The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

by Erik Larson

Hammond entered the Senate as the nation writhed through yet another conflict over slavery. In May 1854, Sen. Stephen Douglas of Illinois had won passage of what became known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which established two new territories and allowed the inhabitants of each to decide whether to permit slavery, a doctrine known as popular sovereignty. It also repealed the Missouri Compromise, which had banned slavery in all new territory north of the 36º30' parallel. The act set off a race between slaveholders and free-soil advocates to populate the new territories in order to influence the choice. In Kansas, that race soon led to open warfare between factions and gave rise to the term “Bleeding Kansas.” Opponents of the bill founded a new party committed to halting the expansion of slavery and eventually settled on the name Republican. Southerners dubbed its leaders “Black Republicans.”