The beginnings of a government are an interesting study. The story of Kansas and her constitutions is a novel that grips and holds you to the end.
On December 14, 1853, Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa introduced a bill in the Senate. The bill proposed organizing the Nebraska territory, which also included an area that would become the state of Kansas. His bill was referred to the Committee of the Territories, which was chaired by Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois.
Douglas had entered politics early and had advanced quickly; at 21 he was Illinois State’s attorney, and by age 35 he was a U.S. Senator. He strongly endorsed the idea of popular sovereignty, which allowed the settlers in a territory to decide for themselves whether or not to have slavery. Douglas was also a fervent advocate of Manifest Destiny, the idea that the United States had the God-given right and obligation to take over as much land as possible and to spread its "civilizing" influence. And he was not alone. By a vote of its residents the territories would become a slave or a free state. This caused many fights between Northerners and Southerners. As a result many people were killed (Thomas Frank, 201- 205).
This act was fair because it gave the majority of the population the choice. This would be better because if the government just said that the land was a free state the people who had slaves would have to move out of their state and travel to a slave state, so they could keep their slaves and not have to sell them. It would be good because the people who have the choice of it being a slave or free state could debate the situation and work out a decision that they all agreed on...................
