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107-540: Most in the anti-Nebraska movement considered the Kansas–Nebraska Act to be a unilateral pro-Southern revision to the supposedly final Compromise of 1850 , and a nefarious violation of the terms of the Missouri Compromise . Many were deeply alarmed by the prospect of new slave states being established in northern areas formerly reserved for free white settlers. The issue of not extending slavery into new areas

214-809: A farm or plantation, with labor provided by enslaved African Americans. Atchison's law practice flourished, and his best-known client was Joseph Smith , founder of the Latter Day Saint Movement . Atchison represented Smith in land disputes with non-Mormon settlers in Caldwell County and Daviess County . Alexander William Doniphan joined Atchison's law practice in Liberty in May 1833. The two became fast friends and spent many leisure time hours playing cards, going to horse races, hunting, fishing, and attending social functions and political events. Atchison, already

321-735: A free-soil response, " Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States": We arraign this bill as a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal betrayal of precious rights; as part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from vast unoccupied region immigrants from the Old World and free laborers from our States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves. Douglas took

428-451: A large territory were created. Existing language to affirm the application of all other laws of the United States in the new territory was supplemented by the language agreed on with Pierce: "except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820 [the Missouri Compromise ], which was superseded by the legislation of 1850, commonly called

535-533: A lawyer, senator, and soldier. Inauguration Day —March 4—fell on a Sunday in 1849, and so president-elect Zachary Taylor did not take the presidential oath of office until the next day. Even so, the term of the outgoing president, James K. Polk , ended at noon on March 4. On March 2, outgoing vice president George M. Dallas relinquished his position as president of the Senate . Congress had previously chosen Atchison as president pro tempore . In 1849, according to

642-761: A member of the Liberty Blues, a volunteer militia in Missouri, got Doniphan to join. Atchison was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1834. He worked hard for the Platte Purchase , which required Native American tribes to cede land to the United States and extended the northwestern boundary of Missouri to the Missouri River in 1837. When early disputes broke out into the Mormon War of 1838 , Atchison

749-493: A moral debate. Southerners claimed that slavery was beneficent , endorsed by the Bible, and generally good policy, whose expansion must be supported. The publications and speeches of abolitionists , some of them former slaves themselves, were telling Northerners that the supposed beneficence of slavery was a Southern lie, and that enslaving another person was un-Christian, a horrible sin that must be fought. Both battles were "fought with

856-455: A moral victory. The New York Times , which had earlier supported Pierce, predicted that this would be the last straw for Northern supporters of the slavery forces and would "create a deep-seated, intense, and ineradicable hatred of the institution which will crush its political power, at all hazards, and at any cost". The day after the bill was reintroduced, two Ohioans, Representative Joshua Giddings and Senator Salmon P. Chase , published

963-454: A new party based on anti-immigration and anti-Catholicism . At first in many areas the "American Party" or Know-Nothings seemed to benefit most from the dissolution of the Whigs, but after various complicated political maneuverings (sometimes involving local " fusion ticket " alliances), by 1856 the anti-slavery Republican Party , the organized successor to the anti-Nebraska movement, was one of

1070-472: A pertinacity, bitterness, and rancor unknown even in Wilmot Proviso days". The freesoilers were at a distinct disadvantage in Congress. The Democrats held large majorities in each house, and Douglas, "a ferocious fighter, the fiercest, most ruthless, and most unscrupulous that Congress had perhaps ever known", led a tightly disciplined party. In the nation at large, the opponents of Nebraska hoped to achieve

1177-468: A platform and nominated candidates under the Republican name was held near Jackson, Michigan , on July 6, 1854. At that convention, the party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates. The Midwest took the lead in forming state Republican Party tickets; apart from St. Louis and a few areas adjacent to free states, there were no efforts to organize

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1284-657: A plot to overthrow the existing order. For two days, Sumner listed crime, after crime, in detail, complete with documentation by newspapers and letters of the time, showing the tortures and violence by Atchison and his men. Two days later, Atchison gave his own speech, totally unaware as yet that he was exposed on the Senate floor in such a fashion. Atchison's speech was to the Texas men he just met, hired and paid for, Atchison reveals in his speech, by "authorities in Washington". They are about to invade Lawrence, Kansas . Atchison makes

1391-573: A population recession of roughly 20 percent between 1830 and 1850. From a political standpoint, the Whig Party had been in decline in the South because of the effectiveness with which it had been hammered by the Democratic Party over slavery. The Southern Whigs hoped that by seizing the initiative on this issue, they would be identified as strong defenders of slavery. Many Northern Whigs broke with them in

1498-550: A presidential election. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was the final nail in the Whig coffin. It was also the spark that began the Republican Party , which would take in both Whigs and Free Soilers (as well as sympathetic northern Democrats like Frémont ) to fill the anti-slavery void that the Whig Party had never seemed willing to fill. The changes in the act were viewed by anti-slavery Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by

1605-432: A smiling face and the appearance of friendship", had appealed for a postponement of debate on the ground that he had not yet familiarized himself with the bill. "Little did I suppose at the time that I granted that act of courtesy", Douglas remarked, that Chase and his compatriots had published a document "in which they arraigned me as having been guilty of a criminal betrayal of my trust", of bad faith, and of plotting against

1712-668: Is now part of Lexington, Kentucky . He was educated at Transylvania University in Lexington. Classmates included five future Democratic senators ( Solomon Downs of Louisiana , Jesse Bright of Indiana , George Wallace Jones of Iowa , Edward Hannegan of Indiana , and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi ). Atchison completed law studies and was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1829. In 1830 he moved to Liberty in Clay County in western Missouri, and set up practice there. He also acquired

1819-514: The 49th parallel , the US–Canada border . A large portion of Nebraska Territory would soon be split off into Dakota Territory (1861), and smaller portions transferred to Colorado Territory (1861) and Idaho Territory (1863) before the balance of the land became the State of Nebraska in 1867. Furthermore, any decisions on slavery in the new lands were to be made "when admitted as a state or states,

1926-519: The Blue Lodges and were dubbed border ruffians , a term coined by the opponent and abolitionist Horace Greeley . Abolitionist settlers, known as " jayhawkers ", moved from the East expressly to make Kansas a free state. A clash between the opposing sides was inevitable. Successive territorial governors, usually sympathetic to slavery, attempted to maintain the peace. The territorial capital of Lecompton ,

2033-739: The Compromise of 1850 should apply in Nebraska. In the Compromise of 1850, Utah and New Mexico Territories had been organized without any restrictions on slavery, and many supporters of Douglas argued that the compromise had already superseded the Missouri Compromise. The territories were, however, given the authority to decide for themselves whether they would apply for statehood as either free or slaves states whenever they chose to apply. The two territories, however, unlike Nebraska, had not been part of

2140-518: The Free Soil Party , Conscience Whigs , and anti-slavery-extension Democrats . Some were seeking to organize a new political party devoted to anti-slavery-extension principles, while others did not intend to repudiate their existing political affiliations, but merely wished to ally with those of diverse political views on the single issue of opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Opinion against

2247-534: The Kansas–Nebraska Act , which embodied this idea, in November 1853. The act was passed and became law in May 1854, establishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Both Douglas and Atchison had believed that Nebraska would be settled by Free-State men from Iowa and Illinois , and Kansas by pro-slavery Missourians and other Southerners, thus preserving the numerical balance between free states and slave states in

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2354-537: The Louisiana Purchase and had arguably never been subject to the Missouri Compromise. The bill was reported to the main body of the Senate on January 4, 1854. It had been modified by Douglas, who had also authored the New Mexico Territory and Utah Territory Acts, to mirror the language from the Compromise of 1850 . In the bill, a vast new Nebraska Territory was created to extend from Kansas north to

2461-572: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 , stoking national tensions over slavery and contributing to a series of armed conflicts known as " Bleeding Kansas ." The United States had acquired vast amounts of land in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase , and since the 1840s Douglas had sought to establish a territorial government in a portion of the Louisiana Purchase that was still unorganized. Douglas's efforts were stymied by Senator David Rice Atchison of Missouri and other Southern leaders who refused to allow

2568-658: The Missouri River to reinforce Price, and defeated Union troops that tried to block his force in the Battle of Liberty . Atchison served in the State Guard through the end of 1861. In March 1862, Union forces in the Trans-Mississippi theater won a decisive victory at Pea Ridge in Arkansas and secured Union control of Missouri. Atchison then resigned from the army over reported strategy arguments with Price and moved to Texas for

2675-477: The Presidential Succession Act of 1792, the Senate president pro tempore immediately followed the vice president in the presidential line of succession . As Dallas's term also ended at noon on the 4th, and as neither Taylor nor vice president-elect Millard Fillmore had been sworn in to office on that day, it was claimed by some of Atchison's friends and colleagues that from March 4–5, 1849, Atchison

2782-674: The Whigs to defeat incumbent Benton for re-election. Benton, intending to challenge Atchison in 1854, began to agitate for territorial organization of the area west of Missouri (now the states of Kansas and Nebraska ) so that it could be opened to settlement. To counter this, Atchison proposed that the area be organized and that the section of the Missouri Compromise banning slavery there be repealed in favor of popular sovereignty . Under this plan, settlers in each territory would vote to decide whether they would allow slavery. At Atchison's request, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois introduced

2889-508: The 4th, occurring on Sunday, Gen. Taylor was not inaugurated. He was not inaugurated till Monday, the 5th, at 12 noon. It was then canvassed among Senators whether there was an interregnum (a time during which a country lacks a government). It was plain that there was either an interregnum or I was the President of the United States being chairman of the Senate, having succeeded Judge Mangum of North Carolina. The judge waked me up at 3 o'clock in

2996-559: The Act was the death knell for the ailing Whig Party, which broke apart after the Act. Its Northern remnants would give rise to the anti-slavery Republican Party . The Act, and the tensions over slavery it inflamed, were key events leading to the American Civil War . In his 1853 inaugural address, President Franklin Pierce expressed hope that the Compromise of 1850 had settled the debate over

3103-525: The Act would leave decisions about whether slavery would be permitted in the hands of the people rather than the Federal government. The far more common response was one of outrage, interpreting Douglas's actions as, in their words, "part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region emigrant from the Old World, and free laborers from our States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves". Especially in

3210-477: The Act. The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. An ascendant anti-slavery wing clashed with a traditionalist and increasingly pro-slavery southern wing. These divisions came to a head in the 1852 election , where Whig candidate Winfield Scott

3317-532: The Democrats and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Pierce deplored the new Republican Party, because of its perceived anti-southern, anti-slavery stance. To Northerners, the President's perceived Southern bias did anything but de-escalate public mood and helped inflame abolitionist anger. David Rice Atchison American Civil War David Rice Atchison (August 11, 1807 – January 26, 1886)

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3424-404: The Democrats in the Missouri legislature were split between him and Benton, while the Whig minority put forward their own man. No senator was elected until January 1857, when James S. Green was chosen. When the first transcontinental railroad was proposed in the 1850s, Atchison called for it to be built along the central route (from St. Louis through Missouri, Kansas, and Utah ), rather than

3531-475: The House by Philip Phillips of Alabama. With the encouragement of the "F Street Mess", Douglas met with them and Phillips to ensure that the momentum for passing the bill remained with the Democratic Party. They arranged to meet with President Franklin Pierce to ensure that the issue would be declared a test of party loyalty within the Democratic Party. Pierce was not enthusiastic about the implications of repealing

3638-415: The House into a war of more than words. Campbell, joined by other antislavery northerners, exchanged insults and invectives with southerners, neither side giving quarter. Weapons were brandished on the floor of the House. Finally, bumptiousness gave way to violence. Henry A. Edmundson , a Virginia Democrat , well oiled and well-armed, had to be restrained from making a violent attack on Campbell. Only after

3745-472: The Judiciary Committee). When Congress reconvened on December 5, 1853, the group, termed the F Street Mess , along with Virginian William O. Goode , formed the nucleus that would insist on slaveholder equality in Nebraska. Douglas was aware of the group's opinions and power and knew that he needed to address its concerns. Douglas was also a fervent believer in popular sovereignty —the policy of letting

3852-542: The Kansas Territorial legislature to be elected in March 1855 would be controlled by free-soilers and ban slavery. This was viewed as a breach of faith by Atchison and his supporters. An angry Atchison called on pro-slavery Missourians to uphold slavery by force and "to kill every God-damned abolitionist in the district" if necessary. He recruited an immense mob of heavily armed Missourians, the infamous " Border Ruffians ". On

3959-589: The Kansas–Nebraska Act in seven public speeches during September and October 1854. Lincoln gave his most comprehensive argument against slavery and the provisions of the act in Peoria, Illinois , on October 16, in the Peoria Speech . He and Douglas both spoke to the large audience, Douglas first and Lincoln in response, two hours later. Lincoln's three-hour speech presented thorough moral, legal, and economic arguments against slavery and raised Lincoln's political profile for

4066-522: The Mexican–American War. The topic of a transcontinental railroad had been discussed since the 1840s. While there were debates over the specifics, especially the route to be taken, there was a public consensus that such a railroad should be built by private interests, and financed by public land grants. In 1845, Stephen A. Douglas , then serving in his first term in the U.S. House of Representatives , had submitted an unsuccessful plan to organize

4173-535: The Missouri Compromise and had barely referred to Nebraska in his State of the Union message delivered December 5, 1853, just a month before. Close advisors Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan, a proponent of popular sovereignty as far back as 1848 as an alternative to the Wilmot Proviso , and Secretary of State William L. Marcy both told Pierce that repeal would create serious political problems. The full cabinet met and only Secretary of War Jefferson Davis and Secretary of Navy James C. Dobbin supported repeal. Instead,

4280-487: The Missouri Compromise and spurred interest in the territory. Immediate responses to the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act fell into two classes. The less common response was held by Douglas's supporters, who believed that the bill would withdraw "the question of slavery from the halls of Congress and the political arena, committing it to the arbitration of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible for, its consequences". In other words, they believed that

4387-427: The Missouri act". In other words, popular sovereignty was being established by ignoring, rather than addressing, the problem presented by the Missouri Compromise. Douglas's attempt to finesse his way around the Missouri Compromise did not work. Kentucky Whig Archibald Dixon believed that unless the Missouri Compromise was explicitly repealed, slaveholders would be reluctant to move to the new territory until slavery

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4494-553: The Nebraska Territory formally, as the first step in building a railroad with its eastern terminus in Chicago . Railroad proposals were debated in all subsequent sessions of Congress with cities such as Chicago, St. Louis , Quincy , Memphis , and New Orleans competing to be the jumping-off point for the construction. Several proposals in late 1852 and early 1853 had strong support, but they failed because of disputes over whether

4601-607: The Party in the southern states. So was born the Republican Party—campaigning on the popular, emotional issue of "free soil" in the frontier—which would capture the White House just six years later. The Kansas–Nebraska Act divided the nation and pointed it toward civil war. Congressional Democrats suffered huge losses in the mid-term elections of 1854, as voters provided support to a wide array of new parties that opposed

4708-538: The US Senate in December 1845, they chose Atchison as president pro tempore, placing him second in succession for the presidency. He also was responsible for presiding over the Senate when the vice president was absent. At 38, he was a young man with low seniority in the Senate after two years to gain such a position. In 1849 Atchison stepped down as president pro tempore in favor of William R. King . King in turn yielded

4815-512: The United States . This belief, however, is dismissed by most scholars. Atchison, owner of many slaves and a plantation , was a prominent pro-slavery activist and Border Ruffian leader, deeply involved with violence against abolitionists and other free-staters during the " Bleeding Kansas " events that preceded admission of the state to the Union. Atchison was born to William Atchison and his wife in Frogtown (later Kirklevington), which

4922-569: The admittance of Kansas and, to a lesser extent, Nebraska to the United States. To avoid and/or alleviate the reservation-settlement problem, further treaty negotiations were attempted with the tribes of Kansas and Nebraska. In 1854 alone, the U.S. agreed to acquire lands in Kansas or Nebraska from several tribes including the Kickapoo, Delaware, Omaha , Shawnee, Otoe and Missouri , Miami, and Kaskaskia and Peoria. In exchange for their land cessions,

5029-441: The appeal personally and responded in Congress, when the debate was opened on January 30 before a full House and packed gallery. Douglas biographer Robert W. Johanssen described part of the speech: Douglas charged the authors of the "Appeal", whom he referred to throughout as the "Abolitionist confederates", with having perpetrated a "base falsehood" in their protest. He expressed his sense of betrayal, recalling that Chase, "with

5136-588: The area Colonel Alfred Cumming reported at least more deaths than births in most tribes in the area. While noting intemperance, or alcoholism , as a leading cause of death, Cumming specifically cited cholera , smallpox , and measles , none of which the Native Americans were able to treat. The disastrous epidemics exemplified the Osage people, who lost an estimated 1300 lives to scurvy , measles, smallpox, and scrofula between 1852 and 1856, contributing, in part, to

5243-503: The best efforts of Atchison and the Ruffians, Kansas rejected slavery and finally became a free state in 1861. Charles Sumner, in the epic "Crimes Against Kansas" speech on May 19, 1856, exposed Atchison's role in the invasion, tortures, and killings in Kansas. Speaking in the flamboyant style he and others used, lacing his prose with references to Roman history, Sumner compared Atchison to Roman Senator Catiline , who betrayed his country in

5350-402: The bill was essential to the party and would dictate how federal patronage would be handled. Davis and Cushing, from Massachusetts, along with Douglas, spearheaded the partisan efforts. By the end of April, Douglas believed that there were enough votes to pass the bill. The House leadership then began a series of roll call votes in which legislation ahead of the Kansas–Nebraska Act was called to

5457-465: The bill was silent on this issue, slavery would have been prohibited under the Missouri Compromise in the territory north of 36°30' latitude and west of the Mississippi River. Other Southern senators were as inflexible as Atchison. By a vote of 23 to 17, the Senate voted to table the motion, with every senator from the states south of Missouri voting to the table. During the Senate adjournment,

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5564-429: The bill would be "a test of Democratic orthodoxy". On January 23, a revised bill was introduced in the Senate that repealed the Missouri Compromise and split the unorganized land into two new territories: Kansas and Nebraska. The division was the result of concerns expressed by settlers already in Nebraska as well as the senators from Iowa, who were concerned with the location of the territory's seat of government if such

5671-504: The cause of free government. While other Senators were attending divine worship, they had been "assembled in a secret conclave", devoting the Sabbath to their own conspiratorial and deceitful purposes. The debate would continue for four months, as many Anti-Nebraska political rallies were held across the north. Douglas remained the main advocate for the bill while Chase, William Seward , of New York, and Charles Sumner , of Massachusetts, led

5778-565: The citizens of each territory, rather than Congress, would determine whether slavery would be allowed. Douglas's bill to repeal the Missouri Compromise and organize Kansas Territory and Nebraska Territory won approval by a wide margin in the Senate , but faced stronger opposition in the House of Representatives . Though Northern Whigs strongly opposed the bill, it passed the House with the support of almost all Southerners and some Northern Democrats. After

5885-400: The compromise measures [the Compromise of 1850 ], and is declared inoperative." Identical legislation was soon introduced in the House. Historian Allan Nevins wrote that the country then became convulsed with two interconnected battles over slavery . A political battle was being fought in Congress over the question of slavery in the new states that were coming. At the same time, there was

5992-431: The creation of territories that banned slavery; slavery would have been banned because the Missouri Compromise outlawed slavery in the territory north of latitude 36° 30′ north (except for Missouri). To win the support of Southerners like Atchison, Pierce and Douglas agreed to back the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, with the status of slavery instead decided based on " popular sovereignty ". Under popular sovereignty,

6099-561: The duration of the war. After the war he retired to his farm near Gower . He denied many of his pro-slavery public statements made prior to the Civil War. Then, his retirement cottage outside of Plattsburg, Missouri burned to the ground before his death in 1886. This entailed the complete loss of his library containing books, documents, and letters which documented his role in the Mormon War, Indian affairs, pro-slavery activities, Civil War activities, and other legislation covering his career as

6206-598: The election day, March 30, 1855, Atchison led 5,000 Border Ruffians into Kansas. They seized control of all polling places at gunpoint, cast tens of thousands of fraudulent votes for pro-slavery candidates, and elected a pro-slavery legislature. The outrage was nonetheless accepted by the Federal government. When Territorial Governor Andrew Reeder objected, he was fired by President Franklin Pierce . Despite this show of force, far more free-soilers than pro-slavery settlers migrated to Kansas. There were continual raids and ambushes by both sides in " Bleeding Kansas ". In spite of

6313-565: The expansion of slavery continued to be politically important in the North after the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in May 1854 (reinforced when Kansas under the Act became " Bleeding Kansas "). Simultaneously, the Whig Party was disintegrating at the national level, and there was competition between those who wished to take advantage of this situation to organize a major new party based on anti-slavery-extension principles, and those who wished to organize

6420-409: The eyes of northerners, the Kansas–Nebraska Act was aggression and an attack on the power and beliefs of free states. The response led to calls for public action against the South, as seen in broadsides that advertised gatherings in northern states to discuss publicly what to do about the presumption of the Act. Douglas and former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln aired their disagreement over

6527-616: The first time. The speeches set the stage for the Lincoln-Douglas debates four years later, when Lincoln sought Douglas's Senate seat. Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the United States between 1854 and 1861 involving anti-slavery " Free-Staters " and pro-slavery " Border Ruffian ", or "Southern" elements in Kansas . At

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6634-459: The floor and tabled without debate. Thomas Hart Benton was among those speaking forcefully against the measure. On April 25, in a House speech that biographer William Nisbet Chambers called "long, passionate, historical, [and] polemical", Benton attacked the repeal of the Missouri Compromise , which he "had stood upon ... above thirty years, and intended to stand upon it to the end—solitary and alone, if need be; but preferring company". The speech

6741-493: The heart of the conflict was the question of whether Kansas would allow or outlaw slavery, and thus enter the Union as a slave state or a free state . Pro-slavery settlers came to Kansas mainly from neighboring Missouri , successfully vote stacking to form a temporary pro-slavery government prior to statehood. Their influence in territorial elections was often bolstered by resident Missourians who crossed into Kansas solely for voting in such ballots. They formed groups such as

6848-580: The issue of slavery in the territories . The compromise had allowed slavery in Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory , which had been acquired in the Mexican–American War . The Missouri Compromise , which banned slavery in territories north of the 36°30′ parallel , remained in place for the other U.S. territories acquired in the Louisiana Purchase , including a vast unorganized territory often referred to as "Nebraska". As settlers poured into

6955-523: The issues of the railroad and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise became entangled in Missouri politics, as Atchison campaigned for re-election against the forces of Thomas Hart Benton . Atchison was maneuvered into choosing between antagonizing the state's railroad interests or its slaveholders. Finally, he took the position that he would rather see Nebraska "sink in hell" before he would allow it to be overrun by free soilers . Representatives then generally found lodging in boarding houses when they were in

7062-553: The massive decline in population, from 8000 in 1850 to just 3500 in 1860. The Osage had already encountered epidemics associated with relocation and white settlement. The initial removal acts in the 1830s brought both White American settlers and foreign Native American tribes to the Great Plains and into contact with the Osage people. Between 1829 and 1843, influenza , cholera, and smallpox killed an estimated 1242 Osage Indians, resulting in

7169-453: The men are to kill and draw blood, told the men they will be "well paid," and encouraged them to plunder from the homes that they invaded. That was after the hundreds of dozens of tortures and killings that Sumner had detailed in his Crimes Against Kansas speech. In other words, things were about to get much worse since Atchison had his hired men from Texas. Atchison's Senate term expired on March 3, 1855. He sought election to another term, but

7276-503: The men promise to kill and "draw blood," and boasts of his flag, which was red in color for "Southern Rights" and the color of blood. They would press "to blood" the spread of slavery into Kansas. He revealed in this speech that the immediate goal of the invasion was to stop the newspaper in Lawrence from publishing anti-slavery material. Atchison's men had made it a crime to publish anti-slavery newspapers in Kansas. Atchison made it clear

7383-487: The morning and said jocularly that as I was President of the United States he wanted me to appoint him as secretary of state. I made no pretense to the office, but if I was entitled in it I had one boast to make, that not a woman or a child shed a tear on account of my removing any one from office during my incumbency of the place. A great many such questions are liable to arise under our form of government. Atchison died on January 26, 1886, at his home near Gower, Missouri at

7490-538: The most damaging violation by white American settlers was the mistreatment of Native Americans and their properties. Personal maltreatment, stolen property, and deforestation have all been cited. Furthermore, the squatters' premature and illegal settlement of the Kansas Territory jeopardized the value of the land, and with it the future of the Indian tribes living on them. Because treaties were land cessions and purchases,

7597-420: The nation's capital to perform their legislative duties. Atchison shared lodgings in an F Street house shared by the leading Southerners in Congress. He was the Senate's President pro tempore . His housemates included Robert T. Hunter (from Virginia, chairman of the Finance Committee), James Mason (from Virginia, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee) and Andrew P. Butler (from South Carolina, chairman of

7704-564: The nation. In 1854 Atchison helped found the town of Atchison, Kansas , as a pro-slavery settlement. The town (and county) were named for him. While Southerners supported the idea of settling Kansas, few migrated there. Most free-soilers preferred Kansas to Nebraska. Furthermore, anti-slavery activists throughout the North came to view Kansas as a battleground and formed societies to encourage free-soil settlers to go to Kansas, to ensure there would be enough voters in both Kansas and Nebraska to approve their entry as free states. It appeared as if

7811-537: The oath of office before any official acts, the prevailing view is that presidential succession does not depend on the oath. Even supposing that an oath were necessary, Atchison never took it, so he was no more the president than Taylor. In September 1872, Atchison, who never himself claimed that he was technically president, told a reporter for the Plattsburg Lever : It was in this way: Polk went out of office on March 3, 1849, on Saturday at 12 noon. The next day,

7918-530: The office back to Atchison in December 1852, after being elected Vice President of the United States. Atchison continued as president pro tempore until December 1854. As a senator, Atchison was a fervent advocate of slavery and territorial expansion. He supported the annexation of Texas and the U.S.-Mexican War . Atchison and Thomas Hart Benton , Missouri's other senator, became rivals and finally enemies, although both were Democrats. Benton declared himself to be against slavery in 1849. In 1851 Atchison allied with

8025-417: The opposition. The New-York Tribune wrote on March 2: The unanimous sentiment of the North is indignant resistance. ... The whole population is full of it. The feeling in 1848 was far inferior to this in strength and universality. The debate in the Senate concluded on March 4, 1854, when Douglas, beginning near midnight on March 3, made a five-and-a-half-hour speech. The final vote in favor of passage

8132-738: The organization of the Kansas–Nebraska territory in 1854, the Kansas and Nebraska Territories were consolidated as part of the Indian Territory . Throughout the 1830s, large-scale relocations of Native American tribes to the Indian Territory took place, with many Southeastern nations removed to present-day Oklahoma , a process ordered by the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and known as the Trail of Tears , and many Midwestern nations removed by way of

8239-440: The passage of the act, pro- and anti-slavery elements flooded into Kansas to establish a population that would vote for or against slavery, resulting in a series of armed conflicts known as " Bleeding Kansas ". Douglas and Pierce hoped that popular sovereignty would help bring an end to the national debate over slavery, but the Kansas–Nebraska Act outraged Northerners. The division between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces caused by

8346-520: The president and cabinet submitted to Douglas an alternative plan that would have sought out a judicial ruling on the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise. Both Pierce and Attorney General Caleb Cushing believed that the Supreme Court would find it unconstitutional. Douglas's committee met later that night. Douglas was agreeable to the proposal, but the Atchison group was not. Determined to offer

8453-484: The railroad would follow a northern or a southern route. In early 1853, the House of Representatives passed a bill 107 to 49 to organize the Nebraska Territory in the land west of Iowa and Missouri. In March, the bill moved to the Senate Committee on Territories, which was headed by Douglas. Missouri Senator David Atchison announced that he would support the Nebraska proposal only if slavery were to be permitted. While

8560-476: The recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to establish certain great principles, which would not only furnish adequate remedies for existing evils, but, in all times to come, avoid the perils of a similar agitation, by withdrawing the question of slavery from the halls of Congress and the political arena, and committing it to the arbitrament of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible for its consequences. The report compared

8667-410: The repeal to Congress on January 23 but reluctant to act without Pierce's commitment, Douglas arranged through Davis to meet with Pierce on January 22 even though it was a Sunday when Pierce generally refrained from conducting any business. Douglas was accompanied at the meeting by Atchison, Hunter, Phillips, and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Douglas and Atchison first met alone with Pierce before

8774-437: The right to govern themselves in their domestic matters as they please", would be honored. The final House vote in favor of the bill was 113 to 100. Northern Democrats supported the bill 44 to 42, but all 45 northern Whigs opposed it. Southern Democrats voted in favor by 57 to 2, and southern Whigs supported it by 12 to 7. President Franklin Pierce signed the Kansas–Nebraska Act into law on May 30, 1854. This act repealed

8881-453: The said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission." In a report accompanying the bill, Douglas's committee wrote that the Utah and New Mexico Acts: ... were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring effect than the mere adjustment of the difficulties arising out of

8988-505: The secession crisis in Missouri at the beginning of the American Civil War , Atchison sided with Missouri's pro-Confederate governor, Claiborne Jackson . He was appointed a major general in the Missouri State Guard . Atchison actively recruited State Guardsmen in northern Missouri and served with Guard commander General Sterling Price in the summer campaign of 1861. In September 1861, Atchison led 3,500 State Guard recruits across

9095-411: The sergeant at arms arrested him, the debate was cut off, and the House adjourned did the melee subside. The floor debate was handled by Alexander Stephens , of Georgia, who insisted that the Missouri Compromise had never been a true compromise but had been imposed on the South. He argued that the issue was whether republican principles, "that the citizens of every distinct community or State should have

9202-481: The situation in New Mexico and Utah with the situation in Nebraska. In the first instance, many had argued that slavery had previously been prohibited under Mexican law , just as it was prohibited in Nebraska under the Missouri Compromise. Just as the creation of New Mexico and Utah territories had not ruled on the validity of Mexican law on the acquired territory, the Nebraska bill was neither "affirming nor repealing ...

9309-465: The slave-owning South. Opponents of the Act were intensely motivated and began forming a new party. The party began as a coalition of anti-slavery Conscience Whigs such as Zachariah Chandler and Free Soilers such as Salmon P. Chase . The first anti-Nebraska local meeting where "Republican" was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a Ripon, Wisconsin schoolhouse on March 20, 1854. The first statewide convention that formed

9416-458: The southern route (from New Orleans through Texas and New Mexico ). Naturally, his suggested route went through Atchison. Atchison and his law partner Doniphan fell out over politics in 1859–1861, disagreeing on how Missouri should proceed. Atchison favored secession, while Doniphan was torn and would remain for the most part non-committal. Privately Doniphan favored the Union, but found it difficult to oppose his friends and associates. During

9523-401: The squatters, both the military and the squatters refused to comply, undermining both Federal authority and the treaties in place with Delaware. In addition to the violations of treaty agreements, other promises made were not being kept. Construction and infrastructure improvement projects dedicated to nearly every treaty, for example, took a great deal longer than expected. Beyond that, however,

9630-499: The target of much agitation, became such a hostile environment for Free-Staters that they set up their own, unofficial legislature at Topeka . John Brown and his sons gained notoriety in the fight against slavery by murdering five pro-slavery farmers with a broadsword in the Pottawatomie massacre . Brown also helped defend a few dozen Free-State supporters from several hundred angry pro-slavery supporters at Osawatomie . Before

9737-533: The treaty to present-day Kansas. Among the latter were the Shawnee , Delaware , Kickapoo , Kaskaskia and Peoria , Ioway , and Miami . The passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act came into direct conflict with the relocations. White American settlers from both the free-soil North and pro-slavery South flooded the Northern Indian Territory, hoping to influence the vote on slavery that would come following

9844-563: The tribes largely received small reservations in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma or Kansas in some cases. For the nations that remained in Kansas beyond 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act introduced a host of other problems. In 1855, white " squatters " built the city of Leavenworth on the Delaware reservation without the consent of either Delaware or the US government. When Commissioner of Indian Affairs George Manypenny ordered military support in removing

9951-489: The two largest parties in the United States (see 1856 United States presidential election ). Salmon P. Chase was one of the prominent figures in the anti-Nebraska movement. Abraham Lincoln re-entered politics as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (after a period when he devoted himself to his law practice), and was a prominent local anti-Nebraska speaker in central Illinois. Kansas%E2%80%93Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 (10  Stat.   277 )

10058-429: The unorganized territory, and commercial and political interests called for a transcontinental railroad through the region, pressure mounted for the organization of the eastern parts of the unorganized territory. Though the organization of the territory was required to develop the region, an organization bill threatened to re-open the contentious debates over slavery in the territories that had taken place during and after

10165-502: The value of the land handed over to the Federal government was critical to the payment received by a given Native nation. Deforestation, destruction of property, and other general injuries to the land lowered the value of the territories that were ceded by the Kansas Territory tribes. Manypenny's 1856 "Report on Indian Affairs" explained the devastating effect on Indian populations of diseases that white settlers brought to Kansas. Without providing statistics, Indian Affairs Superintendent to

10272-493: The voters, almost exclusively white males, of a territory decide whether or not slavery should exist in it. Iowa Senator Augustus C. Dodge immediately reintroduced the same legislation to organize Nebraska that had stalled in the previous session; it was referred to Douglas's committee on December 14. Douglas, hoping to achieve the support of the Southerners, publicly announced that the same principle that had been established in

10379-428: The whole group convened. Pierce was persuaded to support repeal, and at Douglas' insistence, Pierce provided a written draft, asserting that the Missouri Compromise had been made inoperative by the principles of the Compromise of 1850. Pierce later informed his cabinet, which concurred with the change of direction. The Washington Union , the communications organ for the administration, wrote on January 24 that support for

10486-462: Was acting president of the United States . Historians, constitutional scholars and biographers dismiss the claim. They point out that Atchison's Senate term had also ended on March 4. When the Senate of the new Congress convened on March 5 to allow new senators and the new vice president to take the oath of office, the secretary of the Senate called members to order, as the Senate had no president pro tempore. Although an incoming president must take

10593-611: Was 37 to 14. Free-state senators voted 14 to 12 in favor, and slave-state senators supported the bill 23 to 2. On March 21, 1854, as a delaying tactic in the House of Representatives, the legislation was referred by a vote of 110 to 95 to the Committee of the Whole , where it was the last item on the calendar. Realizing from the vote to stall that the act faced an uphill struggle, the Pierce administration made it clear to all Democrats that passage of

10700-731: Was a mid-19th-century Democratic United States Senator from Missouri . He served as president pro tempore of the United States Senate for six years. Atchison served as a major general in the Missouri State Militia in 1838 during Missouri's Mormon War and as a Confederate brigadier general during the American Civil War under Major General Sterling Price in the Missouri Home Guard. Some of Atchison's associates claimed that for 24 hours—Sunday, March 4, 1849, through noon on Monday—he may have been acting president of

10807-436: Was a territorial organic act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska . It was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas , passed by the 33rd United States Congress , and signed into law by President Franklin Pierce . Douglas introduced the bill intending to open up new lands to develop and facilitate the construction of a transcontinental railroad . However, the Kansas–Nebraska Act effectively repealed

10914-612: Was appointed a major general in the state militia . He took part in suppressing violence by both sides. Active in the Democratic Party, in 1838 Atchison was re-elected to the Missouri State House of Representatives. In 1841, he was appointed a circuit court judge for the six-county area of the Platte Purchase. In 1843 he was named a county commissioner in Platte County , where he then lived. In October 1843, Atchison

11021-404: Was appointed to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy left by the death of Lewis F. Linn . He was the first senator from western Missouri to serve in this position. At age 36, he was the youngest senator from Missouri up to that time. Atchison was re-elected to a full term on his own account in 1849. Atchison was very popular with his fellow Senate Democrats. When the Democrats took control of

11128-412: Was approved by the settlers, who would most likely oppose slavery. On January 16 Dixon surprised Douglas by introducing an amendment that would repeal the section of the Missouri Compromise that prohibited slavery north of the 36°30' parallel. Douglas met privately with Dixon and in the end, despite his misgivings on Northern reaction, agreed to accept Dixon's arguments. A similar amendment was offered in

11235-540: Was different from the issue of abolishing slavery in areas where it already existed, and only a minority of Kansas-Nebraska act opponents were abolitionists in the strict sense. The first prominent public manifestation of opposition to the act was the Appeal of the Independent Democrats in January 1854. This was followed by locally organized "anti-Nebraska" meetings in many parts of the United States. Supporters included members of

11342-448: Was distributed afterward as a pamphlet when opposition to the action moved outside the walls of Congress. It was not until May 8 that the debate began in the House. The debate was even more intense than in the Senate. While it seemed to be a foregone conclusion that the bill would pass, the opponents went all out to fight it. Historian Michael Morrison wrote: A filibuster led by Lewis D. Campbell , an Ohio free-soiler , nearly provoked

11449-465: Was trounced by Franklin Pierce . Southern Whigs, who had supported the prior Whig president Zachary Taylor , had been burned by Taylor and were unwilling to support another Whig. Taylor, who despite being a slave owner, had proved notably anti-slave despite campaigning neutrally on the issue. With the loss of Southern Whig support and the loss of votes in the North to the Free Soil Party , Whigs seemed doomed. So they were, as they would never again contest

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