Download LG212: Contemporary US Business and Society: Introduction and

Dred Scott, Lincoln and
Habeas Corpus
Missouri Compromise
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An agreement passed in 1820 between
the pro-slavery and anti slavery factions
in the US, involving primarily the
regulation of slavery in the western
territories.
It prohibited slavery for all new states
north of the 36°30' line, or the border
of the Arkansas territory (excluding
Missouri).
Slavery
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Expansion of the Country
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Mexican War
 US lusts for northern Mexico, CA, NM,
UT, AZ and TX
 James Polk 1945-49
 Polk provokes Mexico
 Demands all of it
 America is Democracy and American
Democracy needs space
Constitution and Commanders in Chief
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Annexation of Texas by James K. Polk in 1845
– first example of how neither written or
unwritten checks could stop a President
willing to wage a popular war (Mexico)
No One Man Doctrine: “Allow a President to
invade a neighboring nation, whenever he
shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion…
and you allow him to make war at pleasure”
Abraham Lincoln, 1848
First step on the right to wage war without
congressional approval
Mexican Territory and Slavery
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American Victory
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Texas, NM, California
 Texas slave
 California Free
 New Mexico?
Fears of Slave Democrats
 Whigs oppose war
 Some Northern Democrats worry
 New States open to slavery
Compromise Fails
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Compromise of 1850
 CA free, Texas slave, NM left
undecided
Kansas and Nebraska 1854
 Kansas and Nebraska brought in as
free or slave
 Above the Mason Dixon Line
 South wants chance to be slave
Political Chaos
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The old parties in Trouble
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Bleeding Kansas
Democrats alienate Free Soil
Whigs compromisers with South
So what will emerge?
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Slavery becoming increasingly the issue
Kansas Nebraska Act
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United States federal law passed on May 30,
1854, organizing a territorial government for
the lands that later became the states of
Kansas and Nebraska.
Opponents saw it as the triumph of the Slave
Power and formed the new Republican Party
to defeat it as act virtually nullified the
Missouri Compromise of 1820, prohibiting
slavery north of the 36 30 line
Eventually a new anti-slavery constitution
was drawn up. On January 29, 1861, Kansas
was admitted to the Union as a free state.
Republican Ideology and
Support
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Free Land, Free Labor, Free Men
 South Corrupted
 No improvement, no progress
 No Chance for Free whites
 Despotism
The Slave Power
 Conspiracy running U.S
 Will take all lands from Free whites
The Catholic Power allies
 Corrupt and aristocratic too
Republicans : Program and
Support
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Republicans
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Like Whigs
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Tariff, Improvements
Evangelicals
Unlike Whigs
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Not Elites
Middle and Upper Working Class
Dred Scott
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Dred Scott was a slave who sued
unsuccessfully for his freedom in the
famous Dred Scott v Sandford case of
1857
Case was based on the fact that he and
his wife Harriet had lived, while slaves,
in states and territories where slavery
was illegal, including Illinois and parts
of the Louisiana Purchase
Dred Scott born a slave in
Virginia c 1795
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His owner, Peter Blow, moved to St. Louis
in 1830 and sold him to a doctor in the
U.S Army, John Emerson.
In 1834 Emerson took Scott with him
when he was transferred to Illinois, a
state that had entered the union as a free
state under the terms of the Northwest
Ordinance of 1787.
The judge-made rule in both English and
American common law was “once free,
always free.”
Dred Scott
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In 1846, following Emerson’s death,
Scott sued in state court to prove that
he, his wife, and their two daughters
were legally entitled to their freedom
because they had resided in a free state
and a free territory.
In 1850 a jury of twelve white men
found him to be free, but the Supreme
Court of Missouri, hearing the case on
appeal, held in 1852 that Scott was still
a slave.
Dred Scott
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The judges pointed to the intemperance
of the Northern abolitionists in their
attacks on the South as the basis for
their decision – blatantly political
In 1854 Scott sued for his freedom in
the United States Circuit Court in St.
Louis. Scott, as a citizen of Missouri,
sued his owner John F. A. Sanford,
Emerson’s brother in law and crucially a
citizen of New York.
Dred Scott
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Federal judge Robert Wells, agreeing with the
Missouri Supreme Court, decided that Scott was
still a slave even though he had lived in the free
state of Illinois and the free territory of Louisiana.
Scott then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in the case
in the spring of 1856. Chief Justice Roger Taney
asked for a rehearing of the issues in December –
political
In November, Democrat James Buchanan was
elected President.
Dred Scott
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In his Inaugural Address on March 4,
1857, President James Buchanan
alluded to the fact that the Supreme
Court would soon decide the slavery
question and asked the country to
accept the Court’s resolution.
Chief Justice Roger Taney announced
the Court’s decision two days later
Taney and Buchanan
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Chief Justice 1836-64
President 1857-61
Dred Scott
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Basic issue before the Court was whether,
after spending time in a free state and a
free territory, Scott remained a slave
Justice Robert Grier, a Democrat from
Pennsylvania and friend of President
Buchanan, joined the six Southern justices.
For the first time in the Court’s history,
each of the nine justices wrote a separate
opinion
Dred Scott
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Drawing a distinction between state and
federal citizenship, Taney held that
although some states extended
citizenship to blacks, under the terms of
the U.S. Constitution, blacks were not -and never could be -- citizens of the
United States
Dred Scott
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At the time of the Constitution's ratification,
Taney wrote, blacks were "regarded as
beings of an inferior order, and altogether
unfit to associate with the white race, either
in social or political relations; and so far
inferior, that they had no rights that the
white man was bound to respect; and that
the negro might justly and lawfully be
reduced to slavery for his own benefit."
Dred Scott
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The court ruled 7 to 2 against Scott,
stating that slaves were property, and
the court would not deprive slave
owners of their property without due
process of law according to the Fifth
Amendment
Because Scott was not a U.S. citizen,
said Taney, he had no standing to sue
in federal court.
Dred Scott
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Taney further held that, because the
abolition of slavery in the territories was
beyond the constitutional power of
Congress and deprived slave owners of
their property without due process of
law, the Missouri Compromise of 1820
had been unconstitutional.
Dred Scott
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The decision marked only the second
time in its history, and the first since
the Marbury v Madison that the Court
had invoked its power of judicial review
to overturn federal legislation
A case of extraordinary political
consequence for slavery and the union
itself
Dred Scott
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Dissenting opinion (Curtis & McLean)
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Free blacks in 1788 and beyond had
several legal rights:
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Hold and bequeath property
Make contracts
Seek redress in courts
Five of thirteen states that ratified the
Constitution allowed black men to vote and
they participated in the ratification process.
Dred Scott
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Minority opinion of Benjamin Curtis held that
the road to national citizenship was through
state citizenship
Any person deemed by any state to be its
citizen was also, by definition, a citizen of the
United States. In this way, a constitutional
path to U.S. citizenship lay open to blacks
Later paved way for 14th Amendment to the
Constitution - All persons born or naturalized
in the United States … are citizens of the
United States
The politics of Dred Scott
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South feared U. S. Congress would pass a
law, similar to the Northwest Ordinance of
1787 and Missouri Compromise of 1820,
banning slavery from the western territories.
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Because the population of the Northern states
was growing much more rapidly than that of the
Southern states, anti-slavery members will soon
dominate the U. S. House of Representatives.
Unless half of all new states are admitted to the
Union with slavery, anti-slavery members will
soon dominate the U. S. Senate.
The politics of Dred Scott
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South feared U. S. Congress would
propose a constitutional amendment
abolishing slavery.
Free blacks would migrate to the South
and claim to be citizens of the United
States
Unless slavery expands into the West,
slave breeders in the Upper South will
lose the market for their slaves.
The politics of Dred Scott
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Southern fears if slavery cannot expand, it
will die and slaves will be emancipated.
Emancipation will lead to civil and political
rights for blacks.
Thus the courts became blatantly political
as the political, cultural and social way of
life of the US was at stake
The politics of Dred Scott
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Result - Sectional tensions are inflamed
Curtis resigns from the Court and his
dissent is widely distributed by
Abolitionists – use ourt decision as a
propaganda tool
Nascent Republican party rallies around
slogan of “Free Labor, Free Land, Free
Men”. Quickly begins to dominate
Northern Politics
The politics of Dred Scott
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Southerners thought it would crush the
anti-slavery movement because slavery
was now the supreme law of the land
“Black Republicanism is dead”
Gives coherence to Southern view that
Abraham Lincoln is a despot only
interested in overthrowing the
constitution once he is elected President
in 1860
The politics of Dred Scott
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The Supreme Court lost much of its prestige
and authority.
Republicans, who controlled both Congress
and the Presidency during the Civil War
(1861-1865) and Reconstruction (18651877), further weakened the Court by
altering the number of justices three times
between 1863 and 1869.
The politics of Dred Scott
Congress proposed three constitutional
amendments to overturn the Dred Scott
decision that were ratified between 1865
and 1868.
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The 13th Amendment abolished slavery.
The 14th Amendment made blacks citizens of
the United States and the state wherein they
reside.
The 15th Amendment gave blacks the right to
vote in state and federal elections.
Dred Scott and Abraham
Lincoln
Constitution and Commanders in Chief
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During Civil War Lincoln exerted wide powers
independent of Congress (war powers)
Suspension of Habeas Corpus
Enlarged army beyond constitutional limits
Asserted the right to proclaim martial law,
arrest people without warrant, suppress
newspapers, seize property and emancipate
slaves
Termed a despot by his critics
Habeas Corpus
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“habeas corpus shall not be suspended unless
... in cases of rebellion or invasion the public
safety may require it”, Article 1, Sec 9
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Basic principle of Anglo-American liberty, the
notion that government cannot detain a
citizen without charging him and bringing him
before a jury of his peers
Constitution and Commanders in Chief
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For Lincoln, the constitution was nothing
without the nation, thus necessary to call out
the war power – life of the nation at stake
Emancipation proclamation begins by
invoking commander in chief clause
Flexible theory of defensive war – temporary
measures during a domestic rebellion and a
desperate national emergency
Not the routine powers of the Presidency