Post by MinnesotaNationalist on Oct 14, 2016 18:10:39 GMT
Stephen Douglas is honestly my favorite of the Antebellum senators, maybe only after Henry Clay. Stephen Douglas was a moderate (and by moderate, I'm talking about the only issue that mattered in America at the time; Slavery). Stephen Douglas neither cared for it, but at the same time didn't want to ban it (and his policies often would often make the possibility of slavery to spread to states that wouldn't have otherwise). The way he called for this issue was the doctrine of popular sovereignty, where a state can vote whether it wanted to be a slave or free state, a policy that both garnered popularity in the south for possibly increasing the amount of slave states, and had respect in the north for being a much more democratic alternative (and I'd imagine, like it could spread slavery to other states, I imagine it also had the ability to spread abolition to others as well).
So, what would happen if Stephen Douglas was elected President of the United States in 1856 (by firstly getting the green light by the Democrat party, basically issuing a free win for him at that time), and specifically 1856. Does his presidency stall the civil war until, say 1860, or does it not matter thanks to intervention by the Senate and the SCOTUS?
So, what would happen if Stephen Douglas was elected President of the United States in 1856 (by firstly getting the green light by the Democrat party, basically issuing a free win for him at that time), and specifically 1856. Does his presidency stall the civil war until, say 1860, or does it not matter thanks to intervention by the Senate and the SCOTUS?
