Origins of the Dred Scott Case: Jacksonian Jurisprudence and the Supreme Court, 1837-1857

Notes

[229 Notes abbreviations Blair, Plaintiff’s Brief I [Montgomery Blair], Dred Scott v. Sandford, Brief of Plaintiff (U.S. Sup. Ct., December Term, 1855), Blair Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Blair, Plaintiff’s Brief II Dred Scott v. Sandford, Argument of Montgomery Blair, Counsel for the Plaintiff in Error (U.S. Sup. Ct., December Term, 1856), Blair Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Curtis Papers Benjamin Robbins Curtis Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Daniel Papers Daniel Family Papers, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond. McLean Papers John McLean Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. OAC #[File Number] Opinions in Appellate Cases [file number], Records of the U.S. Supreme Court (RG 267), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Supreme Court Records Records of the U.S. Supreme Court (RG 267), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Taney, Dred Scott Proofs I Dred Scott v. Sandford, Taney’s page proofs, version I (U.S. Sup. Ct., 1857), Opinions in Appellate Cases #3230, Records of the U.S. Supreme Court (RG 267), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Taney, Dred Scott Proofs II Dred Scott v. Sandford, Taney’s page proofs, version II (U.S. Sup. Ct., 1857), Opinions in Appellate Cases #3230, Records of the U.S. Supreme Court (RG 267), National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. Taney, MS-NSA I Roger B. Taney, Manuscript Opinion on the Negro Seamen Act I (Taney to State Department, Attorney General’s Office, May 28, 1832), Opinions on Legal Questions, General Records of the Attorney Generals, Records of the Department of Justice (RG 60), National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md. 229 230 notes to pages 1–9 1 Taney, MS-NSA II Roger B. Taney, Manuscript Opinion on the Negro Seamen Act II (Taney to State Department, June 9, 1832), Miscellaneous Letters, Records of the State Department (RG 59), National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md. introduction. Beyond the Sectional Crisis 1. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857). 2. New York Tribune, March 7, 1857. 3. Potter, Impending Crisis, 283–84; New York Journal of Commerce, March 12, 1857. 4. Johannsen, Lincoln-Douglas Debates, 18. 5. Ibid., 14, 19–20. 6. Von Holst, Constitutional and Political History, 6:1–46. 7. Corwin, “Dred Scott Decision”; Warren, Supreme Court, 2:294–302. 8. Mendelson, “Dred Scott’s Case—Revisited”; Mendelson, “Dred Scott’s Case—Reconsidered .” For later historical accounts, see Ehrlich, They Have No Rights; Hopkins, Dred Scott’s Case; Potter, Impending Crisis, 267–96. 9. Fehrenbacher, Dred Scott Case, 5, 337, 595. 10. Perhaps the best measure of Fehrenbacher’s influence rests in the number of studies that have uncritically accepted the Dred Scott Case’s central conclusions. See, e.g., Kettner, Development, 324–32; McPherson, Battle Cry, 170–80; Wiecek, Liberty, 77–80; Stampp, America, 83–109; Sunstein, “Dred Scott v. Sandford”; McPherson, “Politics and Judicial Responsibility.” For alternative positions, see Levinson, “Slavery”; Higginbotham, Shades, 61–67; Meister, “Logic and Legacy”; Rogers M. Smith, Civic Ideals, 243–85; Graber, “Desperately Ducking Slavery.” 11. For a recent example, see President George W. Bush’s mention of Dred Scott in his debate with John F. Kerry (FDCH Media, “Transcript: Second Presidential Debate,” October 8, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/debatereferee/debate 1008.html (February 25, 2005). 12. Bickel, Least Dangerous Branch, 16–23. For critiques of the countermajoritarian difficulty’s applicability to the development of American constitutional law, see Ackerman , We the People, 3–33; Barry Friedman, “History,” 356–81; Graber, “Nonmajoritarian Difficulty.” 13. My understanding of the Scott family’s approach to the legal struggle for freedom owes a great debt to VanderVelde and Subramanian, “Mrs. Dred Scott.” part one. Beneath Dred Scott 1. Jackson, “Farewell Address,” 4:1524, 1525; Keyssar, Right to Vote, 348; Harry L. Watson , Liberty and Power, 101–4, 149, 232. My understanding of Jacksonianism has benefited from Earle, Jacksonian Antislavery; Ellis, Union at Risk; Feller, “Brother in Arms”; Hofstadter, American Political Tradition, 57–86; Howe, “Evangelical Movement”; Leonard, Invention of Party Politics; Pessen, Jacksonian America; Richards, Slave Power; Wilentz, “Slavery, Antislavery, and Jacksonian Democracy”; Wood, Radicalism, 325–47. notes to pages 10–23 231 1 [231 2. Jackson, “Farewell Address,” 1521; Harry L. Watson, Liberty and Power, 237–46; Feller, Jacksonian Promise, 187–88. 3...