Answer:
Popular sovereignty is the idea that the people of a territory or state should be able to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery or not. Stephen Douglas, a prominent politician and senator from Illinois during the mid-19th century, championed this concept as a way to resolve the issue of slavery in new territories that were being admitted to the United States.
The idea behind popular sovereignty was that the people who lived in a territory or state should have the right to make decisions about their own governance. Douglas believed that this approach would help to avoid the contentious and divisive debates over slavery that had plagued the country for decades.
However, the concept of popular sovereignty proved to be problematic in practice. It was unable to prevent the spread of slavery and only served to intensify the political tensions between the North and the South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which implemented popular sovereignty in those territories, led to violence and bloodshed between pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions.
Ultimately, the idea of popular sovereignty did not solve the issue of slavery in the United States. It was replaced by the Republican Party's platform of outright opposition to the expansion of slavery, which eventually led to the Civil War.
In conclusion, while the concept of popular sovereignty may have seemed fair in theory, it did not work in practice and ultimately failed to prevent the spread of slavery in the United States.
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