Abraham Lincoln disagreed with the Dred Scott decision, which stated that African Americans could not be U.S. citizens. He believed it was morally wrong and went against the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Lincoln saw the decision as further evidence of the need to address the issue of slavery in America.
Many Southerners supported the Dred Scott decision because it reinforced the rights of slaveholders to take their slaves into free territories. They viewed the decision as a victory for states' rights and property rights over federal power.
Controversial and discriminatory.
The Dred Scott decision was a Supreme Court ruling in 1857 that declared African Americans were not U.S. citizens and had no rights as such, irrespective of whether they were enslaved or free. This decision further fueled tensions over slavery leading up to the Civil War.
The Dred Scott case was a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1857 that ruled African Americans, whether free or enslaved, were not considered U.S. citizens and thus had no standing to sue in federal court. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, sparking further tensions over the issue of slavery in the United States.
Controversial and divisive.
the kansas nebraska act and the dread Scott decision caused violence and anger that caught Abraham Lincoln's attention.
slavery
A series of debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas about the legality of slavery - drawing favourable attention to the little-known Lincoln, paving the way for his election to President in 1860.
Emma Julia Scott has written: 'Abraham Lincoln'
He came out of retirement due to his weighing in on the Dred Scott decision. He argued that the Constitution did not affirm a right to own slaves and that there was a conspiracy to extend slavery into the territories.
The South loved it. The North hated it. And the unknown Abraham Lincoln debated its implications with presidential hopeful Stephen Douglas in Illinois, emerging as a front-runner himself.
It was clear that as a Republican, Abraham Lincoln, personally believed that slavery was was morally wrong. However, as he stated many times before his election in 1860, he did not intend to cause problems where slavery already existed. He also stated that he did not have to Constitutionally power to abolish slavery.
There was not a major decision that led to it but there were many that led to it such as the dred Scott decision and the Missouri compromise and the compromise of 1850 and the Lincoln- Douglas debate
The Dred Scott decision by the US Supreme Court in 1857 damaged Senator Douglas' main political position on slavery. It virtually vetoed his policy of popular sovereignty.
It is important because it caused the election of Abraham Lincoln and thus leading to the secession of the south and the beginning of the civil war.
Southerners were delighted with the Dred Scott decision, but northerners were outraged.
Douglas was accused by Lincoln. Lincoln argued in his House Divided Speech that Douglas was part of a conspiracy to nationalize slavery. Lincoln said that ending the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery in Kansas and Nebraska was the first step in this direction, and that the Dred Scott decision was another step in the direction of spreading slavery into Northern territories. Lincoln expressed the fear that the next Dred Scott decision would make Illinois a slave state. It should be noted that the two men held no personal animosity towards each other.