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The Political Impact Of The Kansas-Nebraska Act Of 1854

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The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 began a series of events in the Kansas Territory that lead to as well as foreshadowed the events of the Civil War. In the early 1850s settlers wanted to move into the Nebraska Territory; however, the area remained unorganized which prevented the settlers from doing so which caused for Illinois Senator Stephen Douglass to push for the passage of the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act. In the 1854 act both the Kansas and Nebraska territories would be allowed popular sovereignty, but if Kansas were to be made a slave state it would violate the Missouri Compromise which kept the Union from falling apart since 1820. The political impacts of the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act were tremendous on American society. It split

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