Though popular sovereignty has long been part of the American political identity, it had the greatest impact on what issue?

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While the principle of popular sovereignty has affected most aspects of the nation's political system, it had the greatest, most direct impact on whether or not newly admitted states would become slave states or free states. Though most of the nation's political action is the product of indirect representation (citizens vote for legislators who, in turn, vote on bills), some laws are set by the direct will of the people. When Kansas and Nebraska were admitted to the nation in 1854, Nebraska entered as a free state, but Kansas' fate was left to the people to decide. Nationwide, pro-slavery and abolitionist activists alike erupted, and in the weeks ahead of the vote on slavery, thousands of new (temporary) "residents" arrived in Kansas. There were 1,500 registered voters in Kansas, some of whom did not cast ballots on the slavery issue. Nevertheless, there were 6,000 ballots submitted that day and the pro-slavery faction emerged victorious. But that would prove to merely be the beginning of a years-long fight that came to be known as "Bleeding Kansas" 50 to 70 people who were killed in slavery-related standoffs between the start of the conflict in 1854 and the onset of the Civil War in 1861.

Though Popular Sovereignty Has Long Been Part of the American