y noting the varying
phases of party politics. Few persons knew there was such a thing as
the Dred Scott case on the docket of the Supreme Court; but those few
appreciated the importance of the points it involved, and several
distinguished lawyers volunteered to take part in the argument.[2] Two
questions were presented to the court: First, Is Dred Scott a citizen
entitled to sue? Secondly, Did his residence at Rock Island and at
Fort Snelling, under the various prohibitions of slavery existing
there, work his freedom?

The Supreme Court was composed of nine justices; namely, Chief-Justice
Taney and Associate Justices McLean, Wayne, Catron, Daniel, Nelson,
Grier, Curtis, and Campbell. There was at once manifested among the
judges not only a lively interest in the questions presented, but a
wide difference of views as to the manner of treating them.
Consultations of the Supreme Court are always shrouded in inviolable
secrecy, but the opinions afterwards published indicate that the
political aspects of slavery, which were then convulsing the country,
from the very first found a certain sympathy and reflection in these
grave judicial deliberations. The discussions yet turned upon certain
merely technical rules to be applied to the pleadings under review;
and ostensibly to give time for further examination, the case was
postponed and a re-argument ordered for the next term. It may,
however, be suspected that the nearness of the Presidential election
had more to do with this postponement than did the exigencies of the
law.[3]

[Illustration: ROGER B. TANEY.]

The Presidential election came, and Mr. Buchanan was chosen. Soon
after, the court met to begin its long winter term; and about the
middle of December, 1856, the Dred Scott case was once more
elaborately argued. Again occupying the attention of the court for
four successive days, as it had also done in the first hearing, the
eminent counsel, after passing lightly over mere technical subtleties,
discussed very fully what was acknowledged to be the leading point in
the controversy; namely, whether Congress had power under the
Constitution to prohibit slavery in the Federal Territories, as it had
done by the Missouri Compromise act and various other laws. It was
precisely the policy, or impolicy, of this and similar prohibitions
which formed the subject of contention in party politics. The question
of their constitutional validity was certain to take even a higher
ran