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Popular Sovereignty
Popular Sovereignty Summary
Popular Sovereignty
Popular Sovereignty History
What is Popular Sovereignty? Popular Sovereignty in U.S. history
is the 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 of Popular Sovereignty, 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.”
Related Studies:
Recommended Reading: The Impending Crisis, 1848-1861 (Paperback), by David M. Potter. Review: Professor Potter treats an incredibly complicated and misinterpreted
time period with unparalleled objectivity and insight. Potter masterfully explains the climatic events that led to Southern
secession – a greatly divided nation – and the Civil War: the social, political and ideological conflicts;
culture; American expansionism, sectionalism and popular sovereignty; economic and tariff systems; and slavery. In other words, Potter places under the microscope the root causes and origins of the Civil War.
He conveys the subjects in easy to understand language to edify the reader's understanding (it's
not like reading some dry old history book). Delving beyond surface meanings
and interpretations, this book analyzes not only the history, but the historiography of the time period as well. Continued
below…
Professor
Potter rejects the historian's tendency to review the period with all the benefits of hindsight. He simply traces the events,
allowing the reader a step-by-step walk through time, the various views, and contemplates the interpretations of contemporaries
and other historians. Potter then moves forward with his analysis. The Impending Crisis is the absolute gold-standard of historical
writing… This simply is the book by which, not only other antebellum era books, but all history books should be judged.
Recommended Reading: What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (Oxford History of the United States) (Hardcover: 928 pages). Review: The newest volume in the renowned Oxford History of the United States-- A brilliant portrait
of an era that saw dramatic transformations in American life The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation.
The series includes two Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes.
Now, in What Hath God Wrought, historian Daniel Walker Howe illuminates the period from the battle of New
Orleans to the end of the Mexican-American War, an era when the United
States expanded to the Pacific and won control over the richest part of the North American
continent.
Howe's panoramic
narrative portrays revolutionary improvements in transportation and communications that accelerated the extension of the American
empire. Railroads, canals, newspapers, and the telegraph dramatically lowered travel times and spurred the spread of information.
These innovations prompted the emergence of mass political parties and stimulated America's economic development from
an overwhelmingly rural country to a diversified economy in which commerce and industry took their place alongside agriculture.
In his story, the author weaves together political and military events with social, economic, and cultural history. He examines
the rise of Andrew Jackson and his Democratic party, but contends that John Quincy Adams and other Whigs--advocates of public
education and economic integration, defenders of the rights of Indians, women, and African-Americans--were the true prophets
of America's future. He reveals the power
of religion to shape many aspects of American life during this period, including slavery and antislavery, women's rights and
other reform movements, politics, education, and literature. Howe's story of American expansion -- Manifest Destiny and Popular
Sovereignty -- culminates in the bitterly controversial but brilliantly executed war waged against Mexico to gain California and Texas
for the United States. By 1848, America had been transformed. What Hath God Wrought provides
a monumental narrative of this formative period in United States
history.
Recommended Reading:
Lincoln and Chief Justice Taney: Slavery, Secession,
and the President's War Powers, by James F. Simon (Simon & Schuster) (Hardcover). Publishers Weekly: This surprisingly taut and gripping book by NYU law professor Simon
(What Kind of Nation) examines the limits of presidential prerogative during the Civil War. Lincoln and Supreme Court Chief
Justice Roger Taney saw eye to eye on certain matters; both, for example, disliked slavery. But beginning in 1857, when Lincoln criticized Taney's decision in the Dred Scott case, the pair
began to spar. They diverged further once Lincoln became president when Taney insisted that
secession was constitutional and preferable to bloodshed, and blamed the Civil War on Lincoln.
Continued below...
In 1861, Taney argued that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was illegal. This
holding was, Simon argues, "a clarion call for the president to respect the civil liberties of American citizens." In an 1862 group of cases, Taney joined a minority opinion that Lincoln lacked the authority to order the seizure of Southern ships. Had Taney had the chance,
suggests Simon, he would have declared the Emancipation Proclamation unconstitutional; he and Lincoln agreed that the Constitution
left slavery up to individual states, but Lincoln argued that
the president's war powers trumped states' rights. Simon's focus on Lincoln and Taney makes for a dramatic, charged narrative—and
the focus on presidential war powers makes this historical study extremely timely.
Recommended Reading: Slavery and Politics in the Early American Republic.
Description: Giving close consideration to previously
neglected debates, Matthew Mason challenges the common contention that slavery held little political significance in America until the Missouri Crisis. Mason demonstrates
that slavery and politics were enmeshed in the creation of the nation, and in fact there was never a time between the Revolution
and the Civil War in which slavery went uncontested. Continued below...
The American
Revolution set in motion the split between slave states and free states, but Mason explains that the divide took on
greater importance in the early nineteenth century. He examines the partisan and geopolitical uses of slavery, the conflicts
between free states and their slaveholding neighbors, and
the political impact of African Americans across the country. Offering a full picture of the politics of slavery in the crucial
years of the early republic, Mason demonstrates that partisans and patriots, slave and free—and not just abolitionists
and advocates of slavery—should be considered important players in the politics of slavery in the United States.
Recommended Reading: The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America (Hardcover). Description: Robert Pierce Forbes goes behind the scenes of the crucial Missouri Compromise, the
most important sectional crisis before the Civil War, to reveal the high-level deal-making, diplomacy, and deception that
defused the crisis, including the central, unexpected role of President James Monroe. Although Missouri was allowed to join the union with slavery, Forbes observes, the compromise in
fact closed off nearly all remaining federal territory to slavery. Forbes's analysis reveals a surprising national consensus
against slavery a generation before the Civil War, which was fractured by the controversy over Missouri.
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