Political Science 234                                                                                         Dr. Schaefer
 
 

ALTERNATIVE POSITIONS ON THE SLAVERY ISSUE IN THE 1850'S


Radical Abolitionists
(John Brown; William Lloyd Garrison)
Lincoln
"Popular Sovereignity"
(Stephen Douglas)
"No Union With Slavery"
(North should secede from Union rather than remain in union with the slave states)		 Stop extension of slavery, aim towards ultimate (compensated) emancipation, followed (probably) by resettlement in Africa. "Don't Care" if slavery is voted up or down by a state. 

Avoid moralistic, "single-issue" politics that will tear the union apart.

"Pro-Slavery"
(Southern)

Slavery is either a "positive good," or an evil with which the Federal government has no power to interfere, even in the Federal Territories. Southern states have right to secede from the Union in case such interference is threatened (e.g., by the election of Lincoln to the Presidency).