Stephen Douglas believed in common sovereignty, the precept that the residents of every territory ought to resolve the query of slavery for themselves by way of 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 convey enslaved individuals into the territories. Douglas argued that common sovereignty greatest embodied the American very best of self-government and was a sensible compromise to keep up nationwide unity within the face of rising sectional tensions.
This precept turned 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 This act successfully repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had restricted the growth of slavery.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 applying of common sovereignty in Kansas and Nebraska led to violent battle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, a interval referred to as “Bleeding Kansas.” This battle underscored the constraints and inherent contradictions of common sovereignty as an answer to the slavery difficulty, and contributed considerably to the polarization that finally led to the Civil Battle.
