gh expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so
perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this: That if
any _one_ man choose to enslave _another_, no _third_ man shall be
allowed to object. That argument was incorporated into the Nebraska Bill
itself, in the language which follows: "It being the true intent and
meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." Then
opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of "squatter sovereignty"
and "sacred right of self-government." "But," said opposition members,
"let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the
Territory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends of the
measure; and down they voted the amendment.

While the Nebraska Bill was passing through Congress, a _law case,_
involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner
having voluntarily taken him first into a free State, and then into a
Territory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a
slave for a long time in each, was passing through the United States
Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska Bill and
lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The
negro's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision
finally made in the case. Before the then next Presidential election,
the law case came to and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United
States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election.
Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the
Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska Bill to state
_his opinion_ whether the people of a Territory can constitutionally
exclude slavery from their limits; and the latter answers, "That is a
question for the Supreme Court."

The election came. Buchanan was elected, and the indorsement, such as it
was, secured. That was the second point gained. The indorsement,
however, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly four hundred
thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and
satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his last annual message, as
impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and
authority of the