Question/Problem 2: How did compromises postpone conflict between North and South?

Directions: Read the following excerpt from a Stephen Douglas speech in 1858 and answer the questions below on a separate sheet of paper.

I then said, I have often repeated, and now again assert, that in my opinion our government can endure forever, divided into free and slave States as our fathers made it,-- each State having the right to prohibit, abolish, or sustain slavery, just as it p leases. This government was made upon the great basis of the sovereignty of the States, the right of each State to regulate its own domestic institutions to suit itself; and that right was conferred with the understanding and expectation that, inasmuch as each locality had separate interests, each locality must have different and distinct local and domestic institutions, corresponding to its wants and interests. Our fathers knew when they made the government that the laws and institutions which were we ll adapted to the Green Mountains of Vermont were unsuited to the rice plantations of South Carolina. They knew then, as well as we know now, that the laws and institutions which would be well adapted to the beautiful prairies of Illinois would not be suited to the mining regions of California. They knew that in a republic as broad as this, having such a variety of soil, climate, and interest, there must necessarily be a corresponding variety of local laws,-- the policy and institutions of each State adapted to its condition and wants. For this reason this Union was established on the right of each State to do as it pleased on the question; and the various states were not allowed to complain of, much less interfere with, the policy of their neighbors.

From Diane Ravitch, ed., The American Reader-- Words That Moved a Nation
(New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1990), pp. 124-125.

1. Explain Douglas's view of slavery.

2. Explain Douglas's view of state's rights.

3. How does Douglas justify his view of state's rights?

4. Use your textbook to define "popular sovereignty."

5. Are Douglas's views of slavery and state's rights consistent with this definition of popular sovereignty. Why?