USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Popular sovereignty in its modern sense is an idea that dates to the social contract school represented by Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).

Detailed explanation-2: -Popular sovereignty served as the core of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and Douglas believed that popular sovereignty was the best way to alleviate the crisis over slavery in the territories.

Detailed explanation-3: -Douglas believed that popular sovereignty would defuse the tension between the proslavery and antislavery factions. At issue was the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, and the Compromise of 1850 provided a possibility of preserving the delicate balance that existed between free and slaveholding states.

Detailed explanation-4: -popular sovereignty, also called squatter sovereignty, in U.S. history, a controversial political doctrine according to which the people of federal territories should decide for themselves whether their territories would enter the Union as free or slave states.