Posted on 03/01/2017 5:02:55 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
The sequence of events is:
Seems to me, the closer we look at Dred-Scott, the more confusing it gets.
That may help explain why Lincoln himself took months to seriously comment on it -- what does it really say & mean?
I'd suggest it was the culmination of decades of pro-slavery efforts to end the interminable debate by deciding, once and for all, that slavery was constitutionally lawful anywhere, everywhere and under all conditions within the United States & territories.
How valid its specific rulings may or may not have been is irrelevant to its purpose: to end the debate by making slavery lawful, period.
As such it not only satisfied pro-slavery citizens, it also set for them a new standard of what was, or was not, tolerable in discussions: slavery was constitutional & lawful, any suggestions otherwise were not tolerable.
This meant that Republican calls for Federally enforced abolition in western territories were not constitutionally acceptable in the minds of those pro-slavery.
Consider: In 1784 Thomas Jefferson himself proposed abolition in the Northwest Territories, with no resulting threats of secession or war from slave holders.
But by 1860, the Supreme Court's Dred-Scott ruling made such ideas "unconstitutional" and the Republican Party's platform of restricting slavery in western territories became grounds, in pro-slavery minds, for drastic actions.
At the same time Dred-Scott outraged anti-slavery citizens by reversing what they had grown to see as a slow but inevitable progress towards nation-wide abolition.
It turned many Northerners away from consensus Democrats like Pennsylvanian & President James Buchanan and towards the expressly anti-slavery party -- Republicans.
Geary had a Kansas county named for him but Walker and Stanton did not. (There is a Stanton County - named for Lincoln’s Secretary of War.)
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
About which there was a lota news some years later, involving a modern major general, his beautiful daughters and those rascally pirates.
;-)
Interesting and informative post, ct, but could you give links or sites for source backup? I mean I’ve already used what you said here in another discussion and realized later I have no source evidence.
Thanks.
So, to correct something I said earlier, the Missouri Supreme Court decided Scott remained a slave.
The point still holds that due process had been given Scott and there was no federal question to take the case to the feds.
I grew up in Kansas, not far from Lawrence, but if you want to quote a source, here ya go. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_counties_in_Kansas
Lincoln... ignored the ruling
Interesting but less important to me is...
By the time of [Taney's] death, both sides were disgusted with him.
(This one about Taney seems almost inevitable.)
BTW, I never use Wikipedia for a source. Since anyone can put anything in there, a primary source is still needed which may or may not be cited in the Wikipedia article.
Wiki has gotten better over the years.
Yes, anyone can post anything, but also anyone can correct errors and post needed references, which over time they do.
I treat Wikipedia as "conventional wisdom", meaning: this is what most scholars of the subject accept.
Doesn't mean that's necessarily 100% correct, but it is a starting point, and puts the burden of disproving it on those who disagree.
So Wikipedia is huge repository of standard facts & interpretations, very useful especially after... ahem... a certain age in life, when not every historical datum can be immediately retrieved from the old memory banks... ;-)
Some of my family is from Abilene, my mother's parents met at KSU Agronomy in Manhattan, oh, just over 100 years ago...
March 13. Anderson took me yesterday to see the designs for the Roman Catholic Cathedral on Fifth Avenue. Very ambitious; scale very grand indeed – likely to be effective. Cheap ornamentation in iron; the mullions, mouldings, pillars open work spires all iron. . . . Will surely rack itself to pieces by expansion and contraction of its incongruous materials within five years after it’s finished.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
Mr. Strong’s committee-work makes me feel tired.
Definitely one of the top ten worst Supreme Court decisions of all time.
The drive across Kansas on I-70 can be a bit . . . monotonous. It is well worth a stop in Abilene to tour the Eisenhower Museum. A must see is the family home where Ike’s room is as it was when he left for West Point. It give a lot of insight into the man and the values his family instilled.
March 18. Tired to death nearly; fagged out with worry and with thinking on one subject. Most of the day with Mr. Ruggles, posting him up. He goes to Albany tomorrow and don’t think badly of the case. I’m inclined to despond today, for the first time, as to the prospects in the legislature, though I believe we can rely on the Governor. Thurlow Weed is operating strongly against us. Remonstrances come in strongly; people generally glad to sign. We want an efficient central organization. I’ve brought Haight in to superintend things at the Vestry office, for Dunscomb’s indecision and sluggishness would ruin us.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/
I found this interesting link in a Google search for “Thurlow Weed.” I was trying to find out the name of Mr. Weed’s father; this required searching on “Thurlow Weed genealogy.”
Mr. Weed’s parents were Joel and Mary (Ells) Weed. What, I wonder, prompted a couple with nice, boring names to burden their son with “Thurlow” when they already had “Weed.”
March 20. Trinity Church still the one engrossing subject, for the sake of which I’m neglecting everything else and fretting myself into a fever. . . . Things look about the same; that is, pretty black. Brooks still on the fence. Governor King said to be doubtful whether it's a case for exercise of veto power.
The Diary of George Templeton Strong, Edited by Allan Nevins and Milton Halsey Thomas
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