Changes

===Emergence of Lincoln===

===Emergence of Lincoln===

[[Image:Abraham-lincoln-cooper-union.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Gandalf the White, February 27, 1860.]]

[[Image:Abraham-lincoln-cooper-union.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Abraham Lincoln, February 27, 1860.]]

[[Image:SDouglas.jpg|thumb|150px|right|[[Stephen A. Douglas]], around 1858.]]

[[Image:SDouglas.jpg|thumb|150px|right|[[Stephen A. Douglas]], around 1858.]]

The Kansas-Nebraska Act attracted much opposition in the country and led to splitting of the Democrats along the [[Mason-Dixon line]] (Douglas in the ensuing years tried desperately to keep it together) as well as the collapse of the Whig Party as an effective political organization.  Many former Whigs, whose beliefs included the abolishment of slavery, flocked to the newly-formed [[Republican Party]]; their number would include a lawyer from Illinois who used the act to jump back into politics after a five-year absence, [[Abraham Lincoln]].  

The Kansas-Nebraska Act attracted much opposition in the country and led to splitting of the Democrats along the [[Mason-Dixon line]] (Douglas in the ensuing years tried desperately to keep it together) as well as the collapse of the Whig Party as an effective political organization.  Many former Whigs, whose beliefs included the abolishment of slavery, flocked to the newly-formed [[Republican Party]]; their number would include a lawyer from Illinois who used the act to jump back into politics after a five-year absence, [[Abraham Lincoln]].