| 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 tn in the west wing of this classic 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 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 that he had been freed by living tn in a territory where slavery was prohibited in a decision which rocked the state the st louis circuit court upheld his petition scott was freel 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 band 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 30 minutes in the louisiana purchase this had been the territorial divald alvid ing line agreed upon by the pro and antislavery anti slavery interests in congress when missouri was admitted as a slave state it was known as tho missouri compromise with taneyo decision the entire shaky structure regulating the expansion of slavery into the territories was abruptly wiped out many historians believe that the civil war thereupon became inevitable |
