information:highlighting, structural:reformatting
Divisions between North and South

The Missouri Compromise was repealed in 1854 with the Kansas–Nebraska Act; promoted by Stephen Douglas in the name of " popular sovereignty " and democracy, this act of Congress permitted voters to decide on the legality of slavery in each territory. Anti-slavery forces rose in anger and alarm, forming the new Republican Party. Pro- and anti- contingents rushed to Kansas to vote for or against slavery, resulting in a miniature civil war called Bleeding Kansas. By the late 1850s, the young Republican Party dominated nearly all Northern states, and hence the electoral colleges. The party insisted that slavery would never be allowed to expand and would therefore slowly die out.