In his 1857 inaugural address, President-elect James Buchanan predicted that the Supreme Court would “speedily and finally” resolve the slavery debate threatening to divide the Union. Two days later, the Court decided Scott v. Sandford. Although Buchanan hoped that the ruling would bring resolution, the Dred Scott case instead served as a catalyst for the Civil War.

Dred Scott, slave to John Emerson, an Army surgeon, began a legal odyssey for his freedom in 1846, three years after Emerson’s death. Although Scott and Emerson lived in Missouri – a slave state – when Emerson died, Scott argued that he was a free man because he and Emerson previously had lived in free territory. The administrator of Emerson's estate, John Sanford (whose name is misspelled in court records) opposed Scott’s claim.

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, speaking for a 7-to-2 majority, held that the United States Constitution did not grant blacks any rights of citizenship and that Scott therefore could not bring suit in federal court. That issue alone could have decided the case, but Taney proceeded to assert that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in the territories and that any such attempt violated a slaveholder’s property rights in his slave. Viewed as a major victory for the slaveholding South, the Dred Scott decision fueled Northern antislavery agitation. Four years later, the increasing tension over slavery ignited the war between the States.

PostScript: Scott was sold, freed by his new owner, and reunited with his family within two months following the Supreme Court decision. He died two years later.