in the 1850s in the run-up to the civil war Steven a Douglas the senator from Illinois who was really the most prominent political figure of the 1850s even though I never was elected president developed this idea he called popular sovereignty which was basically that the people of the territories should decide for themselves whether or not they wanted to have slavery the debate was focused on these western territories not the states they're already in the Union but places like Kansas Nebraska New Mexico etc which were in the territorial stage the Republican Party Lincoln etc said no Congress should prohibit slavery in all those territories many southerners eventually came to the view that Congress must protect slavery in all those territories Douglass was a middle ground he said let each territory decide for itself whether or not to have slavery that's and he said that's Democratic too in practice it didn't work at all popular sovereignty was implemented in Kansas and the result was Bleeding Kansas there was a civil war in Kansas between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery forces it was never clear who was going to decide to the first ten people into a territory decide or did you have to wait till a certain population and then what was the status of slavery up to the time that decision was made so popular sovereignty never really worked it was not acceptable to most southerners and turned out not to be acceptable to most northerners who believed slavery should be kept out and it wasn't it was a national decision not a decision for the first 50 guy who is innocent to determine the future of this whole western area