WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.560 You know, usually when we talk about the causes 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:06.179 of major historical catastrophes, we tend to 00:00:06.179 --> 00:00:10.419 picture these grand, inevitable ideological clashes 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:13.419 right from the start. Like, we look for a clear 00:00:13.419 --> 00:00:16.239 line drawn in the sand, a singular moment where 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:18.120 everyone involved just knew they were stepping 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.640 over the point of no return. Right. Yeah, we 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:23.239 project a lot of intent backward onto history. 00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:26.019 Like, we assume that because an event like the 00:00:26.019 --> 00:00:28.219 American Civil War was so incredibly massive, 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.620 the immediate trigger must have been equally 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:34.640 profound and deliberate. Exactly. But sometimes 00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:37.000 the catalyst for total national destruction is 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:39.920 literally just a guy who really, really wants 00:00:39.920 --> 00:00:41.939 to build a train route. Yeah, a train route. 00:00:42.439 --> 00:00:44.640 Welcome to today's Deep Dive. We are thrilled 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:46.899 you're joining us. Today, we have a really fascinating 00:00:46.899 --> 00:00:49.399 mission. We are looking at a comprehensive set 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:51.820 of historical documentation regarding the Kansas 00:00:51.820 --> 00:00:54.920 -Nebraska Act of 1854. We're basically going 00:00:54.920 --> 00:00:57.960 to explore how a completely bureaucratic push 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:00.439 to organize territory for a transcontinental 00:01:00.439 --> 00:01:03.060 railroad accidentally destroyed a major American 00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:05.879 political party. And sparked a terrifying mini 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:08.519 war and ultimately became the direct catalyst 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:11.560 for the Civil War. Now, real quick, because today's 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:14.280 deep dive involves the incredibly intense pro 00:01:14.280 --> 00:01:17.659 -slavery and anti -slavery arguments of the 1850s, 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:20.620 we are putting our purely analytical hats on. 00:01:21.120 --> 00:01:23.140 Absolutely. We aren't here to litigate the politics 00:01:23.140 --> 00:01:25.780 or endorse any of the historical viewpoints of 00:01:25.780 --> 00:01:28.640 the era. We are strictly unpacking the mechanics 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.299 of how these historical ideas triggered a national 00:01:31.299 --> 00:01:34.420 collapse, relying entirely on the facts as presented 00:01:34.420 --> 00:01:36.810 in our sources. Just the facts. So to really 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:38.549 understand those mechanics, we have to look at 00:01:38.549 --> 00:01:41.290 the map of the United States in the early 1850s. 00:01:41.390 --> 00:01:43.209 Right. So the country had recently acquired these 00:01:43.209 --> 00:01:46.450 massive amounts of new land from the 1803 Louisiana 00:01:46.450 --> 00:01:48.870 Purchase and obviously the Mexican -American 00:01:48.870 --> 00:01:51.859 War. Settlers are just pouring westward. And 00:01:51.859 --> 00:01:54.120 because of this rapid expansion, there is this 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:57.019 rare moment of national consensus on one specific 00:01:57.019 --> 00:01:59.140 issue, right? Like, everyone agrees the country 00:01:59.140 --> 00:02:01.340 desperately needs a transcontinental railroad 00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:04.379 to connect the coasts. They do. But the agreement 00:02:04.379 --> 00:02:06.620 absolutely stops there. Yeah. I mean, if you're 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:08.139 looking at that map, the question of exactly 00:02:08.139 --> 00:02:10.419 where that railroad goes is a total powder keg. 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:12.539 Which brings us to Democratic Senator Stephen 00:02:12.539 --> 00:02:15.250 A. Douglas of Illinois. Douglas has a vision. 00:02:15.689 --> 00:02:18.590 He wants the Eastern Terminus, the main hub of 00:02:18.590 --> 00:02:21.349 this new transcontinental railroad, to be located 00:02:21.349 --> 00:02:25.409 in his home state, specifically in Chicago. Yeah, 00:02:25.590 --> 00:02:28.150 but he faces a massive logistical roadblock. 00:02:28.469 --> 00:02:31.870 Because, well, to build a federally backed railroad, 00:02:32.330 --> 00:02:34.810 the land it runs through must actually be officially 00:02:34.810 --> 00:02:36.689 organized by the government. Meaning you need 00:02:36.689 --> 00:02:39.310 surveyed land, established laws, basic infrastructure 00:02:39.310 --> 00:02:41.090 to protect the investment, that sort of thing. 00:02:41.270 --> 00:02:44.129 Exactly. So Douglas needs to organize the vast 00:02:44.129 --> 00:02:47.129 unorganized area known as the Nebraska Territory, 00:02:47.590 --> 00:02:49.849 which is part of that original Louisiana Purchase. 00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:53.270 But organizing territory in the 1850s immediately 00:02:53.270 --> 00:02:55.830 forces the United States to confront the expansion 00:02:55.830 --> 00:02:58.360 of slavery. Okay, let's unpack this for a second. 00:02:59.219 --> 00:03:00.960 It's almost like trying to get a simple city 00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:04.060 permit to pour a new driveway. But the zoning 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:06.400 board is telling you that you first have to resolve 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:09.539 a bitter 30 -year -old philosophical blood feud 00:03:09.539 --> 00:03:12.639 with your neighbors before you can mix any concrete. 00:03:13.180 --> 00:03:16.080 That is the perfect analogy. And the zoning law 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:18.620 blocking his railroad is the Missouri Compromise 00:03:18.620 --> 00:03:22.120 of 1820. Right. Remind us what that did. Well, 00:03:22.259 --> 00:03:24.240 the Missouri Compromise was a foundational piece 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:27.199 of legislation that strictly banned slavery in 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:29.479 the Louisiana Purchase Territories north of the 00:03:29.479 --> 00:03:33.060 3630 parallel. And that included the exact Nebraska 00:03:33.060 --> 00:03:35.680 territory Douglas wanted to organize. See, I'm 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.000 looking at this from a purely logistical standpoint, 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:40.060 and I'm struggling to see why this was such a 00:03:40.060 --> 00:03:42.740 wall for Douglas. The law says this land must 00:03:42.740 --> 00:03:44.960 be free. Why couldn't Douglas just say, great, 00:03:45.000 --> 00:03:47.180 it's free territory, let's build the train? Like, 00:03:47.180 --> 00:03:50.060 why were Southern politicians completely inflexible 00:03:50.060 --> 00:03:52.659 about unsettled land? If we connect this to the 00:03:52.659 --> 00:03:55.139 bigger picture, it was entirely about the balance 00:03:55.139 --> 00:03:58.180 of power. Every state, regardless of population, 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.580 gets two senators. So southern leaders understood 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:04.520 that new, permanently free territories would 00:04:04.520 --> 00:04:07.560 eventually become new free states. That means 00:04:07.560 --> 00:04:10.159 more free state senators and representatives, 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:12.560 which would permanently tip the balance of power 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:14.740 in Washington against the sleeve -holding South. 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:18.120 Wow, okay. Yeah, so they totally refused to authorize 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:20.259 any infrastructure that would lead to their own 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:22.879 political minority status. And the pressure on 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:25.360 these southern senators from their home states 00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:28.500 was just immense. Our sources highlight Senator 00:04:28.500 --> 00:04:31.500 David Rice Atchison of Missouri. He was campaigning 00:04:31.500 --> 00:04:34.120 for reelection against a rival political faction, 00:04:34.160 --> 00:04:36.540 and he was maneuvered into a corner where he 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:39.120 had to choose between his state's economic railroad 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:41.860 interests and its slaveholding interests. And 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:44.959 he made his priority incredibly clear. He famously 00:04:44.959 --> 00:04:47.220 declared he would rather see Nebraska sink in 00:04:47.220 --> 00:04:50.079 hell than be overrun by free soilers. Sink in 00:04:50.079 --> 00:04:52.699 hell. That is intense. Very intense. And Atchison 00:04:52.699 --> 00:04:55.120 held incredible structural power. You know, he 00:04:55.120 --> 00:04:57.939 was the Senate's president. pro tempore. Douglas 00:04:57.939 --> 00:05:00.660 knew he could not pass his railroad bill without 00:05:00.660 --> 00:05:02.819 Atchison in the southern voting block. which 00:05:02.819 --> 00:05:05.740 forces Douglas into a pretty desperate political 00:05:05.740 --> 00:05:08.199 maneuver. And he finds himself dealing with this 00:05:08.199 --> 00:05:12.120 group known as the F Street mess. Right. And 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:14.600 if you were wondering why a senator from Illinois 00:05:14.600 --> 00:05:17.100 cared so much about pleasing politicians from 00:05:17.100 --> 00:05:19.360 the South, you have to look at how Washington 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:21.920 operated back then. Yeah. Representatives and 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:23.660 senators generally lived in boarding houses. 00:05:24.120 --> 00:05:26.500 Atchison shared a house on F Street with some 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:28.680 of the most powerful Southerners in Congress. 00:05:28.899 --> 00:05:31.360 You have Robert T. Hunter, chairman of the finance 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:33.839 committee. James Mason, chairman of the Foreign 00:05:33.839 --> 00:05:36.699 Affairs Committee, and Andrew P. Butler, chairman 00:05:36.699 --> 00:05:39.240 of the Judiciary Committee. So they lived together, 00:05:39.480 --> 00:05:42.139 ate together, and most importantly, voted together. 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:44.279 Exactly. They controlled the key committees. 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:48.040 If the F Street mess doesn't like a bill, it 00:05:48.040 --> 00:05:51.000 never even sees the floor for a vote. So to appease 00:05:51.000 --> 00:05:53.779 them, Douglas leans into a concept he championed 00:05:53.779 --> 00:05:56.819 called popular sovereignty. Which, the mechanism 00:05:56.819 --> 00:05:59.459 is simple enough, just let the local voters of 00:05:59.459 --> 00:06:01.879 a territory decide for themselves whether to 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:04.920 allow slavery. Right, which at the time obviously 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.620 meant white males. But yes, he's effectively 00:06:07.620 --> 00:06:10.279 trying to bypass the Missouri Compromise. Wait. 00:06:10.509 --> 00:06:12.509 I'm struggling to understand Douglas's logic 00:06:12.509 --> 00:06:17.069 here. If a federal law from 1820 explicitly bans 00:06:17.069 --> 00:06:19.870 slavery in that region, simply writing a new 00:06:19.870 --> 00:06:22.329 bill that conveniently forgets to mention the 00:06:22.329 --> 00:06:25.350 ban wouldn't hold up in any legal sense, right? 00:06:26.110 --> 00:06:28.490 How did he think he could just bypass a foundational 00:06:28.490 --> 00:06:31.569 law by vaguely pointing to local voters? Well, 00:06:31.709 --> 00:06:34.850 his initial strategy was pure legislative finesse. 00:06:35.449 --> 00:06:38.350 He drafted the bill to say that when the territory 00:06:38.350 --> 00:06:40.750 eventually applied for statehood, it could come 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:42.990 into the union with or without slavery, depending 00:06:42.990 --> 00:06:45.209 on its local constitution. He hoped the Southern 00:06:45.209 --> 00:06:47.329 senators would accept the implication that slavery 00:06:47.329 --> 00:06:49.769 was possible. Exactly. While Northern senators 00:06:49.769 --> 00:06:51.569 would accept it because the climate in Nebraska 00:06:51.569 --> 00:06:54.170 made plantation slavery economically unlikely 00:06:54.170 --> 00:06:57.129 anyway. A completely theoretical compromise that 00:06:57.129 --> 00:06:59.949 pleased absolutely no one. Nobody at all. Kentucky 00:06:59.949 --> 00:07:02.509 Whig Archibald Dixon publicly points out that 00:07:02.509 --> 00:07:04.769 unless the Missouri Compromise is explicitly 00:07:04.769 --> 00:07:07.589 repealed, slaveholders wouldn't risk moving their 00:07:07.589 --> 00:07:09.810 property to the new territory. So they needed 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:12.230 the 1820 ban officially wiped off the books. 00:07:13.029 --> 00:07:15.470 Right. Douglass realizes his finesse failed. 00:07:15.949 --> 00:07:18.569 He has to actually repeal the Missouri Compromise. 00:07:19.389 --> 00:07:22.350 But to pass something that monumental and controversial? 00:07:22.600 --> 00:07:25.319 He needs the president of the United States to 00:07:25.319 --> 00:07:27.839 make the bill a test of Democratic Party loyalty. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:30.120 And the president is Franklin Pierce, who is 00:07:30.120 --> 00:07:32.579 absolutely terrified of the political fallout 00:07:32.579 --> 00:07:34.660 this will cause. I mean, his advisers warn him 00:07:34.660 --> 00:07:37.300 it will tear the country apart. Which leads to 00:07:37.300 --> 00:07:40.639 this remarkable scene on Sunday, January 26, 00:07:40.740 --> 00:07:43.980 1854. President Pierce strictly observes the 00:07:43.980 --> 00:07:46.019 Sabbath like he refuses to conduct political 00:07:46.019 --> 00:07:48.199 business on Sundays. But the momentum of this 00:07:48.199 --> 00:07:51.279 railroad bill is so desperate that Douglas Atchison 00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:53.620 and the F Street mess literally barge into the 00:07:53.620 --> 00:07:55.660 White House. They demand a meeting and Douglas 00:07:55.660 --> 00:07:58.459 insists that Pierce provide a written draft explicitly 00:07:58.459 --> 00:08:00.360 stating that the Missouri Compromise was now 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:02.839 inoperative and Pierce actually caves. He writes 00:08:02.839 --> 00:08:05.300 it out on a Sunday. On a Sunday. So with presidential 00:08:05.300 --> 00:08:07.980 backing secured, Douglas introduces the revised 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:11.000 bill. It explicitly repeals the Missouri Compromise 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:13.879 and splits the land into two territories, Kansas 00:08:13.879 --> 00:08:16.709 and Nebraska. With the unwritten assumption being 00:08:16.709 --> 00:08:19.509 that Kansas, bordering the slave state of Missouri, 00:08:19.829 --> 00:08:21.910 would become a slave state and Nebraska would 00:08:21.910 --> 00:08:24.910 be free. Yeah. So Douglas thinks he has engineered 00:08:24.910 --> 00:08:28.870 a neat, tidy legislative fix. He gets his organized 00:08:28.870 --> 00:08:31.649 territory for his train, and he outsources the 00:08:31.649 --> 00:08:34.029 slavery debate to the locals. But the reality 00:08:34.029 --> 00:08:37.029 is an explosive backlash that triggers a total 00:08:37.029 --> 00:08:39.809 breakdown of civility in Washington. Northern 00:08:39.809 --> 00:08:43.789 politicians immediately unleash a massive counterattack. 00:08:44.009 --> 00:08:46.529 Senator Salmon P. Chase and Representative Joshua 00:08:46.529 --> 00:08:49.269 Giddings publish the appeal of the independent 00:08:49.269 --> 00:08:51.350 Democrats. And they don't hold back. They call 00:08:51.350 --> 00:08:54.190 the bill a criminal betrayal and atrocious plot. 00:08:54.269 --> 00:08:56.809 And Douglas, who genuinely viewed himself as 00:08:56.809 --> 00:08:59.750 this pragmatic dealmaker, takes this extremely 00:08:59.750 --> 00:09:02.409 personally. Oh, he is furious. He stands up and 00:09:02.440 --> 00:09:04.460 and points out that while he was granting Chase 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:07.080 a courtesy delay on the debate, Chase and his 00:09:07.080 --> 00:09:09.240 allies were assembling in what Douglas called 00:09:09.240 --> 00:09:11.940 a secret conclave on the Sabbath to plot against 00:09:11.940 --> 00:09:14.360 him. The irony of Douglas complaining about people 00:09:14.360 --> 00:09:16.360 plotting on the Sabbath when he literally just 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:18.620 strong -armed the president on a Sunday is just 00:09:18.620 --> 00:09:20.600 staggering. It really is. But here's where it 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:23.000 gets really interesting. The debate in the House 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.639 of Representatives literally devolves into a 00:09:25.639 --> 00:09:28.860 near riot. Weapons were actually brandished on 00:09:28.860 --> 00:09:30.940 the House floor. Yeah, things got incredibly 00:09:30.940 --> 00:09:34.299 heated. A Virginia Democrat named Henry A. Edmondson, 00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:37.600 heavily armed and reportedly intoxicated, had 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.980 to be physically restrained by the sergeant at 00:09:39.980 --> 00:09:43.019 arms from attacking Ohio free soiler, Lewis D. 00:09:43.139 --> 00:09:45.039 Campbell. And the mechanics of this violence 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:47.500 are crucial to understand. If the elected officials 00:09:47.500 --> 00:09:49.919 in Washington, you know, the very men drafting 00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:52.460 the legislation, are pulling weapons on each 00:09:52.460 --> 00:09:55.340 other over this policy, it sets a direct precedent 00:09:55.340 --> 00:09:57.600 for what ordinary citizens are going to do. Right. 00:09:57.740 --> 00:10:01.019 The violence on the floor of Congress was a dark 00:10:01.019 --> 00:10:03.600 preview of what the law was about to unleash 00:10:03.600 --> 00:10:06.019 in the actual territory. Because once the act 00:10:06.019 --> 00:10:10.100 passed on May 30th, 1854, the theoretical political 00:10:10.100 --> 00:10:12.700 debate in Washington turns into a literal bloody 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:16.320 land grab in Kansas. Exactly. Douglas's popular 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.320 sovereignty meant the rules were purely based 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:20.899 on population. Whoever has the most bodies in 00:10:20.899 --> 00:10:23.340 Kansas on voting day gets to decide the fate 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:26.200 of the entire state. Which outlines the era of 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:29.809 bleeding Kansas. Pro -slavery forces, known as 00:10:29.809 --> 00:10:33.129 border ruffians, just flood in from Missouri 00:10:33.129 --> 00:10:36.370 to illegally swing elections. They set up a rogue 00:10:36.370 --> 00:10:38.909 legislature in La Compton. And anti -slavery 00:10:38.909 --> 00:10:41.409 settlers, the Jayhawkers, move in from the East 00:10:41.409 --> 00:10:44.230 and set up a rival capital in Topeka. So things 00:10:44.230 --> 00:10:47.350 get violent very quickly, including abolitionist 00:10:47.350 --> 00:10:50.049 John Brown murdering five pro -slavery farmers 00:10:50.049 --> 00:10:53.389 with a broadsword. But what's really important 00:10:53.389 --> 00:10:56.370 to pivot to here, and it's a crucial, often overlooked 00:10:56.370 --> 00:10:59.570 detail from the sources, is the devastating effect 00:10:59.570 --> 00:11:01.970 all of this had on Native American tribes. This 00:11:01.970 --> 00:11:04.789 is such a tragic irony. Just 20 years prior, 00:11:04.870 --> 00:11:07.070 the U .S. government had forced tribes like the 00:11:07.070 --> 00:11:10.009 Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo into this exact 00:11:10.009 --> 00:11:11.990 region during the Trail of Tears. Hold on. Let 00:11:11.990 --> 00:11:14.029 me get this straight. The government forces these 00:11:14.029 --> 00:11:16.870 tribes onto this land via treaties, promising 00:11:16.870 --> 00:11:19.090 it to them, and then a couple of decades later 00:11:19.090 --> 00:11:21.610 just lets armed squatters overrun it to sway 00:11:21.610 --> 00:11:23.549 a political vote. Couldn't the government stop 00:11:23.549 --> 00:11:25.470 them? Well, what's fascinating here is that when 00:11:25.470 --> 00:11:27.169 the Commissioner of Indian Affairs actually tried 00:11:27.169 --> 00:11:29.309 to get the military to remove the squatters from 00:11:29.309 --> 00:11:32.139 Delaware land, the military just refused. They 00:11:32.139 --> 00:11:35.200 just said no. Yeah. The influx of tens of thousands 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:38.320 of settlers brought rampant deforestation, property 00:11:38.320 --> 00:11:41.139 destruction and devastating diseases. Commissioner 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:43.419 reports from the Times showed outbreaks of cholera, 00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:47.559 smallpox and measles. The Osage population alone 00:11:47.559 --> 00:11:51.379 plummeted from 8 ,000 to 7 ,500 in just a decade. 00:11:51.480 --> 00:11:54.320 Half their population gone, just functioning 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:56.639 as collateral damage for a railroad and slavery 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:59.379 vote. Exactly. So what does this all mean? We 00:11:59.379 --> 00:12:02.059 have a broken treaty system, decimated native 00:12:02.059 --> 00:12:05.059 populations, two rogue governments in Kansas, 00:12:05.580 --> 00:12:08.259 and Congress pulling weapons on itself. Tally 00:12:08.259 --> 00:12:11.500 up the ultimate political cost of Douglas's railroad 00:12:11.500 --> 00:12:14.100 dream. Well, the sheer chaos of bleeding Kansas 00:12:14.100 --> 00:12:17.409 and the fury over the Kansas -Nebraska Act completely 00:12:17.409 --> 00:12:19.730 breaks the existing American political system. 00:12:20.129 --> 00:12:22.629 The Whig Party fractures completely along geographic 00:12:22.629 --> 00:12:25.710 lines and just collapses. And in its place, motivated 00:12:25.710 --> 00:12:28.009 entirely by the desire to stop the expansion 00:12:28.009 --> 00:12:31.029 of slavery unleashed by this act, a new coalition 00:12:31.029 --> 00:12:33.750 forms. Starting in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin 00:12:33.750 --> 00:12:37.210 in March 1854, the Republican Party is born. 00:12:37.450 --> 00:12:40.610 And this exact moment pulls a former Illinois 00:12:40.610 --> 00:12:43.289 representative named Abraham Lincoln back into 00:12:43.289 --> 00:12:45.970 the political spotlight. Right. His three hour 00:12:45.970 --> 00:12:50.009 Peoria speech in October 1854 sets the stage 00:12:50.009 --> 00:12:52.809 for his eventual presidency. Franklin Pierce, 00:12:52.850 --> 00:12:54.970 meanwhile, becomes the first elected president 00:12:54.970 --> 00:12:57.429 denied renomination by his own party. It really 00:12:57.429 --> 00:12:59.950 connects directly to you, the listener, and how 00:12:59.950 --> 00:13:02.730 we view history. Monumental historical shifts 00:13:02.730 --> 00:13:05.870 rarely start with a master plan. Sometimes they 00:13:05.870 --> 00:13:07.789 start because someone just wanted to build a 00:13:07.789 --> 00:13:09.669 railroad to Chicago and tried to find a clever 00:13:09.669 --> 00:13:12.649 political loophole. It is wild. And it leaves 00:13:12.649 --> 00:13:15.450 us with a final thought to mull over. Popular 00:13:15.450 --> 00:13:18.250 sovereignty was championed as the ultimate democratic 00:13:18.250 --> 00:13:21.190 ideal, letting the local people vote and decide 00:13:21.190 --> 00:13:23.690 for themselves. Right. But considering the absolute 00:13:23.690 --> 00:13:26.210 bloodshed it caused in Kansas, does this historical 00:13:26.210 --> 00:13:28.309 moment suggest that some moral and human rights 00:13:28.309 --> 00:13:30.610 questions are simply too profound to be left 00:13:30.610 --> 00:13:33.350 up to a local majority vote? Wow. That is... 00:13:33.320 --> 00:13:36.340 A heavy, essential question. When does democracy 00:13:36.340 --> 00:13:38.799 fail basic morality? Definitely something for 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:41.039 you to think about long after this ends. Thank 00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:42.720 you so much for joining us on this deep dive. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:45.100 Keep questioning the history behind the headlines 00:13:45.100 --> 00:13:46.620 and we will catch you next time.