Why did Douglas write the Kansas Nebraska Act?

Answer 1

The initial purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was to create opportunities for a Transcontinental Railroad. The Kansas-Nebraska Act failed because it did not end the national conflict over slavery. Antislavery forces viewed the statute as a capitulation to the South, and many abandoned the Whig and Democratic parties to form the Republican Party. Kansas soon became a battleground over slavery.

Answer 2

The main purpose of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was to give voters in each of the two territories the right to vote on whether slavery would be allowed before the territories applied for statehood.

Answer 3

It was to appease the South, when it was clear that the first coast-to-coast railroad would not go via New Mexico, as they wanted, but via Chicago.

To get them to agree to help pay for the new railroad, Douglas offered them the chance to create new slave-states to the West, if the local population in the relevant states voted for it. (This idea was called 'Popular Sovereignty'.)

Answer 4

Stephen A. Douglas, the famed senator of Illinois, was the driving force behind the Kansas - Nebraska Act. Douglas had the strong belief that citizens in the territories should be able to vote on the slavery issue in the territories before they became States.