SUMMARY
1. The Compromise of 1850 did not settle the question of slavery in the territories, and an attempt to organize Kansas and Nebraska brought it up again.
2. In the organization of these territories a new political doctrine, "popular sovereignty," was announced.
3. This was applied in Kansas, and the struggle for Kansas began. The first territorial government was proslavery. The antislavery men then made a constitution (Topeka) and formed a free state government. Thereupon the proslavery men formed a constitution (Lecompton) for a slave state. This was submitted to Congress and rejected, and Kansas remained a territory till 1861.
4. In the course of the struggle for free soil in Kansas the Whig party went to pieces, the Democratic was split into two wings, and the Know-nothing or Native American party and the Republican party arose.
5. The Republican party was defeated in 1856, but the Dred Scott decision in 1857 and the continued struggle in Kansas forced the question of slavery to the front, and in 1860 Lincoln was elected.
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