may 30, 1854 - Signs the Kansas-Nebraska Act, repealing the 1820 Missouri Compromise and creating two new territories. Nebraska and Kansas would decide whether to permit slavery in their territories. Proslavery and antislavery settlers poured into Kansas immediately following its enactment, hoping to influence the territory’s first election. The ensuing years of violent conflict became known as Bleeding Kansas. The Act would also become a major source of division within the Democratic Party, which helped pass the law in C