Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-234) and index.
Contents Foreword
Preface
PART ONE. Introduction: The Dred Scott Case, Slavery, and the Politics of Law
An Overview of the Dred Scott Case
A Bad Decision
A Complex and Confused Case
Slavery in the Territories
Who Was Dred Scott?
Dred Scott Sues for Freedom
In the Federal Court
The Jurisdictional Issue and the Plea in Abatement
The Case in the Federal District Court
Before the Supreme Court
The Judges
The Compromise Not Taken
The Jurisdictional Question
Free Blacks under Taneys Constitution: "They Had No Rights"
The Status of Slavery in the Territories under Dred Scott
The Territories Clause
The Fifth Amendment
Law as Politics
The Politics of Law
The Republican Fear of a Conspiracy
The Nationalization of Slavery
The Democratic Response
Epilogue
PART TWO. The Documents
1. Opinions of the Justices
Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, Opinion of the Court in Dred Scott, Plaintiff in Error v. John F. A. Sandford
Justice James M. Wayne, Concurring Opinion
Justice Samuel Nelson, Concurring Opinion
Justice Robert Cooper Grier, Concurring Opinion
Justice Peter V. Daniel, Concurring Opinion
Justice John Archibald Campbell, Concurring Opinion
Justice John Catron, Concurring Opinion
Justice John McLean, Dissenting Opinion
Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis, Dissenting Opinion
2. Newspaper Responses to the Dred Scott Decision
Varieties of Southern ProSlavery Opinion
Enquirer (Richmond), The Dred Scott Case, March 10, 1857
Mercury (Charleston), The Dred Scott Case - Supreme Court on the Rights of the South, April 2, 1857
Daily Picayune (New Orleans), Citizenship, March 21, 1857
The Buchanan Administrations Paper Endorses the Decision
Union (Washington, D.C.), The Dred Scott Case, March 12, 1857
Northern Support for the Dred Scott Decision
Journal of Commerce (New York), The Decision of the Supreme Court, March
11, 1857
Journal of Commerce (New York), The Dred Scott Case, March 12, 1857
Post (Pittsburgh), The Dred Scott Case, March 14, 1857
Post (Pittsburgh), Seeking an Issue, March 17, 1857
Opposition to the Dred Scott Decision: A Spectrum of Northern Opinion
Tribune (New York), March 7, 1857
Daily Times (New York), The Slavery Question - The Decision of the Supreme Court, March 9, 1857
Evening Post (New York), The Supreme Court of the United States, March 7, 1857
Independent (New York), Wickedness of the Decision in the Supreme Court against the African Race, March 19, 1857
Register (Salem), The U.S. Supreme Court, March 12, 1857
Zions Herald and Wesleyan Journal (Boston), The Late Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, March 18, 1857
Lincolns Paper Responds
Tribune (Chicago), Who Are Negroes? March 12, 1857
Tribune (Chicago), The Dred Scott Case, March 17, 1857
Tribune (Chicago), Judge Curtiss Opinion, March 19, 1857
A War for Public Opinion: The Washington Union and The New York Tribune
Union (Washington, D.C.), Unreasonable Complaints, March 21, 1857
Tribune (New York), Judge Taneys Opinion, March 21, 1857
Tribune (New York), Editorial, March 21, 1857
Tribune (New York), Editorial, March 25, 1857
Union (Washington, D.C.), The Supreme Court and the New York Tribune, March 28, 1857
3. Political Debate in the North
Frederick Douglass, The Dred Scott Decision: Speech at New York, on the Occasion of the Anniversary of the American Abolition Society, May 11, 1857
Lincoln-Douglas Debates and the Dred Scott Decision
Abraham Lincoln, The "House Divided" Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 9, 1858
Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858
Stephen A. Douglas, Speech at Springfield, Illinois, July 17, 1858
The Debate at Freeport: Lincolns Questions and Douglass Answers, August 27, 1858
The Debate at Jonesboro, September 15, 1858
Congressional Debate
"Bust of Chief Justice Taney," Congressional Globe, February 23, 1865
APPENDICES
Chronology of Events Related to Dred Scott (1787-1870)
Questions for Consideration
Selected Bibliography
Index