*Stephen A. Douglas* American political doctrine first proposed by Michigan Democrat [[Lewis Cass]], that a western territory should decide by a vote of its residents whether to enter the US as a slave or a free state. First applied in the Utah and New Mexico territories in 1850, its most dangerous use was in [[Stephen Douglas]]'s [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] in 1854, which repealed the [[Missouri Compromise]] of 1820 and triggered [[Bleeding Kansas]].