In many respects, Kansas" and the question of whether slavery, legal in neighboring Missouri, would be allowed to spread to the territory" was the central issue of the 1860 presidential election, the most significant in U.S. history. Curtailing slavery's expansion and admitting Kansas as a free state was a key plank in the Republican Party's platform that year, just as it was during the party's first presidential election in 1856. The seemingly unanswerable "Kansas Question" and the issue of slavery's expansion split the venerable Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions, allowing the Republican Abraham Lincoln to win the election without a single Southern electoral vote.
Discover the Civil War's legacy in the Greater Kansas City region
Explore articles, correspondence, images, maps and other features related to the Bleeding Kansas era.
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Quantrill's Raid on Lawrence, Kansas
From the Blog
Three Chariton County slaves are placed up for auction upon the death of their master, General James G. Blunt is removed from command due to an earlier defeat at the hands of guerrilla fighter William Clarke Quantrill, and General Samuel R. Curtis pursues Quantrill’s Raiders.
