[185] Born in Boston, 1811; died, 1874. Graduated at Harvard, 1830; studied law; traveled in Europe and became noted as an anti-slavery orator, 1830–1850; helped organize the Free Soil Party in 1848; was elected United States senator in 1851; became the foremost anti-slavery advocate in the Senate, attracting universal attention by his speeches, “Freedom National; Slavery Sectional,” and “The Crime against Kansas”; assaulted by Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina (May 22, 1856); was twice reëlected to the Senate; broke with Grant and Republican senators after delivering a violent speech against President Grant, and was removed from chairmanship of Committee on Foreign Affairs, 1871; supported Greeley, in 1872; gave his last efforts to securing civil rights for colored citizens of the South. [186] Born in Georgia, 1818; died, 1890. Was educated in Charleston, S.C.; served a short term in the navy, then joined the United States Topographical Engineers, and explored a part of the Rocky Mountains in 1842; explored, with great energy and skill, Utah, the basin of the Columbia, and the passes of the Sierra Nevada, 1843–1844; conducted other explorations from the Santa Fé to Sacramento and in Southern California, from 1846 to 1854, and gained for himself the title of “Pathfinder”; was nominated and defeated for President in 1856; commanded in Missouri in 1861, and in Virginia in 1862, without great success. [187] Born in Pennsylvania, 1791; died, 1868. Graduated from Dickinson College in 1809; studied law; congressman from Pennsylvania, 1821–1831; Minister to Russia, 1831–1833; member of the United States Senate, 1833–1845; Secretary of State, 1845–1849; candidate for President, 1852; Minister to England, 1853–1856; President of the United States, 1857–1861, during which time his temporizing policy was severely criticised. CHAPTER XXVI. =THE ADMINISTRATION OF BUCHANAN, 1857–1861.= THE SUPREME COURT AND SLAVERY. [Illustration: ROGER B. TANEY.] =418. Dred Scott Decision.=—Two days after Buchanan’s inauguration, the Supreme Court rendered a decision that had a tremendous influence on public opinion with regard to the question of slavery. A colored man, Dred Scott by name, was held as a slave in Missouri, but having been taken by his master into Illinois and Minnesota, he brought suit in a United States court to establish his freedom. The question finally reached the Supreme Court, where a decision was rendered March 6, 1857. The court held:— 1. That negroes had not been regarded as citizens by the framers of the Constitution, and that, therefore, they could not bring suit in a United States court. 2. That the Constitution recognizes the right of property in slaves, and recognizes no difference between such property and any other, and that therefore Congress could not limit the right of property in slaves, even in the territories.