<P> The Kansas--Nebraska Act divided the nation and pointed it toward civil war . The Act itself virtually nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820 . The turmoil over the act split both the Democratic and Whig parties and gave rise to the Republican Party, which split the United States into two major political camps, the Republican North and the Democratic South . </P> <P> Senator Stephen A. Douglas and former Illinois Representative Abraham Lincoln aired their disagreement over the Kansas--Nebraska Act in seven public speeches during September and October 1854 . Lincoln gave his most comprehensive argument against slavery and the provisions of the act in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, the Peoria Speech . He and Douglas both spoke to the large audience, Douglas first and Lincoln in response, two hours later . Lincoln's three - hour speech presented thorough moral, legal, and economic arguments against slavery and raised Lincoln's political profile for the first time . The speeches set the stage for the Lincoln - Douglas debates four years later, when Lincoln was running for Douglas's Senate seat . </P> <P> A new anti-slavery state constitution, known as the Wyandotte Constitution, was eventually drawn up . On January 29, 1861, five weeks before Lincoln's inauguration, Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state . On March 1, 1867, Nebraska was admitted to the Union . By then, the 1861--1865 Civil War had been fought, and slavery itself had been outlawed throughout the United States by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution . </P>

Who was president when kansas became a state
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