Dred Scott Supreme Court Ruling First edition printing helped to precipitate the Civil War Start Price USD 3,600.00 Current Price USD 3,600.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Thursday, November 13, 2008 End Time Sunday, November 23, 2008 Location White Plains, New York See more about 'Dred Scott Supreme Court Ruling First edition printing ' Description   Dred Scott Supreme Court Ruling   Summary: First edition of the printed decision of the United States Supreme Court in Dred Scott vs. Sanford. The decision demonstrated the extreme pro-slavery position of the Court and helped to precipitate the Civil War by emboldening Republicans and dividing the Democratic Party. In 1846, Dred Scott, a slave who had lived in the free state of Missouri, filed suit for his freedom in the St. Louis Circuit Court, beginning an eleven-year legal fight. Chief Justice Roger Taney, in his opinion for the court, declared that all blacks, slaves as well as free, were not and could never become citizens of the United States. The court also declared the 1820 Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, thus opening up all federal territories to slavery and ruling that slaves do not become free when taken into free territory. “…It is the opinion of the court that the act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free by being carried into this territory.”   [Dred Scott]. Benjamin C. Howard, Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States and the Opinions of the Judges thereof, in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F. A.  Sandford..., [First edition]. Washington: Cornelius Wendell, 1857. 239 pp. Fine condition. [The Dred Scott decision was published simultaneously in New York and Washington, D.C. Both are considered the First Edition].   Partial Transcript:  “… [Chief Justice Taney’s opinion for the Court:] The question before us is, whether the class of persons described in the plea [slaves of African ancestry] … compose a portion of this people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty? We think they are not, and that they are not included, and were not intended to be included, under the word ‘citizens’ in the Constitution, and can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges which that instrument provides for and secures to citizens of the United States. On the contrary, they were at that 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. … It is the opinion of the court that the act of Congress which prohibited a citizen from holding and owning property of this kind in the territory of the United States north of the line therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, and is therefore void; and that neither Dred Scott himself, nor any of his family, were made free by being carried into this territory …”   Historical Background:  Dred Scott had accompanied his master, John Emerson, an army physician from Missouri, into the state of Illinois and the territory of Wisconsin, neither of which allowed slavery. Wisconsin was part of the Louisiana Purchase and had been declared free under the Missouri Compromise legislation of 1820. While in Wisconsin Territory, Emerson married Irene Sanford. When Emerson died in 1843, John Sanford, Irene’s brother, became executor of the Emerson estate, and they brought Scott back to Missouri. In 1846, Scott sued Irene Emerson and John Sanford, claiming that several years of residence in free territory made him free. He won in a local court, but the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the decision. Scott and his abolitionist supporters initiated a new case in the federal court system – they lost in circuit court and then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1854.   Marylander Roger Taney and his fellow justices could have issued a narrow ruling upholding the decision of the state supreme court. Instead, perhaps looking to use the power of the judicial branch to end the crisis of “Bleeding Kansas,” Taney struck down the Missouri Compromise, upheld the right of slaveholders to carry their property in any federal territory, and denied the claim that an individual of African descent could ever become a U.S. citizen.   The decision was announced to the country as James Buchanan was assuming the presidency in March 1857. Buchanan attempted to use the prestige of the court to support the legitimacy of the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution in Kansas. This provoked a firestorm in the North, particularly in Illinois, where Republican Abraham Lincoln challenged incumbent Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas in the 1858 senatorial election. Lincoln put forth powerful, abstract ideas during the famous debates with Douglas, but he was, for the most part, arguing specifically against Dred Scott and Lecompton. Lincoln claimed that the Dred Scott case was evidence that Taney and Buchanan, with southern Democrats, constituted a “Slave Power,” and that the logical next step for the Slave Power would be to declare northern state abolition acts unconstitutional. Lincoln forced Douglas to come to a new position on slavery in the territories, which argued contrary to the Supreme Court, that the people of a federal territory could decide not to offer positive protection to slaveholders. This so-called “Freeport Doctrine” led inexorably to the schism of the Democrat Party, a major factor in Lincoln’s 1860 presidential victory and the momentum toward Southern secession.   Dred Scott, in the meantime, was returned to his original owners. The Blow family manumitted Scott and his wife later in 1857. Scott died the following year.   References: http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp   To see another image and other great Civil War and African American items, please visit us at http://www.sethkaller.net/catalogs/african-american/47-historical/478-dred-scott-supreme-court-ruling   ABOUT THE SELLER For over 20 years, Seth Kaller has been the largest buyer of important and authentic historic documents. 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