Changes

The '''[[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]''' (May 30, 1854), sponsored by Douglas, provided for the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska, using his principle the idea of popular sovereignty.  Douglas had written the act in an effort to slow or halt the sectarianism over slavery's extension, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act merely increased the flames, and was attacked by free-soil and abolitionists as a capitulation to those who supported slavery. The Whig Party, ineffective in preventing it, largely disintegrated, and the Republican Party was born and soon became a viable political organization opposed to territorial expansion of slavery. Unfortunately on the heels of the act a migration of those for and against slavery would leave Missouri and seek to influence elections in the Kansas Territory, the result of which became a violent skirmishes known as ''[[Bleeding Kansas]]'', culminating in the burning of a hotel and printing press in Lawrence on May 21, 1856 by pro-slavery men (a much more violent attack on Lawrence would occur the following August); an anti-slavery religious fanatic named [[John Brown]] and a few followers would retaliate against five pro-slavery men a few days later, by hacking them to death with broadswords. [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html]

The '''[[Kansas–Nebraska Act]]''' (May 30, 1854), sponsored by Douglas, provided for the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska, using his principle the idea of popular sovereignty.  Douglas had written the act in an effort to slow or halt the sectarianism over slavery's extension, but the Kansas-Nebraska Act merely increased the flames, and was attacked by free-soil and abolitionists as a capitulation to those who supported slavery. The Whig Party, ineffective in preventing it, largely disintegrated, and the Republican Party was born and soon became a viable political organization opposed to territorial expansion of slavery. Unfortunately on the heels of the act a migration of those for and against slavery would leave Missouri and seek to influence elections in the Kansas Territory, the result of which became a violent skirmishes known as ''[[Bleeding Kansas]]'', culminating in the burning of a hotel and printing press in Lawrence on May 21, 1856 by pro-slavery men (a much more violent attack on Lawrence would occur the following August); an anti-slavery religious fanatic named [[John Brown]] and a few followers would retaliate against five pro-slavery men a few days later, by hacking them to death with broadswords. [http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/kansas.html]

The day after the hotel in Lawrence was burned, a Southern Congressman named Breston Brooks of South Carolina, incenced over an anti-slavery speech given by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, walked onto the senate floor and beat him with a cane so severely that Sumner took three years to recover. (CWA, pg 38)

The day after the hotel in Lawrence was burned, a Southern Congressman named Breston Brooks of South Carolina, incenced over an anti-slavery speech given by Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, walked onto the senate floor and beat him with a cane so severely that Sumner took three years to recover. (Bowman, pg 38)

===Dred Scott decision===

===Dred Scott decision===

*Time-Life Books ''The Civil War'', vol. 15 (''Gettysburg''), Time Inc, New York (1983)

*Time-Life Books ''The Civil War'', vol. 15 (''Gettysburg''), Time Inc, New York (1983)

*Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, (1947)

*Nevins, Allan. ''Ordeal of the Union: A House Dividing'', Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, (1947)

==Links==

==Links==