On Oct. 16, 1854, six years before he became the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln denounced slavery as an immoral act in a speech against a law allowing Kansas and Nebraska to decide whether they would allow slavery within their borders.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act formally created the two territories it was named for. But it also overrode the 1820 Missouri Compromise, which would have guaranteed that Kansas would outlaw slavery from its creation. The new legislation instead provided for voters to decide for themselves whether slavery would be allowed.
Abolitionists were furious when the law was passed in 1854, Lincoln among them, and afraid that the law would set a precedent for other new territories and states. Lincoln had previously served as an Illinois state legislator and U.S. representative for that state but had been out of politics for years. He felt so compelled by the Kansas-Nebraska Act’s passage that he re-entered public life to rail against it. In his speech, Lincoln admonished the Democratic Party for its belief in slavery and argued it went against the principle that “all men are created equal.”
Lincoln continued to campaign against slavery and helped fundraise for anti-slavery candidates in Kansas and ran for the U.S. Senate in 1859. Though he lost the race, the fame he gained from that run garnered him the support that would help carry him to the White House a year later.
You can read more about Lincoln’s speech on History.com, and more about Lincoln’s views on slavery on the website of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
