Origin
states south of it. So Texas was annexed and a vast region was taken from Mexico to provide material for more slave states. But this operation proved disappointing. Texas remained one single state instead of being divided into the five that had been expected; California came in as a single free state instead of being divided into two, one free and one slave; and New Mexico and Arizona would obviously not be ready for statehood for many years. With Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon and other northern territories rapidly preparing for entrance into the Union, each having claims based upon fitness that could not be denied, it was evident that the Missouri Compromise could not prevent the free states from soon outnumbering the slave.
Therefore in 1854 the Pro-Slavery party, with its last control of Congress, enacted the Kansas-Nebraska bill. That measure was a virtual repeal of the Missouri Compromise in that it permitted slavery and slave states north of the line which the latter act had established. It did not, it is true, command the existence of slavery nor declare the power of Congress to require its extension in the northern territories. But it established the principle of "Squatter Sovereignty," under which the residents, even temporary, of any territory might determine whether it should be free or slave. This was in the face of the constitutional provision that Congress should make all laws for the government of territories before their admission to the Union as states as well as in violation of the compromise of 1820.
The result was the precipitation of the final conflict over sectionalism, with a complete breaking up of the old parties and a general political realignment. The
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