The Compromise of 1850 was the last compromise between Northern and Southern political factions before the Civil War. Although Steven Douglass, the man instrumental in passing the bill through Congress, designed it to ease sectional tensions, it paved the way for a series of political events that would change America's history. The acceptance of popular sovereignty, which was a key component of the Compromise of 1850, opens up the interpretation of previous compromises, specifies the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which established that all states beyond the 36-30 line would be considered free. Northern Democratic Senator Steven Douglass interpreted the acceptance of the Compromise of 1850 as an acceptance of popular sovereignty and applied it to his Kansas-Nebraska Act in a project to help build his transcontinental railroad. The introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 was the beginning of the violent sectional conflicts that plagued the union during the 1850s. Once the time for compromise in American politics was over, the next step taken by sectional factions was violence. Sectional tensions so quickly escalated into physical violence because Northerners and Southerners felt that each opposing group was not only attacking their financial institutions but also social and cultural institutions. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 started the violent and bloody Kansas Revolt because it interfered with an already recognized agreement between the two sections. The Missouri Compromise had already established the future of the American political map. The introduction of popular sovereignty placed the decision whether Kansas would be slave or free in the hands of the relocating citizens. To ensure that Kansas turned to the best institution for their respective fields...... middle of paper ......l, cultural and financial institutions unleashed fierce reactions. Cursed Kansas, Sumner's whipping, and Brown's raid all occurred because Northerners and Southerners felt the opposing faction was invading their beliefs. Northerners believed that the Kansas-Nebraska Act would lead to the extension of slavery to the Northern states. Southerners thought Northerners (abolitionists and Republicans) would try to abolish slavery and destroy their livelihoods. The era of compromise ended when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was introduced because it made the compromises of the past null and void. If previous compromises could be undone, then the compromises were no longer useful to the Union and chaos and violence took their place. The growing violence that plagued sectional tensions during the 1850s extinguished any hopes of compromise by the end of the decade and led to the bloodiest war in the country's history.