Kansas-Nebraska Bill

an act passed by Congress in 1854. It was introduced by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, the chairman of the committee on territories. It passed the senate by a vote of 108 to 100. The bill was signed by President Pierce May 30th. The principal feature was a clause to the effect that, when any part of the territory included under the provision of the act should be admitted to the Union, it might come in free or slave as its inhabitants should decide. This bill was a repeal of the Missouri Compromise which had provided that no slave states should in the future be admitted north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30'. The passage of the bill created intense excitement and led to a systematic colonization of Kansas by anti-slave people from New England as well as slaveholders from Missouri. For an account of the border warfare that followed, see JOHN BROWN.