ttle in Kansas, at no time did the
number of slaves in the Territory reach three hundred. The climate and
the soil made for freedom, and the Governors were not the only persons
who were converted to free-state principles by residence in the
Territory.

CHAPTER XIII. THE SUPREME COURT IN POLITICS

The decision and arguments of the Supreme Court upon the Dred Scott
case were published on March 6, 1857, two days after the inauguration
of President Buchanan. The decision had been agreed upon many months
before, and the appeal of the negro, Dred Scott, had been decided
by rulings which in no way involved the validity of the Missouri
Compromise. Nevertheless, a majority of the judges determined to give
to the newly developed theory of John C. Calhoun the appearance of the
sanctity of law. According to Chief Justice Taney's dictum, those
who made the Constitution gave to those clauses defining the power
of Congress over the Territories an erroneous meaning. On numerous
occasions Congress had by statute excluded slavery from the public
domain. This, in the judgment of the Chief Justice, they had no right to
do, and such legislation was unconstitutional and void. Specifically the
Missouri Compromise had never had any binding force as law. Property in
slaves was as sacred as property in any other form, and slave-owners
had equal claim with other property owners to protection in all the
Territories of the United States. Neither Congress nor a territorial
Legislature could infringe such equal rights.

According to popular understanding, the Supreme Court declared "that the
negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect." But Chief
Justice Taney did not use these words merely as an expression of his own
or of the Court's opinion. He used them in a way much more contemptible
and inexcusable to the minds of men of strong anti-slavery convictions.
He put them into the mouths of the fathers of the Republic, who wrote
the Declaration of Independence, framed the Constitution, organized
state Governments, and gave to negroes full rights of citizenship,
including the right to vote. But how explain this strange inconsistency?
The Chief Justice was equal to the occasion. He insisted that in recent
years there had come about a better understanding of the phraseology of
the Declaration of Independence. The words, "All men are created equal,"
he admitted, "would seem to embrace the whole human family, and if
they were used in