The Dred Scott Decision: Effects on the Nation
The Dred Scott decision of March 6, 1857 had many major effects on the United States and its people at the time. It became a landmark case in that it drew a clear line of how the government stood on the issue of slavery, and further inflamed passions surrounding an already divisive topic within American politics. The Dred Scott decision was a key event that had ultimately contributed to the dawn of the American Civil War.
The Election of Abraham Lincoln (1860)
The election of Abraham Lincoln was a major turning point in American history. The new Republican Party had won, and the U.S had a hope of peace with the South. However, it soon became evident that the chances of peace between the South and the North were slim. With his many debates with Stephen Douglas, Lincoln had made his position clear and repeatedly referred to the Dred Scott Decision and popular sovereignty as wrong. Lincoln had won the election with no votes from the South. In fact, he wasn't even an option for many states in the South. There were two candidates from the Democratic Party, and the votes from the Southen States were split among them, causing them to not even come close to Lincoln, who had the support of the entire North. Lincoln's victory had angered many Southerners and became a major factor leading up the Civil War.
Rising Tensions
The Supreme Court decision on the Dred Scott case was like adding gasoline to a growing flame. It only made things worse. While the southerners were thrilled with the outcome, the enormous abolitionist campaign that came to help Scott had led many southerners to claim that the abolitionists were anti-southern and "enemies of a greater Union". Many southern slave owners and supports of slavery, saw the Dred Scott case as a crucial precedent. It gave them great pride and sense of rightness to be able to say that the supreme law of the lad had upheld the idea of slavery. The court decision had also dealt a crushing blow to the Missouri Compromise, which was wildly unpopular among southerners. The Dred Scott decision had caused the North and South to grow farther apart.
In this political cartoon, the presidential and vice presidential candidates in the 1860 election are shown tearing apart a map of the United States.
Civil War
The final outcome of the Dred Scott decision was the Civil War. With over 620,000 deaths, the Civil War has the most American deaths by war to date. The decades of rising tensions between the North and South over slavery, the rights of states, and westward expansion had exploded into the Civil War. The Civil War made sure that the Confederate states did not break away from the Union, and that slavery was abolished in the United States, along with states' rights matters.