same fate. They were followers of Clay, and not to be trusted
by the new South in any exigency where the interests of slavery
and the perpetuity of the Union should come in conflict. Instead,
therefore, of strengthening the Democratic party, the whole effect
of the Dred Scott decision was to develop a more determined type
of anti-slavery agitation. This tendency was promoted by the lucid
and exhaustive opinion of Benjamin R. Curtis, one of the two
dissenting judges. Judge Curtis was not a Republican. He had been
a Whig of the most conservative type, appointed to the bench by
President Fillmore through the influence of Mr. Webster and the
advice of Rufus Choate. In legal learning, and in dignity and
purity of character, he was unsurpassed. His opinion became,
therefore, of inestimable value to the cause of freedom. It
represented the well-settled conclusion of the most learned jurists,
was in harmony with the enlightened conscience of the North, and
gave a powerful rallying-cry to the opponents of slavery. It upheld
with unanswerable arguments the absolute right of Congress to
prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the Union. Every judge
delivered his views separately, but the dissenting opinion of Judge
McLean, as well as of the six who sustained the views of the Chief
Justice, arrested but a small share of public attention. The
argument for the South had been made by the venerable and learned
Chief Justice. The argument for the North had been made by Justice
Curtis. Perhaps in the whole history of judicial decisions no two
opinions were ever so widely read by the mass of people outside
the legal profession.

DECISION IN THE CASE OF DRED SCOTT.

It was popularly believed that the whole case was made up in order
to afford an opportunity for the political opinions delivered by
the Court. This was an extreme view not justified by the facts.
But in the judgment of many conservative men there was a delay in
rendering the decision which had its origin in motives that should
not have influenced a judicial tribunal. The purport and scope of
the decision were undoubtedly known to President Pierce before the
end of his term, and Mr. Buchanan imprudently announced in his
Inaugural address that "the point of time when the people of a
Territory can decide the question of slavery for themselves" will
"be speedily and finally settled by the Supreme Court, before whom
it is