Scott V. Sandford Case Analysis

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In 1803 Thomas Jefferson purchased approximately 828,000,000 square miles of territory from France, doubling United States territory. The divisive topic of whether slavery would be legal in the newly acquired territory became a common argument between northern and southern politicians. Many compromises such as The Missouri Compromise, and The 1850 Compromise were issued to try to resolve the issue without war. In 1853 a slave named Dred Scott sued for his freedom in St. Louis. This case was known as “Scott v. Sandford.” Dred Scott lost the supreme court case 7-2. The court declared that Scott had no right to sue because he was not a United States citizen, due to his heritage, and deemed The Missouri Compromise Unconstitutional. The Dred Scott …show more content…
This article was written March 27, 1857, 3 weeks after Chief justice Taney announced the verdict. The author of the article writes “Some of the journalists who support the cause of the Administration, are pleasing themselves with the fancy that the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the Dred Scott case will, put an end to agitation of the slavery question. They WILL SOON FIND THEIR MISTAKE. One specific after another has been tried, with the same view, and with the same success. The Fugitive Slave law, we were told, was to quiet all agitation, but it did not; the Nebraska bill was to stop all controversy on the slavery question, but it proved to be oil poured on the flames”(6) The author of this article called for the those journalists who are “pleasing themselves with the fancy that the decision of the Supreme Court” to humble themselves because the abolitionist movement is still very alive, and a threat to their way of life (7). He references previous failures to quiet the abolitionist movements, that only proved to make the problem more relevant. The author fears that the Dred Scott case will lead to a civil
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