Editing Kansas–Nebraska Act (section)

==Aftermath==
[[File:CSumner.jpg|thumb|left|Charles Sumner on Douglas – "Alas! too often those principles which give consistency, individuality, and form to the Northern character, which renders it staunch, strong, and seaworthy, which bind it together as with iron, are drawn out, one by one, like the bolts of the ill-fitted vessel, and from the miserable, loosened fragments is formed that human anomaly—''a Northern man with Southern principles''. Sir, no such man can speak for the North."<ref>Nevins p. 139</ref>]]

Immediate responses to the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act fell into two classes. The less common response was held by Douglas's supporters, who believed that the bill would withdraw "the question of slavery from the halls of Congress and the political arena, committing it to the arbitration of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible for, its consequences".<ref>''Senate Reports'', 33 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 15.</ref> In other words, they believed that the Act would leave decisions about whether slavery would be permitted in the hands of the people rather than the Federal government. The far more common response was one of outrage, interpreting Douglas's actions as, in their words, "part and parcel of an atrocious plot to exclude from a vast unoccupied region emigrant from the Old World, and free laborers from our States, and convert it into a dreary region of despotism, inhabited by masters and slaves".<ref>''Congressional Globe'', 33 Cong., 1 Sess., 281.</ref> Especially in the eyes of northerners, the Kansas–Nebraska Act was aggression and an attack on the power and beliefs of free states.<ref>{{cite journal |jstor=1902683 |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=187–212 |last1=Nichols |first1=Roy F. |title=The Kansas–Nebraska Act: A Century of Historiography |year=1956 |doi=10.2307/1902683}}</ref> The response led to calls for public action against the South, as seen in broadsides that advertised gatherings in northern states to discuss publicly what to do about the presumption of the Act.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/Evans/?p_product=EAIX&p_theme=eai&p_nbid=I4FS4FHLMTQ1NzA2MzIyNi4zMDQ5NDQ6MToxNDo2OC4xNjkuMTY4LjIyMA&p_action=doc&p_docnum=1&p_queryname=3&p_docref=v2:10D2F64C960591AE@EAIX-10F45436DC239530@9060-@1&f_mode=citation|title=American Broadsides and Ephemera, Series I. "To the People of Massachusetts:" Worcester, MA: 1854. Accessed 3 March 2016.}}</ref>

Douglas and former Illinois Representative [[Abraham Lincoln]] aired their disagreement over the Kansas–Nebraska Act in seven public speeches during September and October 1854.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=10&subjectID=2 |title=1854 – Abraham Lincoln and Freedom |access-date=2008-08-25 |author=The Lincoln Institute |year=2002–2008 |archive-date=2008-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220004814/http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=10&subjectID=2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Lincoln gave his most comprehensive argument against slavery and the provisions of the act in [[Peoria, Illinois]], on October 16, in the [[Abraham Lincoln Peoria speech|Peoria Speech]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lincolnatpeoria.com/ |title=Abraham Lincoln at Peoria: The Turning Point |access-date=2008-08-25 |last=Lehrman |first=Lewis E. |archive-date=2019-06-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626041033/https://www.lincolnatpeoria.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He and Douglas both spoke to the large audience, Douglas first and Lincoln in response, two hours later. Lincoln's three-hour speech presented thorough moral, legal, and economic arguments against slavery and raised Lincoln's political profile for the first time. The speeches set the stage for the [[Lincoln-Douglas debates]] four years later, when Lincoln sought Douglas's Senate seat.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=1&subjectID=1 |title=Preface by Lewis Lehrman, Abraham Lincoln and Freedom |access-date=2008-08-25 |author=The Lincoln Institute |author2=Lewis E. Lehrman |date=2002–2008 |archive-date=2008-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081220004805/http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=1&subjectID=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Bleeding Kansas===
{{main|Bleeding Kansas}}
[[File: Reynolds's Political Map of the United States 1856.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.1|This 1856 map shows slave states (gray), free states (pink), [[Organized incorporated territories of the United States|U.S. territories]] (green), and Kansas (white).]]

Bleeding Kansas, Bloody Kansas, or the Border War was a series of violent political confrontations in the [[United States]] between 1854 and 1861 involving [[Abolitionism in the United States|anti-slavery]] "[[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-Staters]]" and [[pro-slavery]] "[[Border Ruffian]]", or "Southern" elements in [[Kansas]]. At the heart of the conflict was the question of whether [[History of Kansas|Kansas]] would allow or outlaw slavery, and thus enter the Union as a [[Slave state|slave state or a free state]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-09 |title=Bleeding Kansas {{!}} History, Effects, & John Brown {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Bleeding-Kansas-United-States-history |access-date=2023-06-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=2023-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230922162521/https://www.britannica.com/event/Bleeding-Kansas-United-States-history |url-status=live }}</ref>

Pro-slavery settlers came to Kansas mainly from neighboring [[Missouri]], successfully [[vote stacking]] to form a temporary pro-slavery government prior to statehood.<ref name="Alexander2023" /> Their influence in territorial elections was often bolstered by resident Missourians who crossed into Kansas solely for voting in such ballots. They formed groups such as the [[Blue Lodges]] and were dubbed ''[[border ruffians]]'', a term coined by the opponent and abolitionist [[Horace Greeley]]. Abolitionist settlers, known as "[[jayhawkers]]", moved from the East expressly to make Kansas a free state. A clash between the opposing sides was inevitable.<ref>Nicole Etcheson, ''Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era'' (2006)</ref>

Successive territorial governors, usually sympathetic to slavery, attempted to maintain the peace. The territorial capital of [[Lecompton, Kansas|Lecompton]], the target of much agitation, became such a hostile environment for [[Free-Stater (Kansas)|Free-Staters]] that they set up their own, unofficial legislature at [[Topeka, Kansas|Topeka]].<ref>Thomas Goodrich, ''War to the Knife: Bleeding Kansas, 1854–1861'' (2004)</ref>

[[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and his sons gained notoriety in the fight against slavery by murdering five pro-slavery farmers with a broadsword in the [[Pottawatomie massacre]]. Brown also helped defend a few dozen Free-State supporters from several hundred angry pro-slavery supporters at [[Osawatomie, Kansas|Osawatomie]].<ref>James C. Malin, ''John Brown and the legend of fifty-six'' (1942)</ref>

===Effect on Native American tribes===
Before the organization of the Kansas–Nebraska territory in 1854, the Kansas and Nebraska Territories were consolidated as part of the [[Indian Territory]]. Throughout the 1830s, large-scale relocations of Native American tribes to the Indian Territory took place, with many Southeastern nations removed to present-day [[Oklahoma]], a process ordered by the [[Indian Removal Act]] of 1830 and known as the [[Trail of Tears]], and many Midwestern nations removed by way of the treaty to present-day Kansas. Among the latter were the [[Shawnee]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sha0370.htm#mn2 |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151207111123/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sha0370.htm#mn2 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Lenape|Delaware]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/del0303.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151213003430/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/del0303.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Kickapoo people|Kickapoo]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kic0182.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-02-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150213020529/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kic0182.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Kaskaskia]] and [[Peoria tribe|Peoria]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kas0376.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151207175054/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kas0376.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Iowa people|Ioway]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/iow0468.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151207111057/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/iow0468.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[Miami people|Miami]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/mia0531.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151213012431/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/mia0531.htm |archive-date=2015-12-13 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The passing of the Kansas–Nebraska Act came into direct conflict with the relocations. White American settlers from both the free-soil North and pro-slavery South flooded the Northern Indian Territory, hoping to influence the vote on slavery that would come following the admittance of Kansas and, to a lesser extent, Nebraska to the United States.

To avoid and/or alleviate the reservation-settlement problem, further treaty negotiations were attempted with the tribes of Kansas and Nebraska. In 1854 alone, the U.S. agreed to acquire lands in Kansas or Nebraska from several tribes including the Kickapoo,<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kic0634.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061731/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kic0634.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Delaware,<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/del0614.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2016-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304084025/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/del0614.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Omaha people|Omaha]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/oma0611.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182848/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/oma0611.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Shawnee,<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/sha0618.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2016-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160120233439/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/vol2/treaties/sha0618.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Otoe tribe|Otoe]] and [[Missouria|Missouri]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/oto0608.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115071956/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/oto0608.htm |archive-date=2016-01-15 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Miami,<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/mia0641.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2016-01-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115082708/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/mia0641.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Kaskaskia and Peoria.<ref>{{cite web |title=Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties. Vol. 2, Treaties |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kas0636.htm |website=digital.library.okstate.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2016-01-14 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160114202638/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/Vol2/treaties/kas0636.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> In exchange for their land cessions, the tribes largely received small reservations in the Indian Territory of Oklahoma or Kansas in some cases.

For the nations that remained in Kansas beyond 1854, the Kansas–Nebraska Act introduced a host of other problems. In 1855, white "[[squatting|squatters]]" built the city of [[Leavenworth, Kansas|Leavenworth]] on the Delaware reservation without the consent of either Delaware or the US government. When Commissioner of [[Bureau of Indian Affairs|Indian Affairs]] [[George Washington Manypenny|George Manypenny]] ordered military support in removing the squatters, both the military and the squatters refused to comply, undermining both Federal authority and the treaties in place with Delaware.<ref>George W. Manypenny, ''Our Indian Wards'' (1880) 123–124</ref> In addition to the violations of treaty agreements, other promises made were not being kept. Construction and infrastructure improvement projects dedicated to nearly every treaty, for example, took a great deal longer than expected. Beyond that, however, the most damaging violation by white American settlers was the mistreatment of Native Americans and their properties. Personal maltreatment, stolen property, and [[deforestation]] have all been cited.<ref>George W. Manypenny, ''Our Indian Wards'' (1880) 127</ref> Furthermore, the squatters' premature and illegal settlement of the Kansas Territory jeopardized the value of the land, and with it the future of the Indian tribes living on them. Because treaties were land cessions and purchases, the value of the land handed over to the Federal government was critical to the payment received by a given Native nation. Deforestation, destruction of property, and other general injuries to the land lowered the value of the territories that were ceded by the Kansas Territory tribes.<ref>{{cite web |title=History: Annual report of the commissioner of Indian affairs, for the year 1855: [Central superintendency] |url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=goto&id=History.AnnRep55&isize=M&submit=Go+to+page&page=109 |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222234545/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=goto&id=History.AnnRep55&isize=M&submit=Go%20to%20page&page=109 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Manypenny's 1856 "Report on Indian Affairs" explained the devastating effect on Indian populations of diseases that white settlers brought to Kansas. Without providing statistics, Indian Affairs Superintendent to the area Colonel Alfred Cumming reported at least more deaths than births in most tribes in the area. While noting intemperance, or [[alcoholism]], as a leading cause of death, Cumming specifically cited [[cholera]], [[smallpox]], and [[measles]], none of which the Native Americans were able to treat.<ref>{{cite web |title=History: Annual report of the commissioner of Indian affairs, for the year 1856: [Central superintendency] |url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=turn&entity=History.AnnRep56.p0072&id=History.AnnRep56&isize=M |website=digicoll.library.wisc.edu |access-date=2015-12-14 |archive-date=2015-12-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222084144/http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/History/History-idx?type=turn&entity=History.AnnRep56.p0072&id=History.AnnRep56&isize=M |url-status=live }}</ref> The disastrous epidemics exemplified the [[Osage Nation|Osage]] people, who lost an estimated 1300 lives to [[scurvy]], measles, smallpox, and [[scrofula]] between 1852 and 1856,<ref name="Louis F. Burns 2004">Louis F. Burns, ''A History of the Osage People'' (2004) 239</ref> contributing, in part, to the massive decline in population, from 8000 in 1850 to just 3500 in 1860.<ref name="ReferenceA">Louis F. Burns, ''A History of the Osage People'' (2004) 243</ref> The Osage had already encountered epidemics associated with relocation and white settlement. The initial removal acts in the 1830s brought both White American settlers and foreign Native American tribes to the Great Plains and into contact with the Osage people. Between 1829 and 1843, [[influenza]], cholera, and smallpox killed an estimated 1242 Osage Indians,<ref name="Louis F. Burns 2004"/> resulting in a population recession of roughly 20 percent between 1830 and 1850.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

=== Destruction of the Whig party ===
{{Main|History of the Republican Party (United States)#Beginnings: 1854–1860}}

From a political standpoint, the Whig Party had been in decline in the South because of the effectiveness with which it had been hammered by the Democratic Party over slavery. The Southern Whigs hoped that by seizing the initiative on this issue, they would be identified as strong defenders of slavery. Many Northern Whigs broke with them in the Act.<ref>Cooper p. 350</ref> 

The American party system had been dominated by Whigs and Democrats for decades leading up to the Civil War. But the Whig party's increasing internal divisions had made it a party of strange bedfellows by the 1850s. An ascendant anti-slavery wing clashed with a traditionalist and increasingly pro-slavery Southern wing. These divisions came to a head in the [[1852 United States presidential election|1852 election]], where Whig candidate [[Winfield Scott]] was trounced by [[Franklin Pierce]]. Southern Whigs, who had supported the prior Whig president [[Zachary Taylor]], had been burned by Taylor and were unwilling to support another Whig. Taylor, who despite being a slave owner, had proved notably anti-slave despite campaigning neutrally on the issue. With the loss of Southern Whig support and the loss of votes in the North to the [[Free Soil Party]], Whigs seemed doomed. So they were, as they would never again contest a presidential election.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=117–119}}

The Kansas–Nebraska Act was the final nail in the Whig coffin. It was also the spark that began the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]], which would take in both Whigs and Free Soilers (as well as sympathetic northern Democrats like [[John C. Frémont|Frémont]]) to fill the anti-slavery void that the Whig Party had never seemed willing to fill.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=117–119}} The changes in the act were viewed by anti-slavery Northerners as an aggressive, expansionist maneuver by the slave-owning South. Opponents of the Act were intensely motivated and began forming a new party. The party began as a coalition of anti-slavery [[Conscience Whigs]] such as [[Zachariah Chandler]] and [[Free Soil Party|Free Soilers]] such as [[Salmon P. Chase]].<ref>Paul Finkelman, and Peter Wallenstein, eds. ''The encyclopedia of American political history'' (2001) p. 226.</ref><ref name="Eric Foner 1970">Eric Foner, ''Free soil, free labor, free men: the ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War'' (1970). {{ISBN?}} {{page?|date=May 2023}}</ref>

The first [[Anti-Nebraska movement|anti-Nebraska]] local meeting where "Republican" was suggested as a name for a new anti-slavery party was held in a [[Ripon, Wisconsin]] schoolhouse on March 20, 1854.<ref>A.F. Gilman, ''The origin of the Republican Party'' (1914). [http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=137 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624003914/https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=137 |date=2021-06-24 }}</ref> The first statewide convention that formed a platform and nominated candidates under the Republican name was held near [[Jackson, Michigan]], on July 6, 1854. At that convention, the party opposed the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a statewide slate of candidates.<ref>William Stocking, ed. ''Under the Oaks: Commemorating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Republican Party, at Jackson, Michigan, July 6, 1854'' (1904) [https://books.google.com/books?id=9VniAAAAMAAJ&dq=Jackson+Michigan++republican+party+1854&pg=PA9 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210505140031/https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=lang_en&id=9VniAAAAMAAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA9&dq=Jackson+Michigan++republican+party+1854&ots=wP9Wk94j1M&sig=E529yUR9YESEQfYO4xMzi-obxSI |date=2021-05-05 }}</ref> The [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] took the lead in forming state Republican Party tickets; apart from [[St. Louis]] and a few areas adjacent to free states, there were no efforts to organize the Party in the Southern states.<ref>Allan Nevins, ''. The ordeal of the Union: A house dividing, 1852–1857. Vol. 2'' (1947) pp. 316–323.</ref><ref>William E.  Gienapp, ''The origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856'' (1987) pp. 189–223.</ref> So was born the Republican Party—campaigning on the popular, emotional issue of "free soil" in the frontier—which would capture the [[White House]] just six years later.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|pp=117–119}}

===Later developments===
{{further|Presidency of James Buchanan}}

The Kansas–Nebraska Act divided the nation and pointed it toward civil war.<ref name="test">[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2009/1/2009_1_20.shtml Tom Huntington] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100102181639/http://americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2009/1/2009_1_20.shtml |date=2010-01-02}} "Civil War Chronicles: Abolitionist John Doy", ''American Heritage'', Spring 2009.</ref> Congressional Democrats suffered huge losses in the mid-term elections of 1854, as voters provided support to a wide array of new parties that opposed the Democrats and the Kansas–Nebraska Act.<ref>McPherson (1988), pp. 129–130.</ref><ref name="Alexander2023" /> Pierce deplored the new Republican Party, because of its perceived anti-Southern, anti-slavery stance. To Northerners, the President's perceived Southern bias did anything but de-escalate public mood and helped inflame abolitionist anger.<ref name="Holt9194etc">Holt (2010), pp. 91–94, 99, 106–109</ref> 

Partly due to the unpopularity of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Pierce lost his bid for re-nomination at the [[1856 Democratic National Convention]] to [[James Buchanan]]. Pierce was the first elected president who actively sought reelection but was denied his party's nomination for a second term.<ref name="krudin">{{cite news |last1=Rudin |first1=Ken |title=When Has A President Been Denied His Party's Nomination? |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/07/a_president_denied_renominatio.html |access-date=February 15, 2017 |publisher=[[NPR]] |date=July 22, 2009 |archive-date=December 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211205001230/https://www.npr.org/sections/politicaljunkie/2009/07/a_president_denied_renominatio.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Republicans nominated [[John C. Frémont]] in the [[1856 United States presidential election|1856 presidential election]] and campaigned on "Bleeding Kansas" and the unpopularity of the Kansas–Nebraska Act.<ref>Holt (2010), loc. 1610.</ref> Buchanan won the election, but Frémont carried a majority of the free states.<ref>Holt (2010), pp. 109–110</ref> Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice [[Roger Taney]] delivered the [[Dred Scott v. Sandford|''Dred Scott'' decision]], which asserted that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories.{{sfn|Klein|1995|p=316}} Douglas continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, but Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the ''Dred Scott'' decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories.{{sfn|Baker|2004|pp=120–121}}

Guerrilla warfare in Kansas continued throughout Buchanan's presidency and extended into the 1860s,{{sfn|McPherson|1988|p=784}} continuing until the American Civil War ended in 1865, with many unjust killings and lootings performed by partisans on either side of the border.<ref>{{cite web |first=Jeremy |last=Neely |url=https://civilwaronthewesternborder.org/essay/%e2%80%9c-most-cruel-and-unjust-war%e2%80%9d-guerrilla-struggle-along-missouri-kansas-border |title="A Most Cruel and Unjust War:" The Guerrilla Struggle along the Missouri-Kansas Border &#124; Civil War on the Western Border: The Missouri-Kansas Conflict, 1854–1865 |work=Civil War on the Western Border |date= |access-date=October 24, 2023 }}</ref> Buchanan attempted to admit Kansas as a state under the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution,{{sfn|Smith|1975|pp=40–43}} but Kansas voters rejected that constitution in an August 1858 referendum.{{Sfn|Baker|2004|pp=100–105}} Anti-slavery delegates won a majority of the elections to the 1859 Kansas constitutional convention, and Kansas won admission as a free state under the anti-slavery [[Wyandotte Constitution]] in the final months of Buchanan's presidency.{{Sfn|McPherson|1988|p=169}}