What effect did the Kansas-Nebraska Act have on northern and southern public opinion?Kansas Nebraska Act

The Kansas-Nebraska Act, intended by Stephen A. Douglas to
strike a middle ground between the slave and free states rather intensified the slavery
debate. Both slave and free advocates believed that the issue would be settled once and
for all in Kansas, and moved people into the territory sympathetic to their side of the
argument. As a result, the Kansas-Nebraska Act polarized pre-existing feelings about
slavery. Instead of leading to a peaceful resolution, the Act solidified opinion on both
sides and made war inevitable.

When two separate state
governments were electedin Kansas, largely as a result of fraud on both sides, conflict
seemed the only way to resolve the issue. Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Harriet Beecher
Stowe and an ardent abolitionist, sent rifles to Kansas known as "Beecher's Bibles."
 When pro-slavery forces burned the town of Lawrence; John Brown launched a revenge
attack, and hacked several pro-slavery people to death in front of their families. Armed
conflict resulted in the deaths of over 200
people.

Politically, the Whig Party divided between the
Cotton Whigs who supported the slavery cause; and the Conscience Whigs who opposed it.
The Conscience Whigs later formed the Republican Party. The Democratic Party also split
North and South over the slavery issue.