olicy of
"thorough" was not more resolute or more absolute than that now
adopted by the Southern leaders with a new lease of power confirmed
to them by the result of the election. The Supreme Court came to
their aid, and, not long after the new administration was installed,
delivered their famous decision in the Dred Scott case. This case
involved the freedom of a single family that had been held as
slaves, but it gave occasion to the Court for an exhaustive treatment
of the political question which was engrossing public attention.
The conclusion of the best legal minds of the country was that the
opinion of the Court went far beyond the real question at issue,
and that many of its most important points were to be regarded as
_obiter dicta_. The Court declared that the Act of Congress
prohibiting slavery in the Territories north of 36 deg. 30' was
unconstitutional and void. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise
was therefore approved by the highest judicial tribunal. Not only
was the repeal approved, its re-enactment was forbidden. No matter
how large a majority might be returned to Congress in favor of
again setting up the old landmark which had stood in peace and in
honor for thirty-four years, with the sanction of all departments
of the government, the Supreme Court had issued an edict that it
could not be done. The Court had declared that slavery was as much
entitled to protection on the national domain as any other species
of property, and that it was unconstitutional for Congress to decree
freedom for a Territory of the United States. The pro-slavery
interest had apparently won a great triumph. They naturally claimed
that the whole question was settled in their favor. But in fact
the decision of the Court had only rendered the contest more intense
and more bitter. It was received throughout the North with scorn
and indignation. It entered at once into the political discussions
of the people, and remained there until, with all other issues on
the slavery question, it was remanded to the arbitrament of war.

Five of the judges--an absolute majority of the court--were Southern
men, and had always been partisan Democrats of the State-rights'
school. People at once remembered that every other class of lawyers
in the South had for thirty years been rigidly excluded from the
bench. John J. Crittenden had been nominated and rejected by a
Democratic Senate. George E. Badger of North Carolina had shared
the