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A Peculiar and Tragic Institution
US History/Napp
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“Both Kansas and Nebraska were located north of the 36°30′ latitude line. According to
the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery would not be permitted north of the line. But in
the 1850s, southerners objected to this restriction and hoped to do away with it by
amending the law. Stephen A. Douglas, a U.S. senator from Illinois, encouraged southern
hopes. Douglas proposed that settlers in Kansas and Nebraska decide for themselves
whether or not to allow slavery in their territories. Congress voted in favor of Douglas’s
proposal, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act became law. Its most important provisions were
these:
 The terms of the Missouri Compromise no longer applied to Kansas and Nebraska.
 Instead, the people of these territories would exercise popular sovereignty by voting
on whether or not to allow slavery.
Voting is one way to settle an issue; fighting is another. In Kansas, after the passage of
Senator Douglas’s bill, fighting broke out between southern, proslavery settlers, and
northern, antislavery settlers. Armed clashes occurred between northerners and
southerners in ‘Bleeding Kansas.’ It was a warning of the nationwide civil war that would
soon follow.”
~ U.S. History and Government
Questions:
1- Where were Kansas and Nebraska located?
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2- What was stated in the Missouri Compromise of 1820?
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3- What did southerners object to in the 1850s?
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4- Who encouraged southern hopes?
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5- What did this Senator propose?
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6- What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
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7- What happened to the Missouri Compromise as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska
Act?
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8- Define popular sovereignty.
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9- Why was Kansas referred to as “Bleeding Kansas”?
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10- What was “Bleeding Kansas” a warning of?
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11- Why did the issue of slavery divide the nation?
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“Before the Kansas-Nebraska Act, another compromise had occurred. In 1850,
following war with Mexico, a compromise was reached that called for state’s residents
to vote to determine if the state would or would not allow slavery. After the war with
Mexico and the addition of the California territory to the United States, the Missouri
Compromise was no longer acceptable to either northerners or southerners. Congress
therefore worked out a second compromise – the Compromise of 1850.
Because of its rapid settlement during the gold rush, California was the first of the new
territories to apply for admission as a state. The South was alarmed because California
insisted on being admitted as a free (nonslave) state. This would upset the balance of
free states and slave states established by the Missouri Compromise. It would increase
the representation in Congress of the northern, nonslave states and give the North an
absolute majority in the Senate as well as the House. Southern cotton farmers feared
that the northerners in Congress might try to block them from taking their slaves into
the Southwest territories won from Mexico. They threatened to defy any antislavery
law that the North might attempt to pass.
To settle the dispute, Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky proposed another compromise:

California would be admitted to the Union as a free state. In other parts of the
Mexican Cession, settlers would decide by majority vote whether or not to allow
slavery. The issue would be decided by popular sovereignty.
 The practice of buying and selling slaves at public auction in Washington, D.C.,
would be abolished.
 Government officials in the North would assist in the capture of escaped slaves
and return them to their masters in the South. This Fugitive Slave Act would be
strictly enforced, with heavy fines for those who disobeyed. Although Congress
voted for Clay’s compromise, there was widespread resistance among northern
abolitionists to the Fugitive Slave Act.”
~ U.S. History and Government
Questions:
1- Why was California the first of the new territories gained from the MexicanAmerican War to apply for admission as a state to the Union?
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2- Why were Southerners alarmed about California?
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3- Who proposed a compromise?
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4- According to the Compromise, what would California be admitted as?
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5- What was abolished in Washington, D.C.?
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6- What was the Fugitive Slave Act?
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7- Who resisted the Fugitive Slave Act?
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Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
The antislavery writings and speeches of the abolitionists increased sectional tensions
as did the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case of 1857.
Facts of the Case:
Dred Scott had lived in Missouri as a slave before being taken by his owner to Illinois,
a free state. Returning to the slave state of Missouri, Scott went to court to sue for his
freedom. He argued that he had lived in free territory and therefore should be declared
a free citizen. His case eventually was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Supreme Court Decision:
In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled that Scott’s petition was not valid. The reason the
Court gave was extremely controversial. Chief Justice Roger Taney, a southerner,
argued as follows:



Even free African Americans could not sue in a federal court, since they were
not citizens of the United States.
Slaves brought into free territory remained slaves because they were a form of
property. Owners would not be denied their property rights without due
process of law.
The Missouri Compromise, which had excluded slavery from free territory, was
unconstitutional because it denied slave owners their property rights.
~ U.S. History and Government
Questions:
1- Who was Dred Scott?
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2- Where had Dred Scott’s owner taken him?
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3- What did Dred Scott do when he returned to Missouri?
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4- What did Dred Scott argue?
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5- What did the Supreme Court rule about Scott’s petition?
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6- According to Chief Justice Taney, what could African Americans not do?
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7- According to Chief Justice Taney, what were slaves in free territory a form of?
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8- According to Chief Justice Taney, what was the Missouri Compromise?
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9- Who liked the Dred Scott ruling? Why?
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10- Who disliked the Dred Scott ruling? Why? __________________________________
1. …The whole military force of the
State is at the service of a Mr. Suttle, a
slaveholder from Virginia, to enable him
to catch a man whom he calls his
property; but not a soldier is offered to
save a citizen of Massachusetts from
being kidnapped! Is this what all these
soldiers, all this training, have been for
these seventy-nine years past [since the
beginning of the American Revolution]?
Have they been trained merely to rob
Mexico and carry back fugitive slaves to
their masters?
~ Henry David Thoreau, Independence Day
speech at Framingham, Massachusetts
5. “Missouri Compromise Allows Two New
States Into the Union”
“Congress Agrees to Compromise of 1850”
“Popular Sovereignty Adopted Under
Kansas-Nebraska Act”
Which issue is reflected in these headlines?
(1) status of slavery in the territories and
states
(2) growth of agriculture on Great Plains
(3) clash of federal and state powers
(4) conflicts with foreign nations over the
West
6. The Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott
v. Sanford (1857) helped to increase
The author of this statement is expressing
sectional conflict because the decision
dissatisfaction with a provision included in
(1) denied Congress the power to regulate
the
slavery in the territories
(1) Treaty of Ghent (1815)
(2) allowed for the importation of enslaved
(2) Oregon Treaty of 1846
persons for ten years
(3) Compromise of 1850
(3) prohibited slavery in lands west of the
(4) Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)
Mississippi River
(4) gave full citizenship to all enslaved
2. Which group benefited most directly from persons
the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v.
Sanford (1857)?
7. Most Southern political leaders praised
(1) abolitionists (3) slave owners
the Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v.
(2) immigrants (4) enslaved persons
Sanford (1857) because it
(1) granted citizenship to all enslaved
3. The principle of popular sovereignty was persons
an important part of the
(2) upheld the principle of popular
(1) Indian Removal Act (3) Homestead Act sovereignty
(2) Kansas-Nebraska Act (4) Dawes Act
(3) supported the right of a state to secede
from the Union
4. In the 1850s, the phrase “Bleeding
(4) protected the property rights of slave
Kansas” was used to describe clashes
owners in the territories
between
(1) proslavery and antislavery groups
8. In the 1850s, why did many runaway
(2) Spanish landowners and new American
slaves go to Canada?
settlers
(1) They feared being drafted into the
(3) Chinese and Irish railroad workers
Northern army.
(4) Native American Indians and white
(2) The Fugitive Slave Act kept them at risk
settlers
in the United States.