[lentulusgracchus]

That's a very interesting post; thanks for discussing that concept -- which itself constitutes an "availability cascade" if Sunstein is busily putting it about up in DC.

And it's fascinating that there was actually no issue of the spread of slavery to the Territories until Lincoln bruited it about; but I think you're in error there, since Sens. Louis Cass (D-Mich.) and Stephen A. Douglas (D-Ill.) had already propagated their "popular sovereignty" doctrine in response to the anxieties produced by the prospective spread of slavery and the Free Soil movement. In fact, the issues will have gone back to before the Northwest Ordinance.

[PeaRidge]

Thank you for your interesting post.

If I insinuated that I thought that Lincoln was the sole source on the issue, then I was in error.

The conversation, as you state and know, began years before, and can be traced to the pulpits of New England to before the signing of the Constitution.

However, my point was that as a widely accepted, not simply discussed concept, it did not manifest itself in popular elections until brought to the public by the Republican political machine of the 1850s-1860 era.

And as you know, the census data showed for a fact that slavery spread was a concept not a reality.