“To their decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be,” Buchanan declared.27 Two days later, the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, which gave slave owners everything they wanted. It declared that African Americans were not citizens and “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect,” and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories, because the Constitution required the protection of property, including slaves.
