The Anti-Nebraska movement was a political alignment in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

formed in opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854 and to its repeal of the

Missouri Compromise The Missouri Compromise (also known as the Compromise of 1820) was federal legislation of the United States that balanced the desires of northern states to prevent the expansion of slavery in the country with those of southern states to expand ...

provision forbidding slavery in U.S. territories north of latitude 36°30'. 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 temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states during the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designe ...

, and a nefarious violation of the terms of the

. 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, also called the Free Democratic Party or the Free Democracy, was a political party in the United States from 1848 to 1854, when it merged into the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. The party was focused o ...

, 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. SPChase

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 Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, is a political position that seeks to restrict immigration. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory in ...

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 the two largest parties in the United States (see

1856 United States presidential election Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 4, 1856. Democratic nominee James Buchanan defeated Republican nominee John C. Frémont and Know Nothing/ Whig nominee Millard Fillmore. The main issue was the expansion of sl ...

). Salmon P. Chase was one of the prominent figures in the anti-Nebraska movement.

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

re-entered politics as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act"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.

History

See also

References

Further reading