The States Rights of Kansas and Nebraska in 1854
In the recent debates, some very good observations have emerged and, because they are not written in caps, likely have been ignored. One observation appeared in a Will editorial and is worth reiterating. The subject was The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854.
The Kansas Nebraska Act empowered the residents of those territories to decide for themselves whether or not to have slavery legal in those geographic areas. The freedom to choose. The rights of the majority.
Slavery supporters and abolitionists poured into the areas to add votes to the debate. Small wars broke out--John Brown fought there and several of his sons were killed there. The Act destroyed the Whig Party, created the Republican Party, and helped to provoke civil war in Kansas, which eventually led to the Civil War.
But the Act was more basic to the country than even these staggering events. The Act crystallized a struggle essential to the nation: What could the majority do with impunity? Were votes enough? This was a formative moment in the mind of a transcendent giant in human history, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln recognized that the creation of the nation was based upon certain assumptions of Man which could not be legislated away, even by overwhelming majority vote. Life. Liberty. The Pursuit of Happiness. These were all inviolable. They were, if you will excuse me, Trump Cards.
As Justice Robert Jackson was later to write: "The very purpose of a bill of rights is to withdraw certain subjects from...political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities."
The Kansas Nebraska Act raised this very debate on an intense national scale, pitting self evident human rights against majority challenge, testing whether a Nation so conceived and so dedicated could long endure.
In the recent debates, some very good observations have emerged and, because they are not written in caps, likely have been ignored. One observation appeared in a Will editorial and is worth reiterating. The subject was The Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854.
The Kansas Nebraska Act empowered the residents of those territories to decide for themselves whether or not to have slavery legal in those geographic areas. The freedom to choose. The rights of the majority.
Slavery supporters and abolitionists poured into the areas to add votes to the debate. Small wars broke out--John Brown fought there and several of his sons were killed there. The Act destroyed the Whig Party, created the Republican Party, and helped to provoke civil war in Kansas, which eventually led to the Civil War.
But the Act was more basic to the country than even these staggering events. The Act crystallized a struggle essential to the nation: What could the majority do with impunity? Were votes enough? This was a formative moment in the mind of a transcendent giant in human history, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln recognized that the creation of the nation was based upon certain assumptions of Man which could not be legislated away, even by overwhelming majority vote. Life. Liberty. The Pursuit of Happiness. These were all inviolable. They were, if you will excuse me, Trump Cards.
As Justice Robert Jackson was later to write: "The very purpose of a bill of rights is to withdraw certain subjects from...political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities."
The Kansas Nebraska Act raised this very debate on an intense national scale, pitting self evident human rights against majority challenge, testing whether a Nation so conceived and so dedicated could long endure.
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