gle paragraph, humorously expressed, he had framed an
indictment against four men upon which he lived to secure a conviction
before the jury of the American people.

The decision was rendered especially odious throughout the North
by the use of certain unfortunate expressions which in the heat of
the hour were somewhat distorted by the anti-slavery press, and
made to appear unwarrantably offensive. But there was no
misrepresentation and no misunderstanding of the essential position
of the Court on the political question. It was unmistakably held
that ownership in slaves was as much entitled to protection under
the Constitution in the Territories of the United States as any
other species of property, and that Congress possessed no power
over the subject except the power to legislate in aid of slavery.
The decision was at war with the practice and traditions of the
government from its foundation, and set aside the matured convictions
of two generations of conservative statesmen from the South as well
as from the North. It proved injurious to the Court, which
thenceforward was assailed most bitterly in the North and defended
with intemperate zeal in the South. Personally upright and honorable
as the judges were individually known to be, there was a conviction
in the minds of a majority of Northern people, that on all issues
affecting the institution of slavery they were unable to deliver
a just judgment; that an Abolitionist was, in their sight, the
chief of sinners, deserving to be suppressed by law; that the anti-
slavery agitation was conducted, according to their belief, by two
classes,--fanatics and knaves,--both of whom should be promptly
dealt with; the fanatics in strait-jackets and the knaves at the
cart's tail.

Chief Justice Taney, who delivered the opinion which proved so
obnoxious throughout the North, was not only a man of great
attainments, but was singularly pure and upright in his life and
conversation. Had his personal character been less exalted, or
his legal learning less eminent, there would have been less surprise
and less indignation. But the same qualities which rendered his
judgment of apparent value to the South, called out intense hostility
in the North. The lapse of years, however, cools the passions and
tempers the judgment. It has brought many anti-slavery men to see
that an unmerited share of the obloquy properly attaching to the
decision has been visited on the Chief Justice, and