You certainly believe that states had a right to allow (and impose) slavery, but when citizens of a territory try to forbid slavery, you say that they are motivated by hate. You also ignore the fact that people from Missouri and other slave states were doing what they could to bring slavery into Kansas.
As for Dickens, his hatred of the upstart Yankees exceeded any qualms he had about slavery.
I disagree that anyone should allow slavery, slavery is theft in my opinion, but under the laws existing at that time, they had a right to do it if they wanted to do it.
As for people trying to forbid slavery being motivated by hate, that is what the evidence indicates. Their prime motivation was to oppose black people, and that appears to be what was driving *MOST* people's opposition to slavery.
You also ignore the fact that people from Missouri and other slave states were doing what they could to bring slavery into Kansas.
I don't ignore that fact, I am well aware of it. Unless they were planning to MOVE to Kansas and live there, they should have stayed the h3ll out of it.
But I suspect their motivation was not so much a belief that Kansas needed slavery, but that *THEY* needed allies in the congress and that was one way to get them.
As i've said, people are always motivated by their own self interest. So too with those people trying to push slavery into Kansas, despite the state being ill suited for it, even if you accept it as a valid practice.
As for Dickens, his hatred of the upstart Yankees exceeded any qualms he had about slavery.
I think BroJoeK posted something earlier about Dickens being motivated by a hatred for Yankees, and perhaps there is a grain of truth in it, but I think this argument is just an effort to dismiss what Dickens said.
As with accusations about Ward Hill Lamone making up his explosive claims, I think this is just a case of someone wanting to believe they are false, because they have so much time investing in believing the official narrative, and therefore these claims must be false.