<P> The Kansas--Nebraska Act of 1854 (10 Stat. 277) created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and was drafted by Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois and President Franklin Pierce . The initial purpose of the Kansas--Nebraska Act was to open up thousands of new farms and make feasible a Midwestern Transcontinental Railroad . The popular sovereignty clause of the law led pro - and anti-slavery elements to flood into Kansas with the goal of voting slavery up or down, resulting in Bleeding Kansas . </P> <Table> Events leading to the American Civil War <Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> Slavery </Li> <Li> Northwest Ordinance </Li> <Li> Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions </Li> <Li> Battle of Negro Fort </Li> <Li> Missouri Compromise </Li> <Li> Tariff of 1828 </Li> <Li> Nat Turner's slave rebellion </Li> <Li> Nullification Crisis </Li> <Li> The Amistad </Li> <Li> Prigg v. Pennsylvania </Li> <Li> Texas annexation </Li> <Li> Mexican--American War </Li> <Li> Wilmot Proviso </Li> <Li> Manifest destiny </Li> <Li> Underground Railroad </Li> <Li> Nashville Convention </Li> <Li> Compromise of 1850 </Li> <Li> Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 </Li> <Li> Uncle Tom's Cabin </Li> <Li> Kansas--Nebraska Act </Li> <Li> Ostend Manifesto </Li> <Li> Bleeding Kansas </Li> <Li> Caning of Charles Sumner </Li> <Li> Dred Scott v. Sandford </Li> <Li> The Impending Crisis of the South </Li> <Li> Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry </Li> <Li> 1860 presidential election </Li> <Li> Crittenden Compromise </Li> <Li> Secession of Southern States </Li> <Li> Star of the West </Li> <Li> Corwin Amendment </Li> <Li> Battle of Fort Sumter </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> </Table>

Why did congress pass the kansas nebraska act