Historical and Legal Examination of that Part of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott Case
Coverage: 1 v. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1857.
Additional Information: This text presents a critical examination of the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, along with Benton's arguments against the Missouri Compromise that reaffirms his conviction that the status of slaves, as property, could not be affected by federal legislation. A writer and Democratic Party leader, Benton championed agrarian interests and westward expansion during his 30-year tenure as U.S. senator from Missouri. Although he was generally considered proslavery and pro-Southern and was an early supporter of statehood for Missouri w/out restriction on bondage, in the 1840s he came to oppose the extension of slavery into the territories on the grounds that it inhibited the national growth and was a menace both to the Union & to his vision of the freeholder's Arcadia.