Claims for Loss in Territorial Kansas

The creation of Kansas Territory in 1854 sparked a period of political unrest and violence that foreshadowed the Civil War to come half a dozen years later. Kansas Territory was created pursuant to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Under the Missouri Compromise, Congress had agreed to admit new states in pairs, one pro-slavery state and one free state. Under the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, Congress abandoned its resolve to admit balanced pairs of states and decided that each Territory would enter the Union either as a free or slave state depending upon a popular vote by all of the citizens of the Territory. The decision as to whether Kansas would enter the Union as a state that permitted or prohibited slavery was to be determined by a popular vote. At this time, however, the definition of a “citizen” in terms of state citizenship was vague to the point of meaninglessness and, thus, any person who was actually present in the Territory at the time a vote was taken could vote. This so-called rule of “popular sovereignty” for determining whether a new state would be free or slave meant that both proand antislavery forces decided to flood the territory with their supporters. Antislavery forces in several northeastern states, particularly New York and Massachusetts, established “emigrant aid companies” that offered to pay relocation and travel expenses for Northerners who would move to Kansas. Pro-slavery forces urged Missourians, in many cases just a few miles east of the Kansas-Missouri border, to flood into Kansas and vote in every significant election. To complicate matters even more, the territorial government officials were appointed by two pro-slavery Presidents, Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan. The result of all of these factors was that Kansas Territory was the site of massive unrest and frequent battles between pro-slavery and antislavery forces from 1854 until 1859 when free state forces were