Today In Kansas History


Kansas Nebraska Act
May 30, 1854


On this date President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas Nebraska Act, opening the area west of Missouri to expansion and settlement. The stroke of the President’s pen threw off a spark, which ignited a fire that would grow in intensity until it engulfed the entire nation in the Civil War seven years later. The fuel for the fire was the issue of slavery. The tinder for the fire was “popular sovereignty”, power vested in the people. The Act rescinded the Missouri Compromise of 1820 wherein it was agreed that the land which lay north of 36o30’ north latitude and west of Missouri would forever be free from the establishment of any new slave state. Now the settlers in the new territories would vote and decide for themselves whether or not their new state would be “slave” or “free”.

The passage of the act marked a turning point in our Nation’s history by:

• Ushering in the era that would become known as "Bleeding Kansas"

• Dashing the hope of President Pierce for reelection

• Ending the influence of the Democrat Party in the North, making it the pro slavery party of the South
  

• Splitting the Whig Party into abolition supporting "Conscience Whigs" in the North and slavery supporting "Cotton Whigs" in the South, marking its end when southerners moved to the Democrat Party and northerners moved to the newly formed Republican Party