Today (March 6) in 1857 was an important day in the Civil War history

On March 6, 1857 U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Roger Taney, spoke for 3 hours on the case now known as the Dred Scott vs. Sandford. At age of 81, Taney, feeble and frail; his wife just died of yellow fever; spoke or at times “whispered”, but what he said then was still heard loudly nearly 150 years later.

Dred Scott was a slave sued for freedom as he had been taken into a territory where slavery was illegal. Taney opined that blacks were not citizens, and derived no rights from the Declaration of Independence or Constitution. He said, “Negroes whose ancestors were slaves, could not become a U.S. citizen” and that Dred Scott couldn’t sue for his freedom in federal court.

Taney was once a law partner with Francis Scott Key, the author of “The Star Spangled Banner”; his wife, Anne, was sister of Francis Scott Key. This case forever marred his otherwise distinguished career (four of the nine judges of the U.S. Supreme Court dissented, but five being from the slave states.) Taney had freed the slaves he inherited, except two or three, who were too old to work; he kept and supported them.

Lincoln in 1858

After serving the 2-year one-term Congressman in 1848, Lincoln focused on his law practice and became a successful corporate lawyer representing the Illinois Railroad, making big bucks. For a while he seemed to have left the politics behind. It is the Missouri Compromise and Kansas-Nebraska Act (establishing statehoods on these territories and came with the heated debate whether they should be slave states or not) that rekindled his interest in politics. Dred Scott case also set the stage for the seven debates between Lincoln and Douglas that was preceded by the now famous “A house divided against itself cannot stand” speech. Notwithstanding he lost the Senator race to Douglas in 1858, these debates put him in the spotlight and brought him national fame and helped his Presidential election two years later.