Kansas-Nebraska Act Passed  Stephen Douglas proposed the Kansas- Nebraska Act to organize the Nebraska Territory Split into 2 territories, Kansas and Nebraska  To get southern support to pass the bill he suggested using popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery within these two territories

Kansas Nebraska Act (1854)

Bleeding Kansas  Proslavery and Antislavery supporters flooded Kansas to vote for a territorial legislature March 1855  Many Missouri slaveholders crossed the border to vote illegally in the election Only 1,500 people lived in Kansas, but 6,000 vote Creates a proslavery Legislature  Results in a series of clashes between proslavery and antislavery forces

Bleeding Kansas  Extreme abolitionist John Brown leads antislavery forces in raid of proslavery settlement, killing 5 people Known as Pottawatomie Massacre  Sparked 3 years of civil war in Kansas that resulted in many deaths and political turmoil

Violence Spreads to Congress  Sen. Charles Sumner (MA) gave a speech attacking proslavery forces in Kansas and their supporters Insulted A.P. Butler, a senator from S.C.  Preston Brooks a representative and relative of Butler, retaliated by beating Sumner over the head as he sat at his desk

The Rise A New Party  The Kansas-Nebraska act caused a rift in the Whig party over the issue of slavery  Some Southern Whigs joined Democratic Party while Northern Whigs helped form the Republican Party  The rise of the Republicans was bolstered by Bleeding Kansas Many people blamed Democrats for the violence A small school house in Ripon, Wisconsin, where thirty anti- slavery Whigs met and agreed to call for a new political party which became the Republican Party

Who made up the Republican Party?  Northern Whigs  Northern Whigs who were leaderless following the deaths of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, both in 1852 Free-Soil Party  The Free-Soil Party, which had played a spoiler role in several presidential elections, was bereft of effective leadership Know-Nothing  The Know-Nothing movement, whose roots lay in the fear of immigrants Northern Democrats  Many Northern Democrats who deserted their party over the slavery issue. Jackson, Michigan, site of a meeting of antislavery supporters in July 1856 “Under the Oaks”

Issues that Unite the Republican Party  Repeal of Kansas-Nebraska Act and halting expansion of slavery the Republican opposition to the extension of slavery was based more on economic concerns than moral ones  The construction of the transcontinental railroad  Support of a Homestead Acts would ease the process for settlers to own western lands  High protective tariffs and liberal immigration law both were attractive to Northern manufacturers. Site of the first Republican Party Convention,Lafayette Hall, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Condemned KS-NE Act & slavery expansion Called the Republicans extremists Election of 1856

Dred Scott vs. Sandford (1857)  Dred Scott was a slave who lived in Missouri (a slave state)  His owner moved to free territory and took Scott and his wife.  They returned to Missouri where Scott’s owner died  He sued for his freedom based on having lived in free territory Harriet and Dred Scott Roger Taney, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

Dred Scott vs. Sandford (1857)  Case heard before Surpreme Court  Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled against Scott. Dred Scott was not a U.S. Citizen and thus could not sue in U.S. Courts Scott was bound by Missouri Slave code Congress had no right to ban slavery in territories  Slavery effectively now protected by law