No, the Compromise of 1850. As for Dred Scot settling rhe issueof slavery expansion, on the contrary, it allowed a farmer to bring slaves into Iowa and work factory farms. . Kansas? That lead to a split between Douglas and the new Buchanan administration from the start. Ironically, it almost led the Republicans to throw their votes to Douglas as senator from Illinois. It did make Douglas unelectable, because the Firebreathers wouln’t forgive him. That opened the way for the Republicans in 1860.
Okay, I can see how that could mean Kansas led to the war, though it’s a rather roundabout way. Actually, I believe slavery was the Big Issue of the day, on everyone’s mind constantly and very often on their tongues. I also believe protecting it was the major motive for secession.
But here’s the rub: secession did not have to lead to war. Firing on Ft. Sumter probably did, but not necessairly the war we got. The war that was came about as a deliberate choice on the part if the North to force the South back into the union. The bent over backwards to accommodate secessionists on slavery, and slavery was absolutely not among the reasons it fought. Lincoln made that abundantly clear.
“As fir Dred Scott settlinv the issue of slavery expansion, on the contrary, it allowed a farmer to bring slaves into Iowa and work factory farms”
That’s exactly the point. It bade slaves legal property wherever they went, which means both free soil and popular sovereignty were trumped. Slavery won, in other words. It was over. Unless some abolitionist or party otherwise hostile to slavery built up enough power to overturn or bypass SCOTUS’. That is the specter haunting the South about Lincoln’s entirely northern victory. If they could out vote the South, eventually they could smack Dred down, rescind the fugitive slave law, or outlaw slavery altogether.