Page "American Civil War" Paragraph 16

In 1857 the Supreme Court ’ s Dred Scott decision ended the Congressional compromise for Popular Sovereignty in Kansas.

It held that slavery in the territories was to be allowed as a property right to any settler, even where the majority opposed slavery.

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's decision said that slaves were " so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect ".

Taney then overturned the Missouri Compromise, which banned slavery in territory north of the 36 ° 30 ' parallel.

He stated, " he Act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning in the territory of the United States north of the line therein is not warranted by the Constitution and is therefore void.

" Republicans denounced the Dred Scott decision and promised to overturn it ; Lincoln warned that the next Dred Scott decision could threaten Northern states with slavery.

In an attempt to blunt that reaction and reunite the Democratic party, presidential hopeful Stephen A. Douglas developed the Freeport Doctrine of popular sovereignty in the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.

He argued Congress could not decide either for or against slavey before a territory was settled.

Lincoln led the new Republican Party in developing their platform calling slavery a national evil, and insisting Congress end slavery expansion into the territories.

Most of the political battles in the 1850s focused on the expansion of slavery, since most assumed that if slavery could not expand, it would wither and die.

Lincoln believed that slavery would die a natural death if contained