"The legislative package known as the Compromise of 1850 postponed the Civil War by a
decade. However, like the 1820 Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850 failed to
resolve the question of slavery in a meaningful way. Over the course of the 1850s, the
inadequacies of both measures were made painfully clear. 'Popular sovereignty' undermined
the Missouri Compromise by suggesting the earlier division of the country along the thirtysixth parallel into free states and slave states no longer applied. Indeed, the KansasNebraska Act of 1854 permitted slavery. The resulting bloodshed in Kansas, like later
incidents at Harpers Ferry, presaged the violent conflict of the Civil War."
- Daniel Webster, Seventh of March speech
Use the passage to answer the quesiton.
What is meant by "popular sovereignty undermining the Missouri Compromise?"
(2 points)
It means that it expanded slavery to the northern free states.
It means that it forced enslaved people who had escaped to be returned to a slave state.
It means that it upheld the efforts of the compromise to maintain an equal balance of free and
slave states.
It means that it reopened the debate over the border between free and slave states.
1 answer
The correct interpretation of "popular sovereignty undermining the Missouri Compromise" is:
It means that it reopened the debate over the border between free and slave states.
This is because popular sovereignty allowed the settlers in those territories to decide for themselves whether to allow slavery, which contradicted the earlier fixed boundary established by the Missouri Compromise.
