United States History Student Edition

In 1846, antislavery lawyers helped Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet Robinson Scott, sue for their freedom. Scott claimed he should be free since he had lived in areas where slavery was illegal. Eleven years later, the case reached the Supreme Court. At issue was Scott’s status, but the case also gave the Court a chance to rule on Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (TAW•nee) wrote the Court’s opinion: Dred Scott was still enslaved. As such, he was not a citizen and had no right to bring a lawsuit. The Court’s ruling said in part: “ It is true, every person, and every class and description of persons, who were at the time of the adoption of the Constitution recognized as citizens in the several States, became also citizens of this new political body. . . . It becomes necessary, therefore, to determine who were citizens of the several States when the Constitution was adopted . . . . In the opinion of the court, the legislation and histories of the times, and the language used in the Declaration of Independence, show, that neither the class of persons who had been imported as slaves, nor their descendants, whether they had become free or not, were then acknowledged as a part of the people, nor intended to be included in the general words used in that memorable instrument. ” Taney wrote that living on free soil did not make Scott free. An enslaved person was property, not a person. The Fifth Amendment prohibited the taking of property without “due process.” Finally, Taney wrote that Congress had no power to ban slavery. He declared the Missouri Compromise, which banned slavery north of 36°30’ N latitude, unconstitutional. He also declared popular sovereignty illegal. Not even voters could ban slavery because it would mean taking someone’s property. In effect, Taney said the question of slavery itself. The Court’s Decision The Court’s decision upheld what many white Southerners believed. The Constitution allowed no limits on slavery. Nothing could legally stop it. Republicans and other antislavery groups were outraged. They called the decision a “wicked and false judgment” and “the greatest crime” ever committed in the nation’s courts. that the Constitution protected slavery. Reaction to the Decision

7 CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING 1. Identifying Cause and Effect How did Republicans react to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case? Was their reaction consistent with the Republican Party’s platform at the time? 2. Explaining Most Southerners supported popular sovereignty, yet they were happy with the Dred Scott decision. Why do you think Southerners reacted favorably in spite of the Supreme Court’s opinion on popular sovereignty? The Lincoln-Douglas Debates GUIDING QUESTION How did Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas play a role in the challenges to slavery? The Illinois Senate race of 1858 was the center of national attention. The contest pitted the current senator, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, against a rising star in the Republican Party named Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln and Douglas debated seven times from August to October of 1858. The main subject of discussion was slavery.

Many newspapers announced the Dred Scott decision. Scott and his wife, Harriet Robinson Scott, are pictured at the bottom.

Division and Civil War 425 PHOTO: Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division [LC-DIG-ds-12470]; TEXT: (1)Judgment in the U.S. Supreme Court Case Dred Scott v. John F.A. Sanford, March 6, 1857; Case Files 1792-1995; Record Group 267; Records of the Supreme Court of the United States; National Archives; (2)Latham, Frank B. Quoting New York Tribune in The Dred Scott Decision, March 6, 1857: Slavery and the Supreme Court’s “Self-Inflicted Wound.” New York: Franklin Watts, 1968; (3)Sumner, Charles. Quoted in The Life of Charles Sumner, by Walter Gaston Shotwell. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, 1910.