“The normal condition of all the territory of the United States is that of freedom. That as our Republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national [western] territory, ordained that ‘no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law,’ it becomes our duty by legislation, whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States.”
Question: Republicans asserted that political leaders could not “give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States” in order to express opposition against the
a
removal of American Indians from their homelands
b
idea of popular sovereignty exemplified by the Kansas-Nebraska Act
c
application of California for statehood
d
recruitment of laborers for Northern factories
