Kansas-Nebraska Act Theme of Sovereignty

Fun to say but less fun to spell, "sovereignty" is a concept that is central to the American political system.

So what is it?

Basically, it's governing power. In theory, the United States Government is responsible for dealing with all the federal issues – national security, currency issues, trade, the settling of certain disputes, and a few others – and the states are responsible for everything else, except for Native American stuff. Tribes are responsible there.

Of course, theory and reality are often two different things, and the responsibilities carried by the federal government have grown substantially since the Constitution was first written. The Civil War was responsible for a decent-sized chunk of that expansion, resulting like it did in the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional Amendments being ratified.

But before the Civil War and all those Amendments, questions of sovereignty within new American territories were addressed in the Congressional acts that formed them, and Kansas-Nebraska was no exception.

1. What is the point of state sovereignty when we already have a federal government?
2. How has tribal sovereignty changed throughout America's history?
3. What questions about sovereignty were brought up by the secession of several southern states in 1861? Do you feel secession is likely to be an issue again anytime soon?
4. When does federal law supersede state law, and when is it the other way around? What are some examples?

Things would be much easier if we just let the federal government take care of everything; conflict between states is pointless and causes unnecessary friction.

Things would be much easier if we just let each state control what goes on in its borders; the federal government is way too involved with things outside its scope of responsibility.