" Then
opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of "squatter sovereignty"
and "sacred right of self-government." "But," said opposition members,
"let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the
Territory may exclude slavery." "Not we," said the friends of the
measure; and down they voted the amendment.
While the Nebraska Bill was passing through Congress, a _law case,_
involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner
having voluntarily taken him first into a free State, and then into a
Territory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a
slave for a long time in each, was passing through the United States
Circuit Court for the District of Missouri; and both Nebraska Bill and
lawsuit were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The
negro's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision
finally made in the case. Before the then next Presidential election,
the law case came to and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United
States; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election.
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