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Show St. Louis Court Decision Was First in Dred Scott Case That Lead to Civil War One of the most famous cases in American history had its beginning in the old courthouse in St. Louis. It was in the west wing of this classic clas-sic structure that Dred Scott first maintained that he was entitled to his freedom, and thereby brought to a head the controversy which was to be settled only in the bitter conflict con-flict of the Civil war, writes Ruth Moore in the St. Louis Star-Times. As the slave of an army surgeon, Dred Scott had spent several years in free territory before he returned with his master to the slave state of Missouri. Scott then sued, claiming claim-ing that he had been freed by living in a territory where slavery was prohibited. In a decision which rocked the state the St. Louis Circuit court upheld up-held his petition. Scott was free! The case was at once appealed to the Supreme court of Missouri and promptly reversed. Once more a slave, Scott and his family were sold to a New Yorker and his case was carried to the United States Circuit court of appeals, and from there to the Supreme court of the United States. Chief Justice Taney, in one of the most momentous rulings ever hand ed down from the Supreme court bench, held that Scott was a slave for the reason that congress had no constitutional power to prohibit slavery north of the latitude 36 degrees, de-grees, 30 minutes, in the Louisiana Purchase. This had been the territorial dividing divid-ing line agreed upon by the pro- and anti-slavery interests in congress when Missouri was admitted as a slave state. It was known as the Missouri compromise. With Taney's decision the entire shaky structure regulating the expansion ex-pansion of slavery into the territories terri-tories was abruptly wiped out Many historians believe that the Civil war thereupon became inevitable. |