Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln

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Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln

Daily Essay 2013, The Honorable Frank M. Reilly 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, 13. Guest Constitutional Scholar Essayists, 17. Topics, Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence, Frank M. Reilly, Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln, The Constitution of the United States of America, The Missouri Compromise

Guest Essayist: Frank M. Reilly, partner at the law firm of Potts & Reilly, L.L.P., Horseshoe Bay, Texas

In 1820, the U.S. Congress passed the Missouri Compromise in an effort to settle disagreements between pro and anti-slavery factions regarding the admission of new states to the union. The Missouri Compromise prohibited slavery in new states north of the 36°30Ëˆ north parallel, with the exception of Missouri. In 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois proposed, and succeeded in passing, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which unraveled the Missouri Compromise. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, signed into law by President Franklin Pierce on May 30, 1854, allowed citizens within the Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide by what they called “Popular Sovereignty” (a popular vote) as to whether they would allow slavery. Read more

May 1, 2013/1 Comment/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie

Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln – Reprinted from The U.S. Constitution, A Reader, Published by Hillsdale College

Classics that Inspired the Constitution, Daily Reading 2013, Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln, The Original Documents 4. The Classics that Inspired the Constitution, Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act by Abraham Lincoln

Supporters of the Compromise of 1850 lauded it as a continuation of the Missouri Compromise, which had helped maintain peace for thirty years. But four years later, the Missouri Compromise was eviscerated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Authored by Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas, it was in fact two provisions, one providing for the territory of Nebraska and the other for the new territory of Kansas. Breaking with the Missouri Compromise’s ban on slavery in this part of the country, it established the policy of “popular sovereignty”: Slavery would be voted on by the citizens of each territory, and made legal or illegal according to the will of the majority. For Lincoln, this policy struck at the very heart of free government. Read more

May 1, 2013/0 Comments/by Janine Turner and Cathy Gillespie