Dred Scott and his wife was a slave of an army surgeon, John Emerson, after Dr. Emerson bought him from the Peter Blow family of St. Louis. Scott accompanied his owner during Dr. Emerson’s duty at Illinois, Wisconsin and back to Missouri in 1838. Later when Dr. Emerson died in 1846, Dred Scott and his wife, with the help from John R. Anderson, the minister of the Second African Baptist Church, filed petitions in the Circuit Court of St. Louis for their freedom. According to State Historical Society of Missouri on the article, “Dred Scott Case”, it was the Blow family that help him sue against Emerson’s widow for his liberty. They argued that Scott’s living in Illinois and Wisconsin, two free states according to the Missouri Compromise, with
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Republicans, including Abraham Lincoln, denied the decision viewing it as an attempt to destroy their newborn party. Lincoln reacted to the decision, “As a nation we began by declaring that all men are created equal; we now practically read it: all men are created equal except Negroes and Foreigners and Catholics. When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty; to Russia for instance where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy". Many also assumed that Buchanan had put pressure on the Court to give that decision because he had known about the outcome in his inaugural speech two days before it happened. Nevertheless, this decision divided the Democrats party as well; Stephen A. Douglass opposed it for his idea of popular sovereignty. The division of Democrats, however, helped lead Lincoln’s victory later in the Election of 1860. Overall, the Dred Scott case contributed to the tension between anti-slavery and pro-slavery in the North and South; on the other hand, it helped divide the Democratic Party and led to Lincoln’s and the Republicans’ victory. In my opinion, if the Dred Scott Decision had not happened, the Democrats would not have divided in two. Therefore, it would have been a considerable chance that Lincoln would not have won the election which would have led the Civil
Republicans, including Abraham Lincoln, denied the decision viewing it as an attempt to destroy their newborn party. Lincoln reacted to the decision, “As a nation we began by declaring that all men are created equal; we now practically read it: all men are created equal except Negroes and Foreigners and Catholics. When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty; to Russia for instance where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy". Many also assumed that Buchanan had put pressure on the Court to give that decision because he had known about the outcome in his inaugural speech two days before it happened. Nevertheless, this decision divided the Democrats party as well; Stephen A. Douglass opposed it for his idea of popular sovereignty. The division of Democrats, however, helped lead Lincoln’s victory later in the Election of 1860. Overall, the Dred Scott case contributed to the tension between anti-slavery and pro-slavery in the North and South; on the other hand, it helped divide the Democratic Party and led to Lincoln’s and the Republicans’ victory. In my opinion, if the Dred Scott Decision had not happened, the Democrats would not have divided in two. Therefore, it would have been a considerable chance that Lincoln would not have won the election which would have led the Civil