John C. Calhoun.
Senator Stephen A. Douglas' Dividing Line doctrine, often associated with his stance on popular sovereignty, proposed that the question of slavery's expansion into the territories should be determined by the settlers themselves rather than by federal legislation. This doctrine was articulated during the debates surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which effectively repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed for the possibility of slavery in areas previously designated as free. Douglas believed this approach would resolve sectional tensions by allowing local self-determination, but it ultimately intensified conflicts over slavery in the territories.
It did that. The issue could not be ducked by a Congressman. All had to vote in favor of, or opposed to slavery.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 was proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, in order to create the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and to ensure that future settlers in those territories would have the authority to determine whether slavery would be permitted with these territories.
In 1854, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois proposed a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska, a vast area of land that would become Kansas, Nebraska, Montana and the Dakotas. Known as the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the controversial bill raised the possibility that slavery could be extended into territories where it had once been banned.
The Kansas-Nebraska act was proposed by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. The act repealed the Missouri Compromise and allowed white males to vote on whether an area would allow slavery.
The person that proposed the idea was Senator StephenA. Douglas. He wanted to abandon the MKissouri Compromise and let the settlers in each territory vote on whether to allow slavery.
Henry Clay
Henry Clay
Lewis Cass
Lewis Cass
David Wilmot
The Higher Law doctrine stated that slavery should be excluded from the territories as contrary to a divine moral law standing above even the Constitution. Senator Seward proposed this doctrine in 1851.
It is the principle of Higher Law.
John C. Calhoun
In December 1860, the Crittenden Compromise was proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden in an attempt to avert the impending Civil War. This compromise sought to extend the Missouri Compromise line westward and protect slavery in southern territories while banning it in the north. It aimed to reconcile the differences between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions, but ultimately failed to gain sufficient support in Congress. The proposal highlighted the deep divisions in American society at the time, which would soon erupt into conflict.
Stephen Douglas
Abraham Lincoln proposed a law prohibiting slavery in the territories as part of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates during his senatorial campaign in 1858. Lincoln argued that the founding fathers intended for slavery to be contained and eventually abolished rather than expanded into new territories.