THE DRED SCOTT CASE.- THE MISSOURI RESTRICTION DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL.- The decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case was delivered by Chief Justice Taney, on Friday, at Washington. It was a full and elaborate statement of the views of the court. They have decided the following all-important points:

1st, Negroes, whether slaves or free, that is, men of the African race, are not citizens of the United States by the Constitution. 2d, The ordinance of 1787 had no independent constitutional force or legal effect subsequently to the adoption of the constitution, and could not operate of itself to confer freedom or citizenship, within the northwest territory, on negroes, not citizens by the constitution. 3d, the provisions of the act of 1820, commonly called the Missouri compromise, in so far as it undertook to exclude negro slavery from, and communicate citizenship to negroes in, the northern part of the Louisiana cession, was a legislative act exceeding the powers of Congress, and void, and of no legal effect to that end.

Five Judges, Taney, Campbell, Catron, Wayne and Daniel, concur on the constitutional point against the Missouri Compromise. Nelson and Grier dodge by adopting the Missouri decisions for their justification in joining the majority. McLean and Curtis meet the issue squarely and sustain the jurisdiction of the Court, with the constitutionality of the Compromise.

Much feeling is excited by this decree, and the opinion is freely expressed that a new element of sectional strife has been wantonly imposed upon the country.
(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved.
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Dred Scott was a slave from Missouri, a slave state. He claimed his freedom in court on the basis of seven years of residence in the free state of Illinois and the free territory of Wisconsin. The case made its way through the court system, finally reaching the United States Supreme Court. The court was predominately proslavery with seven of the justices appointed by pro-slavery presidents and five from slave holding families. The Supreme Court's decision written by Chief Justice Roger Taney stated that because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue. The decision also declared the Missouri Compromise of 1820, legislation which restricted slavery in certain territories, unconstitutional. The Gazette & Courier was the newspaper in Greenfield, Massachusetts, from July 20, 1841 until June 24, 1932. Before 1841 the newspaper's name changed quite frequently, with Gazette a frequent part of the title.

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