New+Territorial+Troubles

Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois prepared a bill to create a new territory to be called Nebraska. Leaders from the South prevented this bill from coming to a vote in the senate. They said that before Nebraska could be created that Congress had to repeal part of the Missouri Compromise and allow slavery into the new territory. At first Senator Douglas tried to gain southern support for his bill but when this failed Senator Douglas agreed to repeal the anti slavery provision of the Missouri Compromise and to divide the region into two territories. Nebraska became a free state while Kansas would become a slave state. Many of Northerners hurried into Kansas to make it into an antislavery majority. Before March elections of 1855, thousands of armed Missourians crossed the border to vote illegally to vote Pro- slavery. By March 1856 Kansas had to