The Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas Nebraska Act

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The Compromise of 1850 was the last compromise between Northern and Southern political factions before the civil war. Although Steven Douglass, the man instrumental in getting the bill to pass Congress, designed it to ease sectional tensions, it led the way for a series of political events that would change America’s history. The acceptance of popular sovereignty which was a key component of the 1850 Compromise open the interpretation of former compromises, specify the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which stated that all states over the 36-30 line would be considered free. Northern Democratic senator Steven Douglass took the acceptance of the Compromise of 1850 as an acceptance of popular sovereignty and applied it to his Kansas- Nebraska Act in a scheme to help build his transcontinental railroad. The introduction of the Kansas- Nebraska Act in 1854 was the start of the violent sectional conflicts that plague the union during the 1850s. Once the time of compromise ended in American politics the next step that sectional factions took was violence. Sectional tensions escalated so quickly into physical violence because Northerners and Southerners felt that each opposing group was not only attacking their financial institutions but social and culture institutions as well.
The Kansas- Nebraska act of 1854 started the violent bloody Kansas revolt because it interfered with an already recognized agreement between the two sections. The Missouri Compromise had already established the future of America’s political map. The introduction of popular sovereignty placed the decision of whether Kansas would be slave or free in the hands of the citizen that move there. To ensure that Kansas turned to the best institution for their respective secti...

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...l, cultural and financial institutions led to fierce reactions. Bloody Kansas, Sumner’s caning, and Brown’s raid all happened because Northerners and Southerners felt that opposing faction was encroaching on their beliefs. Northerners felt that the Kansas- Nebraska Act would lead to slavery being extended to Northern states. Southerners felt that Northerners (abolitionists and republicans) would try to abolish slavery and destroy their livelihood. The age of compromise ended when the Kansas- Nebraska act was introduced because it made past compromises void. If previous compromises could be void then compromises were no longer useful to the Union and chaos and violence took its place. The increasing violence that plague sectional tension during the 1850s closed off all hope for compromise by the end of the decade and led to the bloodiest war in the country’s history.

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