Popular sovereignty was well supported because it allowed the local citizens of a territory to decide if slavery was to be allowed or illegal. Stephen A. Douglas pushed for popular sovereignty during the 1840's.
Popular sovereignty. And by any chance, are you asking this because of a social studies map pack?
Popular sovereignty is the principle that residents of a territory have the right to decide whether slavery should be permitted through a direct vote. It was a compromise proposed as part of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 to settle the debate over the extension of slavery into new territories.
Stephen Douglas proposed the idea of popular sovereignty, allowing territories to vote on whether to allow slavery. He believed this would settle the issue by letting the people in each territory decide for themselves.
Popular sovereignty allowed each territory to decide on the issue of slavery through a popular vote. This led to intense and violent conflicts like Bleeding Kansas because pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers flooded the territory to sway the vote in their favor, resulting in armed confrontations and confusion. The inability to peacefully settle the issue in Kansas-Nebraska demonstrated the limitations and flaws of popular sovereignty as a solution to the slavery debate.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed for popular sovereignty in the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, meaning that the residents would vote on whether to allow slavery. This led to violent conflicts in Kansas known as "Bleeding Kansas" as pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces clashed. Ultimately, the act did not settle the issue of slavery and instead fueled tensions that eventually led to the Civil War.
Popular sovereignty, the principle allowing settlers of a territory to decide whether to allow slavery, led to violence in Kansas during the mid-1850s, often referred to as "Bleeding Kansas." This approach intensified tensions between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, as both sides rushed to settle in the territory to influence the vote. Clashes erupted over the legality of slavery, resulting in violent confrontations, such as the sacking of Lawrence and the Pottawatomie Massacre. Ultimately, this turmoil reflected the broader national conflict over slavery, foreshadowing the Civil War.
It was called 'Popular Sovereignty', and Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois was confident that it would settle the issue and avert war. In fact, it caused the bloodshed the first time it was tried - in Kansas - and helped to start the war.
Millard Fillmore supported this compromise and signed it into law. It did little to settle the slavery issues it was designed to settle.
Based on the times in which this slogan was created, and remembering that the US Supreme Court in its 1857 ruling on Dred Scott and slavery, popular sovereignty appeared to be the "democratic way" to settle issues of slavery in the Territories that would in time become States. As it was seen after the US Civil War, it required an amendment to the US Constitution to officially abolish slavery. The problems that popular sovereignty created, in Kansas due to the Kansas - Nebraska Act, was bloodshed in conflicts between pro slavery people and anti slavery people. It's difficult to make a case for any "cons" of allowing people the right to vote on issues. The main problem was the US Supreme Court with its rulings in favor of keeping slaves in the class of "property". The lawlessness in Kansas was the result of Federal troops non enforcing Federal laws in the US Territories. Taken in a much broader sense, the United States elects government officials on the basis of popular sovereignty. If fighting conflicts result in the course of elections, the duty of law enforcement is to enforce laws against violence. All this must be taken in the context of the 1800's.
With the slavery issue based on popular sovereignty, the territories would become slave or free depending on which side had more votes. Both antislavery Northerners and proslavery Southerners scrambled to settle Kansas. One fierce slavery opponent, John Brown, killed five proslavery people in a raid and started a small civil war that killed some 200 people from both sides.
The principle of popular sovereignty, embodied in legislation like the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, allowed residents of new states and territories to decide for themselves whether to permit slavery through popular vote. This approach was meant to settle the issue of slavery expansion peacefully, but it ultimately heightened tensions and contributed to the outbreak of the Civil War.