Dred_Scott_Case

There are three different ideas that are thought to have influenced Dred Scott to sue at this time. First of all, he did not like being hired out and this feeling may be because Dred did not like John Emerson's wife, Irene. Another concept was that Irene might have been planning to sell him, or Dred might have tried to buy his freedom and was refused. One of these three things led to Dred Scott wanting to sue for his freedom. Scott tried his case in the Missouri Supreme Court at least three times before the case went to the United States Supreme Court." The decision of the court was read in March of 1857. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney -- a staunch supporter of slavery -- wrote the "majority opinion" for the court. It stated that because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation which restricted slavery in certain territories, unconstitutional." (www.pbs.org) This ruling started to cause not only a big division in the North and South, but also the Supreme Court. Many judges in the Supreme Court did not agree with Taney's ruling. The judges believed that the freedom of blacks have been around forever and Taney is taking away their citizenship. After hearing all the different opinions from the judges Taney then ruled that slaves are property, and congress cannot deprive a person of taking their property into a territory. Also that the Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional. Northerners felt Taney's decision, specifically the Missouri Compromise being unconstitutional was extrajudicial, because it was not necessary for arriving at a decision in the case. They claimed that after Taney had shown that Scott, had no right to bring a case into a federal court, he should have ended his decision right there, instead of going on to declare that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. "Taney defended his decision by saying that the Supreme Court had the right to correct all the errors committed during the Circuit Court trial, including the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise and the question of Negro citizenship" (www.watson.org) This explanation was not satisfactory for the northerners, who became even more angry with Taney because by extending his opinion to include issues that did not have much of a bearing on the case, had unjustly set new precedents. The Southerners of course stood firmly next to Taney's decision. This disagreement led to an even bigger division in the north and south. Most southerners were happy with Taney's decision because it allowed them to take slaves with them to free states and territories. It also reinforced the idea that slaves had no rights as U.S. citizens. On the other hand, President Buchanan greeted the decision favorably in hopes that the slavery issue could be put to rest. Critics of the president claimed that he had actually conspired to shape the Court’s response.