me Court.

[Sidenote] Wayne, J., Opinion in the Dred Scott case, 19 Howard,
pp. 454-5.

The judges were, after all, but men. They dined, they talked, they
exchanged daily personal and social courtesies with the political
world. Curiosity, friendship, patriotism, led them to the floors of
Congress to listen to the great debates. Official ceremony called
them into the presence of the President, of legislators, of diplomats.
They were feasted, flattered, questioned, reminded of their great
opportunity, tempted with the suggestion of their supreme authority.[4]
They could render their names illustrious. They could honor their
States. They could do justice to the South. They could perpetuate
their party. They could settle the slavery question. They could end
sectional hatred, extinguish civil war, preserve the Union, save their
country. Advanced age, physical feebleness, party bias, the political
ardor of the youngest and the satiety of the eldest, all conspired to
draw them under the insidious influence of such considerations. One of
the judges in official language frankly avowed the motive and object
of the majority of the court. "The case," he wrote, "involves private
rights of value, and constitutional principles of the highest
importance, about which there had become such a difference of opinion
that the peace and harmony of the country required the settlement of
them by judicial decision." This language betrays the confusion of
ideas and misconception of authority which tempted the judges beyond
their proper duty. Required only to decide a question of private
rights, they thrust themselves forward to sit as umpires in a quarrel
of parties and factions.

[Sidenote] Campbell to Tyler, Tyler, p. 384.

[Sidenote] Nelson to Tyler, Tyler, p. 385.

In an evil hour they yielded to the demands of "public interest," and
resolved to "fulfill public expectation." Justice Wayne "proposed that
the Chief-Justice should write an opinion on all of the questions as
the opinion of the court. This was assented to, some reserving to
themselves to qualify their assent as the opinion might require.
Others of the court proposed to have no question, save one, discussed."
The extraordinary proceeding was calculated to touch the pride of
Justice Nelson. He appears to have given it a kind of sullen
acquiescence. "I was not present," he wrote, "when the majority
decided to change the ground of the decision, and assigned the
preparat