"What is Popular Sovereignty? Is it the right of the people to have Slavery or not have it, as they see fit, in the territories? I will state—and I have an able man to watch me— my understanding is that Popular Sovereignty, as now applied to the question of slavery, does allow the people of a Territory to have slavery if they want to, but does not allow them not to have it if they do not want it. I do not mean that if this vast concourse of people were in a Territory of the United States, any one of them would be obliged to have a slave if he did not want one; but I do say that, as I understand the Dred Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves, all the rest have no way of keeping that one man from holding them." —Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, August 1858 Which feature of the Dred Scott ruling does Lincoln object to in this speech?

Then try StudyFetch, the AI-powered platform that can answer your questions and teach you more about it!