Kansas-Nebraska Act Summary

Brief Summary

The Set-Up

The United States is expanding, and in an effort to close the gap between its east coast properties and its west coast properties, it's decided to finally organize the Kansas and Nebraska Territories. Big fun is had by all as the territorial governments are set up in exacting detail while the huge question of slavery is left open to the voters.

The Text

Back in the 1850s, copy-paste commands were carried out by dudes with fountain pens, not savvy typists with a ctrl key.

Too bad for the fountain pen guys, because Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V could've saved them boatloads of time when it came to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Other than a few minor details, Sections 1-18 of this Act mirror Sections 19-36 almost word for word, except the first sections deal with the Nebraska Territory and the latter sections deal with the Kansas Territory. Section 37, the final section, is the only one written to apply to both Territories, and it's fairly succinct.

The 33rd U.S. Congress was nothing if not consistent when it came to putting this bad chicken together. And the level of detail would give even the heartiest purveyor of minutiae something to strive for.

If only they'd used some of that attention to detail to think through the ramifications of what they were copy-pasting.

TL;DR

Washington, D.C. outsources its slavery and sovereignty baggage to the newly-formed Kansas and Nebraska Territories.