It Ain't Over

The events of the past few weeks have driven so many of us to distraction. I certainly am one of them. There is a tremendous post at Left Coast Rebel that reveals how Americans responded to a hated piece of national legislation.

[...]The year is 1854 and the issue dividing America was slavery. The abolition movement in America had been percolating since the country’s founding and pro-slavery politics had just proclaimed themselves the victors of the slavery battle with their legislative victory in the 1854 Nebraska-Kansas Act. With a single stroke of the presidential pen, Franklin Pierce had in effect declared slavery the law of the land. The bill opened up all US territories to accept backdoor slavery; the bill was to permanently weave slavery into the fabric of the electorate, never to be overturned.

Starting to sound familar? "Never to be overturned" is an echo of arrogance down through the ages. We heard it again just yesterday. It is a self-deluding utterance by men and woman who cannot conceive the consequences of their actions.

The Nebraska-Kansas Act was passed by a narrow margin in the house; 113 to 100. However, the implications were clear and the country would never be the same again. It all started with a dramatic ousting of the day’s blue dog democrats, aka the northern democrats:

Stephen Douglas was the Chairman of the Territories Committee who introduced the Nebraska-Kansas Act. He was also the Democratic candidate in the Presidential election of 1860. Remember who won that election?

No congressional member had so badly miscalculated the consequences of his actions as had Douglas. He believed that, besides getting a transcontinental railroad terminating in Chicago, he had removed the slavery issue from national life. By putting discussion of slavery in the hands of settlers and taking it away from members of Congress, Douglas believed, as did many others, that the national agitation over slavery's expansion would cease. This prediction was proven miserably wrong.

The Nebraska-Kansas Act was supposed to settle once and for all the issue of slavery, making it legal throughout the Union, or so Mr. Douglas and his supporters thought.

How's that hopey-change thing working out for ya Stephen?

The Nebraska-Kansas Act brought about the birth of the Republican Party from the ashes of the Whigs. The first Republican elected to the Presidency was Abrahma Lincoln.

The elections for the House of Representatives in 1854, 1856, 1858 and 1860 saw dramatic changes in the number of Democrats in Congress.

This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 118:24