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Popular Sovereignty in U.S. history was
a doctrine under which the status of slavery
in the territories was to be determined by the settlers themselves.
Although the doctrine won wide support as a means of avoiding
sectional conflict over the slavery issue, its meaning remained
ambiguous, since proponents disagreed as to the stage of territorial
development at which the decision should be made.
Stephen A. Douglas, principal
promoter of the doctrine, wanted the choice made at an early
stage of settlement; others felt that it should be made just
before each territory achieved statehood. First proposed in 1847
by Vice President George Dallas and popularized by Lewis Cass
in his 1848 presidential campaign, the doctrine was incorporated
in the Compromise of 1850 and four years later was an important
feature of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Douglas called it “popular sovereignty,”
but proslavery Southerners, who wanted slavery extended into
the territories, contemptuously called it “squatter sovereignty.” |
(See Bibliography below)
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©
Bibliography: Berwanger, Eugene H., The Frontier Against
Slavery (1967); Foner, Eric, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free
Men (1970); Holt, M. F., The Political Crisis of the
1850's (1983); Rawley, James A., Race and Politics: Bleeding
Kansas and the Coming of the Civil War (1969; repr. 1979);
Rozwenc, E., ed., The Compromise of 1850 (1957).
© Copyright "The American Civil War" - Ronald
W. McGranahan - 2004. All Rights Reserved.