appointed Register of Probate for Sullivan County. In 1848 he was appointed a trustee of the state asylum for the insane, and he served several more non-consecutive terms. He served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1852 to 1853. In 1853 he served on the state commission appointed to codify New Hampshire's statutes. A member of the Democratic Party for most of his career, Metcalf later became recognized as anti-slavery and an opponent of Franklin Pierce's attempts to obtain passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act. As a result of Metcalf's