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Two Most Important And Difficult Questions Faced By The Members Of The Continental Congress In 1787

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Two of the most important and difficult questions faced by the members of the Continental Congress in 1787 concerned state sovereignty and slavery. The founding fathers left no clear solution to the questions of states’ rights or slavery, leaving the door open to years of debate and political wrangling. Between 1788 when the Constitution was officially ratified, through mid-1850, both issues created an environment of debate and compromise that would dominate politics for years. Unable to take a definitive stand on either issue, Congress chose to enact several laws that would create a compromise and push the problem into the future rather than deal with solving these important issues. This strategy of compromise eventually lead to the Kansas-Nebraska …show more content…

The question of slavery created a deep division among the delegates as many of the northern statesmen regarded slavery as illegal and should be abolished all together. Delegates from the southern states argued that slavery was an integral part of the southern agricultural and economic structure and opposed any plan that would create a stronger central government or include restrictions on the lucrative slave trade. The issue of slavery was treated as a political rather than a moral question that created consequences that legislators struggled with for over eighty years and lead to continued compromises such as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of …show more content…

The new transcontinental railway was viewed by many as way to transport slaves to the new western territories, except for the limitations of the Missouri Compromise. Even though Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas owned a significant number of shares in railroad stocks and had a vested interest in seeing that the railroad succeed in transporting people and cargo to the western territories, Senator Douglas developed a plan that created the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 (Garrison, 2016). The proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act would split the vast territory into two separate states where the people in each territory, not their legislatures, would decide if they should enter as a slave or free state through popular referendum. This significant portion of the act which Stephens defined as popular sovereignty is a key factor in the Kansas-Nebraska Act which also repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise. As expected, Nebraska voted to enter as a free-state even though many pro-slavery southerners campaigned heavily to sway the population to vote for slavery. The outcome of the vote in Kansas would be determined by a census count and election that the territorial governor scheduled in March 1855. Not wanting to see the settlers of Kansas vote to become a free-state as well, pro-slavery supporters from Missouri rushed to Kansas

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