THE DRED SCOTT DECISION

The Dred Scott case finally made it to the Supreme Court docket in 1856. Many hoped it would decisively end the controversy over slavery in the territories. Dred Scott was a former slave who was suing for his freedom on the basis that his owner had taken him to stay first in a free state, Illinois, and then into a free territory, Wisconsin.

The final decision of the Supreme Court, in essence, supported the Southern position concerning slavery in the territories. The court ruled that Scott as a slave had no legal right to sue in federal court, that his time in a free state and a free territory did not make him a free man, and that Congress had no right to prohibit slavery in the territories, since the Constitution protected property rights and slaves were still considered property.

Instead of easing tensions between the North and South, the Dred Scott decision only made tensions between the sections worse. Southerners felt their position had been justified and felt little need to compromise with the North; Northerners were more convinced than ever that “slave interests” controlled all the branches of government.

President Buchanan further antagonized Northerners by recommending that Kansas be admitted to the Union as a slave state, even though the legislature in Kansas had been elected by largely illegal means (Kansas was finally admitted to the Union as a free state in 1861).