<P> The availability of tens of millions of acres of excellent farmland in the area made it necessary to create a territorial infrastructure to allow settlement . Railroad interests were especially eager to start operations since they needed farmers as customers . Four previous attempts to pass legislation had failed . The solution was a bill proposed in January 1854 by Douglas: the Democratic Party leader in the US Senate, the chairman of the Committee on Territories, an avid promoter of railroads, an aspirant to the presidency, and a fervent believer in popular sovereignty: the policy of letting the voters, almost exclusively white males, of a territory decide whether or not slavery should exist in it . </P> <P> Since the 1840s, the topic of a transcontinental railroad had been discussed . While there were debates over the specifics, especially the route to be taken, there was a public consensus that such a railroad should be built by private interests, financed by public land grants . In 1845, Douglas, serving in his first term in the US House of Representatives, had submitted an unsuccessful plan to organize the Nebraska Territory formally, as the first step in building a railroad with its eastern terminus in Chicago . Railroad proposals were debated in all subsequent sessions of Congress with cities such as Chicago, St. Louis, Quincy, Memphis, and New Orleans competing to be the jumping - off point for the construction . </P> <P> Several proposals in late 1852 and early 1853 had strong support, but they failed because of disputes over whether the railroad would follow a northern or a southern route . In early 1853, the House of Representatives passed a bill 107 to 49 to organize the Nebraska Territory in the land west of Iowa and Missouri . In March, the bill moved to the Senate Committee on Territories, which was headed by Douglas . Missouri Senator David Atchison announced that he would support the Nebraska proposal only if slavery was allowed . While the bill was silent on this issue, slavery would have been prohibited, under the Missouri Compromise . Other Southern senators were as inflexible as Atchison . By a vote of 23 to 17, the Senate voted to table the motion, with every senator from the states south of Missouri voting to table . </P> <P> During the Senate adjournment, the issues of the railroad and the repeal of the Missouri Compromise became entangled in Missouri politics, as Atchison campaigned for re-election against the forces of Thomas Hart Benton . Atchison was maneuvered into choosing between antagonizing the state's railroad interests or its slaveholders . Finally, Atchison took the position that he would rather see Nebraska "sink in hell" before he would allow it to be overrun by free soilers . </P>

By allowing residents to choose slavery in nebraska territory the kansas nebraska act repealed the