As
rules of property they have two uses. First, they decide upon the
question before the Court. They decide in this case that Dred Scott is
a Slave. Nobody resists that. Not only that, but they say to everybody
else, that persons standing just as Dred Scott stands, are as he is.
That is, they say that when a question comes up upon another person, it
will be so decided again, unless the Court decides in another way
--unless the Court overrules its decision.--Well, we mean to do what we
can to have the Court decide the other way. That is one thing we mean
to try to do.
"The sacredness that Judge Douglas throws around this decision is a
degree of sacredness that has never before been thrown around any other
decision. I have never heard of such a thing. Why, decisions
apparently contrary to that decision, or that good lawyers thought were
contrary to that decision, have been made by that very Court before. It
is the first of its kind; it is an astonisher in legal history. It is a
new wonder of the world. It is based upon falsehood in the main as to
the facts--allegations of facts upon which it stands are not facts at
all in many instances; and no decision made on any question--the first
instance of a decision made under so many unfavorable circumstances
--thus placed, has ever been held by the profession as law, and it has
always needed confirmation before the lawyers regarded it as settled
law.
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