Secession Era Editorials Project

[Home] [Nebraska] [Sumner] [Dred Scott] [Harper's Ferry] [Search]

The Decision in the Case of Dred Scott.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gazette [Republican]

(7 March 1857)

We do not know how other persons may feel in view of the recent dicta of the Supreme Court in the case of Dred Scott, an abstract of which was published in our telegraphic column on Saturday morning, but it appears to us that the almost diabolical spirit it evinces in going out of the way to Freedom at the expense of Slavery, ought to be sufficient to arouse to indignation the coolest and most torpid of northern men. The decision is a fitting crown to the aborted tyranny which has just submerged with Pierce; an iron clasp, well forged to link the dead with the living administration. It comes pat upon the recent inaugural, "rounds and caps it to the tyrant's eye" and just fills up the cup of inequity.

What matter is it that this decision upsets those we have on record? New lights have arisen with the progress of revolving years, and Story and Marshall, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe hide their twinkling lights before the full-orbed glory of Douglas, Pierce and Davis. The Supreme Court has aimed a blow at State Sovereignty which is baser and more iniquitous than any thing we had before conceived of. The State of Illinois for example, under this decision in her legislative capacity, has no power to enact such a law as can make a slave coming there with the consent of his master a freeman! The decision that the Court has no jurisdiction in this case make all the other remarks from the bench touching the ordinance of 1787, and the compromise of 1820, mere obiter dicta, it is true, but the fact that the Court has gone out of its way to say what it has, shows its animus, and trumpets to the four corners of the earth the eager alacrity with which it echoes the mouthings of demagogues like Pierce and Douglas. We may henceforth throw to the winds the reasoning of Story and the decisions of Marshall, so far as this court is concerned, and submit to seeing the government surrendered, bound hand and foot to the same power which has given Kansas over to blood and desolation, elevated a weak old man to the executive chair, given the Treasury, the Post Office, the Army, the Navy and the Department of the Interior to be its willing servants and exhilarated and energized by its success, pressed on to the Supreme Court, made that the echo of its will and left no place for hope to rest upon, but the virtue of the masses of the people, to which we must henceforth appeal. Let them come in their might and at the ballot box root up the rotten fabric to its foundations which four years of misrule has served so much to weaken, and which the four years to come will doubtless not improve or strengthen.

[Previous] [Next]

This document was produced as part of a document analysis project by Lloyd Benson, Department of History, Furman University. (Proofing info: Entered by Lloyd Benson. .) This electronic version may not be copied, or linked to, or otherwise used for commercial purposes, (including textbook or publication-related websites) without prior written permission. The views expressed in this document are for educational, historical, and scholarly use only, and are not intended to represent the views of the project contributors or Furman University.