The Supreme Court's 1857 Dred Scott decision denied citizenship to African Americans and enabled slavery's westward expansion. It has long stood as a grievous instance of justice perverted by sectional politics. Austin Allen finds that the outcome of Dred Scott hinged not on a single issue―slavery―but on a web of assumptions; agendas; and commitments held collectively and individually by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney and his colleagues.Allen carefully tracks arguments made by Taney Court justices in more than 1;600 reported cases in the two decades prior to Dred Scott and in its immediate aftermath. By showing us the political; professional; ideological; and institutional contexts in which the Taney Court worked; Allen reveals that Dred Scott was not simply a victory for the Court's prosouthern faction. It was instead an outgrowth of Jacksonian jurisprudence; an intellectual system that charged the Court with protecting slavery; preserving both federal power and state sovereignty; promoting economic development; and securing the legal foundations of an emerging corporate order―all at the same time. Here is a wealth of new insight into the internal dynamics of the Taney Court and the origins of its most infamous decision.
#3132527 in Books University of Georgia Press 1988-11-01 1988-11-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .59 x 6.00l; .85 #File Name: 0820310778256 pages
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