Dred Scott Case Sparks Civil War

The Chief Justice of the United States was dying and would not live out the day. On October 12, 1864, three physicians were summoned to Roger B. Taney's small bedroom in a stucco house on Indiana Avenue. When Dr. James C. Hall, the chief justice's usual physician, entered, Taney expressed his regret at not being able to rise. After an examination, all three physicians agreed that the end was mere hours away. Taney's semi-invalid daughter, Ellen, sat by her father's bedside. 'My dear child,' he said in a nearly inaudible voice, 'my race is run. I have no desire to stay longer in this painful world, but for my poor children.'

 

Dr. Hall, perhaps to distract his patient, read from an article in the Baltimore Sun about the election soon to be held in Maryland. Voters would decide whether or not to adopt a state constitution under which slaves would be set free without compensation to their owners. He then read a letter printed by the newspaper suggesting that the oath of allegiance proposed by President Abraham Lincoln and included in the new constitution might be taken even though conscience disapproved. 'There must be no compromise of principle,' said the chief justice with surprising strength.

 

History does not record the thoughts of the physicians, but undoubtedly they recalled the great case of seven years earlier that had set in motion the events which would free the slaves in Maryland — and later every state — and had all but extinguished the old order, just as Taney's life was flickering out. Whatever else he did in that case, the chief justice had not compromised.

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