On this day in 1854, the House approved, 113-100, the Kansas-Nebraska Act. It repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, dampening chances of a peaceful resolution to the issue of slavery. The law precipitated violent unrest in “Bloody Kansas” and further deepened already rampant abolitionist fervor in Northern states.
In creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, the legislation let settlers decide whether to permit slavery within their borders. Initially designed to pave the way for a new transcontinental railroad, the legislation became more controversial after Sen. Stephen Douglas (D-Ill.) tacked on the concept of “popular sovereignty.” Douglas had hoped the initiative would ease tensions by allowing the South to expand slavery to new territories while still giving the North the right to abolish slavery in its own region.
Story Continued Below
As it turned out, however, the legislation was widely viewed by its opponents as capitulating to Southern slave interests. It led directly to the formation of the Republican Party, which campaigned to halt the expansion of slavery.
Rep. Alexander Stephens (D-Ga.) revived the legislation in the House, where it had been held up for months in the Committee of the Whole. When the House showdown came, opponents of the legislation unsuccessfully brought 14 motions to adjourn before the vote was allowed to take place.
Stephens said afterward: “Nebraska is through the House. I took the reins in my hand, applied the whip and spur, and brought the ‘wagon’ out at eleven o’clock P.M. Glory enough for one day.” Later, Stephens wrote, “I feel as if the mission of my life was performed.”
Stephens left the House in 1859 and served as vice president of the Confederacy during the Civil War. During Reconstruction, Georgians returned Stephens to the House, where he served four more terms before being elected as Georgia’s governor in 1882.
Source: Historian, Clerk of the U.S. House