Stephen Douglas believed in widespread sovereignty, the precept that the residents of every territory ought to resolve the query of slavery for themselves via their territorial legislatures. This contrasted sharply with the positions of abolitionists, who sought a nationwide ban on slavery, and a few Southern Democrats who believed settlers had a constitutional proper to deliver enslaved folks into the territories. Douglas argued that widespread sovereignty greatest embodied the American perfect of self-government and was a sensible compromise to take care of nationwide unity within the face of rising sectional tensions.
This precept grew to become a central tenet of Douglas’s political profession and a key ingredient of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This act successfully repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had restricted the growth of slavery. The appliance of widespread sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska led to violent battle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, a interval often known as “Bleeding Kansas.” This battle underscored the restrictions and inherent contradictions of widespread sovereignty as an answer to the slavery situation, and contributed considerably to the polarization that in the end led to the Civil Battle.
