popular sovereignty

In mid-19th century America, popular sovereignty was a controversial political doctrine according to which the people of federal territories should decide for themselves whether their territories would enter the Union as free or slave states. Its enemies, especially in New England, called it “squatter sovereignty.”

…own by the principle of popular sovereignty; the slave trade, but not slavery itself, was abolished in the District of Columbia; and finally, Congress passed a new and stronger Fugitive Slave Act, taking the matter of returning runaway slaves out of the control of states and making it a federal…

…he developed the theory of popular sovereignty (originally called squatter sovereignty), under which the people in a territory would themselves decide whether to permit slavery within their region’s boundaries. Douglas himself was not a slaveholder, though his wife was. He was influential in the passage of the Compromise of 1850…

…of the ban, Douglas offered popular sovereignty, the doctrine that the actual settlers in the territories and not Congress should decide the fate of slavery in their midst.

…Kansas under the doctrine of popular sovereignty. Sponsors of the Kansas-Nebraska Act (May 30, 1854) expected its provisions for territorial self-government to arrest the “torrent of fanaticism” that had been dividing the nation regarding the slavery issue. Instead, free-soil forces from the North formed armed emigrant associations to populate Kansas,…

…Nebraska under the principle of popular sovereignty, which had been applied to New Mexico and Utah in the Compromise of 1850. Pres. Franklin Pierce signed An Act to Organize the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas into law on May 30, 1854.

…platform favouring the doctrine of popular sovereignty, whereby the people of each territory would decide whether to allow slavery within their region’s boundaries, while the Southerners chose Breckinridge on a separate ticket demanding federal intervention to protect slave holdings. Breckinridge insisted that he was not anti-Union but held that slavery…

Others supported the proposal that popular sovereignty (called “squatter sovereignty” by its detractors) should prevail—that is, that settlers in the territories should decide the issue. Still others called for the extension westward of the 36°30′ line of demarcation for slavery that had resolved the Missouri controversy in 1820. Now, 30…

The Compromise of 1850 was an uneasy patchwork of concessions to all sides that began to fall apart as soon as it was enacted. In the long run the principle of popular sovereignty proved to be most unsatisfactory of all, making each territory…

…territories to settlement under the “popular sovereignty” doctrine—that is, the settlers themselves were supposed to decide the slavery question within their borders without congressional intervention. As a consequence, control of the territorial government was crucial, and proslavery elements (largely “border ruffians” from Missouri) succeeded in establishing a proslavery legislature in…

…Cass defended the doctrine of popular sovereignty , which held that the residents of federal territories should decide for themselves whether to become a free state or a slave state. Because of intraparty dissent, however, the Democrats decided against incorporating Cass’s position, or any other on the matter, into their…