Whatever may be said of the action of the Supreme Court in the well-known case of “Dred Scott,” in regard to its being technically a judicial decision, there can be no doubt as to what a majority of the judges meant to affirm and did affirm in their respective opinions.[34] This was that property in slaves, being recognized as a right of property by the Constitution of the United States, although established only by the local law of a particular State, travelled with the person of the owner into a Territory; and while the Territorial condition continued, such property could not be abolished by the legislation of Congress or the legislation of the Territorial government. Mr. Buchanan always regarded this as a judicial decision of this question of property; and as the construction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act was by its express terms to be determined by the court, he considered it his duty to regard the period of time on which the people of Kansas were to decide the question of slavery or no slavery to be at the formation and adoption of a State constitution. This was the clear deduction to be drawn from the constitutional doctrine which had been enunciated by a majority of the judges. Footnote 34: I have more than once publicly expressed my belief that there was, technically speaking, no judicial decision in that case. But others, among them President Buchanan, always regarded it as a “decision.” Hence it was that all his official influence was exerted, through the Territorial government, to induce the people of Kansas to act on the question of slavery at the proper time and in the only practical way: namely, by voting for delegates to the convention called under the authority of the Territorial laws, and then voting on the constitution which that convention should frame. It certainly was no wish of his to have Kansas become a slaveholding State; he could have no motive in the whole matter but to get it decided what her domestic condition was to be, by the ballot-box instead of the rifle, by voting and not by fighting. He could, by no sort of justice, be held responsible for the result which was produced by the refusal of the anti-slavery party to vote; and when the Lecompton constitution reached him, he could not avoid submitting it to Congress. He submitted it with a strong recommendation that Kansas be received into the Union under it. His reasons for this recommendation are now to be stated.