Kansas–Nebraska Act
Most in the anti-Nebraska movement considered the Kansas–Nebraska Act to be a unilateral pro-Southern revision to the supposedly final Compromise of 1850, and a nefarious violation of the terms of the Missouri Compromise. Many were deeply alarmed by the prospect of new slave states being established in northern areas formerly reserved for free white settlers. The issue of not extending slavery into new areas was different from the issue of abolishing slavery in areas where it already existed, and only a minority of Kansas-Nebraska act opponents were abolitionists in the strict sense.