The Beginning of the End:Kansas-Nebraska Act

   
  
   While the great debate on Slavery started during the American Revolution, president after president put off decisive decisions on slavery, while many citizens argued pro and anti slavery using the same document; The Bill of Rights. While many tried to keep the balance between these different ideas, with acts such as the Missouri Compromise, as the years went on, both sides began to push for stronger, more decisive acts, such as the Wilmot Proviso, the Compromise of 1850, and eventually, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the tipping point of America's divide.

  But what led to these more decisive acts and more immediate questions? The Expansionist movement which started with the idea of Manifest Destiny truly brought the country to split when Stephen Douglas decided to organize the Nebraska territory. After much opposition from the South, Stephen decided to nullify the Missouri Compromise and make two states; Kansas and Nebraska. What first started as just sectionalism, the Kansas-Nebraska Act caused the first major political divide, increasing sectionalism. Southerners joined the Democratic party, and the Northerners made the Republican party, officializing the divide. After this, the South threatening secession, truly putting the divide in affect. 

I think the effects of the Kansas Nebraska Act was the event to put America most on the spectrum of Civil War, besides the later violence between the two. Sectionalism being backed up by politics gives a sense of how far and deep-rooted the problem had become.