The Anti-Nebraska movement was a political alignment in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

formed in opposition to the

Kansas–Nebraska Act The Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 () 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 ...

of 1854 and to its repeal of the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise was a federal legislation of the United States that balanced desires of northern states to prevent expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand it. It admitted Missouri as a slave state and ...

provision forbidding slavery in U.S. territories north of latitude 36° 30' N. (At the time, the name "Nebraska" could loosely refer to areas west of the Missouri River). The Republican Party grew out of the Anti-Nebraska movement.

History

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 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–Ame ...

, 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 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 The Appeal of the Independent Democrats (the full title was "Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States") was a manifesto issued in January 1854, in response to the introduction into the United States Senate o ...

in January 1854. This was followed by locally organized "anti-Nebraska" meetings in many parts of the United States. Supporters included members of the

Free Soil Party The Free Soil Party was a short-lived coalition political party in the United States active from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party. The party was largely focused on the single issue of opposing the expansion of slavery int ...

Conscience Whigs The Whig Party was a political party in the United States of America, United States during the middle of the 19th century. Alongside the slightly larger Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, it was one of the two Political partie ...

, 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 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 Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent civil confrontations in Kansas Territory, and to a lesser extent in western Missouri, between 1854 and 1859. It emerged from a political and ideological debate over the ...

"). 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 a new party based on anti-immigration and anti-Catholicism. At first in many areas the "American Party" or

Know-Nothing The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

s seemed to benefit most from the dissolution of the Whigs, but after various complicated political maneuverings (sometimes involving local "

fusion ticket Electoral fusion is an arrangement where two or more political parties on a ballot list the same candidate, pooling the votes for that candidate. It is distinct from the process of electoral alliances in that the political parties remain separa ...

" alliances), by 1856 the anti-slavery Republican Party, the organized successor to the anti-Nebraska movement, was one of the two largest parties in the United States (see 1856 United States presidential election).

Salmon Chase Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus ''Oncorhynchu ...

was one of the prominent figures in the anti-Nebraska movement.

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

re-entered politics as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (after a period when he devoted himself to his law practice),"Autobiography written for campaign" (ca. June 1860) in ''Selected Speeches and Writings by Abraham Lincoln'', edited by Roy P. Basler and Don E. Fehrenbacher () p. 271. and was a prominent local anti-Nebraska speaker in central Illinois.

References

External links

The Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Rise of the Republican party, 1854-1856
at Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project
Resolutions of the anti-Nebraska convention
at Teach US History {{Authority control Slavery in the United States Republican Party (United States) 1854 in the United States 1855 in the United States History of Nebraska

History

See also

References

External links