Read on Twitter
Just came across a fascinating speech by Stephen Douglas in September 1859 that resonates with and challenges a key argument in the 1619 Project. Douglas argues that one of the reasons for the Revolution was the British Crown's refusal to listen to pleas to limit the slave trade.
The context is Douglas arguing in favor of Popular Sovereignty - territories being allowed to legislate on matters of slavery, despite the Dred Scott ruling that recognized slave property in the western territories (like Kansas).
Both Republicans and most Southern politicians (both ex-Whigs and Democrats) rejected Douglas's view. For Republicans, Congress maintained the power to limit slavery's extension into the territories (contra Dred Scott).
Southerners argued that Congress had an obligation to pass a Congressional Slave Code to protect slave property already recognized under Dred Scott. They felt that residents of Territories were mere "Squatters" and had no authority to legislate on slavery.
Thus, Southern pols called Douglas's position "Squatter Sovereignty." To counter both of these views, Douglas highlighted historical evidence of people in either the territories or pre-Revolution colonies who exercised power on matters of slavery and insisted upon that power.
Thus, Douglas looked to efforts in colonial Virginia and elsewhere to support taxation of slave imports despite British overruling of such local taxes. Douglas cites rejection of colonial Virginia's right to limit slave importations as one of the drivers of the Revolution.
Needless to say, I don't find Douglas's argument persuasive at all re: colonial intentions on slave imports. But I do think it's interesting that he takes the opposite position of the 1619 project, which argued that colonists revolted out of fear the British wd abolish slavery.
Here is a link to Harpers Magazine, which published the speech in September 1859. Go to page 519 and you'll see the article, "The Dividing Line Between Federal and Local Authority" https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079630491&view=1up&seq=529
