From the 1820s into the '30s, into the '40s, into the early '50s

从十九世纪三十年代开始直到五十年代
was now disintegrating,

现在已经发生了蜕变
Faster than most people even really realized.

甚至比任何人意识到的都要早
The effects of this were quickly this:

这带来了立竿见影的影响
The kansas-nebraska act now threw open

堪萨斯-内布拉斯加法把
the vast expanse of what was left of the louisiana purchase.

这片幅员辽阔的路易斯安那购置地
To the possible expansion of slavery.

开放给了正在扩张的奴隶制
Secondly, it will destroy the whig party forever,

然后法案永久的摧毁了辉格党
And open a huge vacuum in american political culture

给美国政治文化留下了一片真空地带
for some kind of new coalition, some kind of new persuasion that

给一些新的政党那些新的政治理念
Would fill it,

将会填补上
about this great question of its time the expansion of slavery.

在奴隶制扩张的重大问题上