A few years after the assault on Senator Sumner came the infamous Dred Scott decision.
Dred Scott was a slave who sued in federal court for his freedom on the basis that he had spent time in the free states. The case finally reached the Supreme Court but was thrown out because, according to the majority opinion since Dred Scott was a slave he had no right to present a case of any
kind to any court. Taney further said that no black man had any rights
that any white man need honor.
[This opinion was written by Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Maryland slave-owner].
The result was that both sides were even more acutely polaized.
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