a
citizen of Missouri, where he then lived, he could not sue in the United
States court.

2. Did Congress have power to enact the Missouri Compromise? For if it
did not then the restriction of slavery north of 36 deg.30' was illegal, and
Dred Scott's residence in Minnesota did not make him free.

From the lower courts the case came on appeal to the Supreme Court,
which decided

1. That Dred Scott was not a citizen, and therefore could not sue in the
United States courts. His residence in Minnesota had not made him free.

2. That Congress could not shut slave property out of the territories
any more than it could shut out a horse or a cow.

3. That the piece of legislation known as the Missouri Compromise of
1820 was null and void. This confirmed all that had been gained for
slavery by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, and opened to slavery Oregon
and Washington, which were free territories.

%396. Effect of the Dred Scott Decision.%--Hundreds of thousands of
copies of this famous decision were printed at once and scattered
broadcast over the country as campaign documents. The effect was to fill
the Southern people with delight and make them more reckless than ever,
to split the Democratic party in the North; to increase the number of
Republicans in the North, and make them more determined than ever to
stop the spread of slavery into the territories.

[Illustration: %EXPANSION OF SLAVE SOIL IN THE UNITED STATES
1790-1860%]

%397. Struggle for Freedom in Kansas.%--We left Kansas in 1856 with a
proslavery governor and legislature in actual possession, and a
free-state governor, legislature, and senators seeking recognition at
Washington. In 1857 there were so many free-state men in Kansas that
they elected an antislavery legislature. But just before the proslavery
men went out of power they made a proslavery constitution,[1] and
instead of submitting to the people the question, Will you, or will you
not, have this constitution? they submitted the question, Will you have
this constitution with or without slavery? On this the free settlers
would not vote, and so it was adopted with slavery. But when the
antislavery legislature met soon after, they ordered the question, Will
you, or will you not, have this constitution? to be submitted to the
people. Then the free settlers voted, and it was rejected by a great
majority. Buchanan, however, paid no attention to the action of the free
settlers, but sent the Lecompton c