The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Birth of the Republican Party

The video lecture was about the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Birth of the Republican Party; events which occurred from the year 1854 to 1855. From the lecture, I learnt that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was created in 1854, it repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allowed these two new territories to decide whether they wanted to be slave or free states (YaleCourses, 2008). This created a huge divide between North and South that would lead to the creation of the Republican Party. The Kansas-Nebraska Act was designed by Stephen Douglas to get rid of slavery in these two new territories. To start, Douglas challenged William L. Dayton’s amendment to create an anti-slavery political party at the territory’s convention by stating that these territories were open to slavery. Kansas and Nebraska were the two new territories that had been created by the Kansas-Nebraska Act (YaleCourses, 2008). The Missouri Compromise had been passed, which was a deal between President Millard Fillmore and Congress to settle the issue of slavery in the country. The deal allowed slavery in Missouri, but it also prevented it from spreading any further or affecting slavery in other states.

I also learnt that after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, two pro-slavery and two anti-slavery political parties were created. The former of the two pro-slavery parties was for slavery and the latter for anti-slavery (YaleCourses, 2008). The anti-slavery party was not a legal party because there was no way for them to represent their people. The Democratic Party ran on a platform stating that they would oppose any state or territorial laws that made it free territory by popular sovereignty, meaning that people in the territories themselves would decide whether it should be a free or slave territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act also created a new political party, the Republican Party which supported slavery in all territories and opposed any form of abolition. Douglas led the Republican Party to victory over the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election. However, because a majority of voters in the territories did not vote for Douglas, defeated by Stephen Douglas. The Kansas-Nebraska Act had been passed, which was a deal between President Millard Fillmore and Congress to settle the issue of slavery in the country. The deal allowed slavery in Missouri, but it also prevented it from spreading any further or affecting slavery in other states. After Kansas and Nebraska became free territories, political pressure grew stronger against slavery within that portion of the North that would soon become states (YaleCourses, 2008). In 1854, three years before Kansas and Nebraska became free territories, Stephen Douglas challenged William L. Dayton’s amendment to create an anti-slavery political party at the territory’s convention by stating that these territories were open to slavery. After President Fillmore signed the bill, Kansas and Nebraska became free territories which made them much more appealing than a slave territory. This meant that more people from the north would settle there, thus increasing the chances of those territories becoming free states. The growing controversy surrounding slavery caused immense political pressure within a portion of the North that would soon become states.

When people were talking about Democratic party before the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed, most people thought that it was going to be beneficial for all of them. However, in my opinion, when looking at it from this perspective, although the act was passed, it caused a lot of controversy in the country and divided people further. Additionally, it caused a further divide between North and South which led to the creation of the Republican Party.

References

YaleCourses. (2008 November, 21). “A Hell of a Storm”: The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Birth of the Republican Party, 1854-55. [Video file]. YouTube.