NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote
... citizen of Missouri (Fehrenbacher 276). Sanford's plea claimed the Scotts as his lawful slaves, asserted that he had gently laid his hands upon them and restrained them of their liberty as he had the right to do. Whether Sanford had committed assault and false imprisonment depended entirely on whether the Scotts were free persons or slaves (Howard 55). For more than a year after it was docketed, the Dred Scott Case waited for the attention of the Supreme Court. While the case was waiting for attention from the Supreme Court it began to receive the attention from newspapers, they awakened to the idea that this might be the most important case in U.
S. court history. The first was the Washington Evening Star, which on February 12 declared, the Public of Washington do not seem to be aware that one of the most important cases ever brought up for adjudication by the Supreme Court is now tried before the August tribunal. (Fehrenbacher 288) Only a few papers thus far had given the Dred Scott case anything more than routine attention (Fehrenbacher 291). The running debate in Congress was well covered by the press, and the discussions spilled over into private conversations of Washington society. Obviously, postponement of the Dred Scott case had not diffused it (Fehrenbacher 293). Many more people were now aware of what might be a stake in one Negros fight for freedom (Fehrenbacher 294).
The Supreme Court of the United States would hear the case for the first time on February 11, 1856. The Judges entered without any flourish of parade ranked according to the dates of their respective commissions. At the head of the procession there walked with firm and steady step a tall, thin, man, slightly bent with the weight of years, of pale complexion, and features somewhat careworn, but lighted up at once with that benignant expression which is indicative at once of a gentle temperament and a kindly heart, Chief Justice Taney. To his right and left were John McLean, of Ohio and James Moore Wayne, of Georgia, respectively (Hopkins 33). Scotts attorney argued to the point of Scotts citizenship at least so far as to enable them to sue in the courts of the United States. He found that the opinion of the majority, that to be a citizen, it is necessary that he (the person so claiming) should be entitled to the enjoyment of those privileges and immunities upon the same terms upon which they are conferred upon other citizens and unless they are so entitled he cannot in the proper senses of the term be a citizen (Hopkins 33).
Scotts attorney then challenged the defense, that citizenship was acquired by birth. He felt sure that it could not be proved that free Negroes were not citizens in the limited sense (Hopkins 34 35). He argued whether Dred and his family were emancipated by being taken to Illinois. For its dry legal content, the debate in the crowded little courtroom was very political.
The defendants argument turned frequently to the general vindication of the South and slavery-an institution (Fehrenbacher 302). Thus the second round of arguments ended and it seemed almost certain that a decision would be handed down before the end of the term (Fehrenbacher 303). On March 6, 1857, the nine judges again filed into their basement courtroom, leading the way as usual was Chief Justice Taney (Hopkins 61). Taney led off the reading of opinions, in the crowded courtroom. Already fatigued from the work of composition, he spoke in a low voice that became almost inaudible before the end of his two hours (Fehrenbacher 315). Taney stated, A writ or error brought the whole record before the appellate court, which must decide if the facts stated in the plea were sufficient to show that the plaintiff was entitled to sue as a citizen in the courts of the United States (Hopkins 62).
Taney then addressed himself to the question of the citizenship of free Negroes. The question is simply this; Can a Negro whose ancestors were imported to this country, and sold as slaves, become a member of the political community formed and brought into existence by the Constitutions of the United States, and as such become entitled to all the rights, and privileges, and immunities, guaranteed by that instrument to the citizen? One of which rights is the privilege of suing in a court of the United States in the cases specified in the Constitution (Howard 9). The question before us is, whether the class of persons described in the plea in abatement compose a portion of this people? We think they are not, and that they are not included, under the word citizens in the Constitution, and can therefore claim non of the rights and privileges that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at the time considered as a subordinate and inferior class of beings, who had been subjugated by the dominant race, and, whether emancipated or not, yet remained subject to their authority, and had no rights or privileges but such as those who held the power and the Government might chose to grant them (Howard 11).
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. They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit (Howard 13). And upon full and careful consideration of the subject the court is of the opinion that, upon the facts stated in the plea of abatement, Dred Scott was not a citizen of Missouri within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States. Thus Chief Justice Taney stated the majority opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States of America (Fehrenbacher 364). Officially nothing remained now but to wind up the case. An order to the Court of the United States for the district of Missouri was issued by the Supreme Court, informing the court that its decision in the case of Scott vs.
Sanford was reversed. Finally, on March 18, 1857 the Scotts as well as being declared slaves were ordered to pay costs. The actual litigation was at an end. The press, the pulpits and politicians, however, took up the war of words where the judges had left it (Hopkins 156). The Dred Scott decision, aside form its revolutionary significance, was also a public act that had important public consequences (Fehrenbacher 561). The principle reason for the prominence of the decision in American historical writing is the belief that it became a major casual link between the general forces of national disruption and the final crisis of the Union in 1860 - 61 (Fehrenbacher 562).
The great importance thus attached to the Dred Scott decision by members of the American legal profession in the late twentieth century is extraordinary. No doubt the interest is inspired in some degree by exaggerated estimates of Dred Scott influence on the disruption of the Union. It also reflects the persistence of racial troubles in modern America and the central place of the Civil War in American historical consciousness. But in the long run, Taney's decision will probably be most significant as an epoch in the growth of American judicial power. It was Alexis de Tocqueville who wrote long ago: scarcely any political question arises in the United States that is not resolved sooner or later into a judicial question (Fehrenbacher 594).
Works Cited Fehrenbacher, Don E. (1978). The Dred Scott Case. New York: Oxford University Press. An overview of slavery and the events leading up to the case of Dred Scott vs.
Sanford. Heffner, Richard D. (1999). A Documentary History of the United States (sixth edition expanded and updated). New York: Penguin Putnam Inc. A brief statement on the fifty four page majority opinion of the Supreme Court as written by Chief Justice Taney. Hopkins, Vincent C. (1967).
Dred Scotts Case. New York: Atheneum. Dred Scotts Life prior to the case. The scandal that surrounded Dred Scott. Cultural repercussions that followed. Howard, Benjamin C. (1857).
Dred Scott vs. Sanford. Washington: Cornelius Wendell, Printer. Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Dred Scott versus Sanford.
Free research essays on topics related to: dred scott case, court of the united states, rights and privileges, supreme court of the united, dred scott decision
Research essay sample on Research On The Dred Scott Case
