The Kansas-Nebraska Act was a United States federal law voted in 1854. Stephen A. Douglas, an Illinois senator and chairman of the Senate committee for the territories, desired to colonize the western territories, so he initiated and supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act with the Congress, which organized a territorial government for the territories that would later become the states of Kansas and Nebraska. Since most of the western territories were located north of the line of division defined by the Missouri compromise, they would already be allowed to practice slavery. The Southern representatives acted in such a way as to preserve their dominion in the Senate by means of a derogation. Avoiding this problem, the Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed to overcome Missouri's commitment and allowed slavery in the new territories by "popular sovereignty." The result was a violent confrontation between pro and anti-slavery settlers.
