notes on the
subject of Chinese outrages against Christians. Louis Napoleon was found to
be in hearty accord with England's desire to make an example of China.
Baron Gros was sent to China charged with a mission similar to that of Lord
Elgin. The United States declined to join in active measures against China.

[Sidenote: Buchanan, American President]

In the United States of America, James Buchanan had become President at
sixty-six years of age. He had served as a member of Congress from 1821 to
1831; then as Minister to Russia from 1832 to 1834; United States Senator
from 1834 to 1845; Secretary of State under Polk from 1845 to 1849, and
Minister to Great Britain from 1853 to 1856.

[Sidenote: Dred Scott case]

Buchanan's first message repeated the assurance that the discussion of
slavery had come to an end. The clergy were found fault with for fomenting
the disturbances. The President declared in favor of the admission of
Kansas with a Constitution agreeable to the majority of the settlers. He
also referred to an impending decision of the Supreme Court with which he
had been acquainted and asked acquiescence in it. This was Judge Taney's
decision in the Dred Scott case, rendered two days after Buchanan's
inauguration. An action had been begun in the Circuit Court in Missouri by
Scott, a negro, for the freedom of himself and children. He claimed that he
had been removed by his master in 1834 to Illinois, a free State, and
afterward taken into territory north of the compromise line. Sanford, his
master, replied that Scott was not a citizen of Missouri, and could not
bring an action, and that he and his children were Sanford's slaves. The
lower courts differed, and the case was twice argued.

[Sidenote: The decision]

The decision nullified the Missouri restriction, or, indeed, any
restriction by Congress on slavery in the Territories. Chief-Justice Taney
said: "The question is whether that class of persons (negroes) compose a
portion of the people, and are constituent members of this sovereignty. We
think they are not included under the word citizen in the Constitution, and
can therefore claim none of the rights and privileges" of that instrument.
"They were at that time considered as a subordinate and inferior class who
had been subjugated by the dominant race--and had no rights or privileges
but such as those who held the power and the government might choose to
grant them. They had for more than a century been