jan 9, 1854 - The Kansas-Nebraska Act

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This Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska (as the name would imply) initially to open up the territory to thousands of new farmers. However, the most memorable section of the law was the popular sovereignty clause, which allowed these territories to enter into the Union as slave or free states, depending on a referendum. This is an example of sectionalism: the federal government is letting local interests decide here.

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