Autograph Letter Signed on Dred Scott Decision by Unknown author - 1857

[Slavery] [Law] Autograph Letter Signed. Milwaukee(?): March 12, 1857. One sheet folded into four pages 12.5 x 20 cm. Some discoloration to the first page. Very good with legible handwriting.

Woman writing to her child Francis. Describes her husband as being on an extended trip to New York for five weeks, so far. Mentions she told him to stop in Washington for the Inauguration, but he wanted to wait until after the crowd had left and the "rush attending the change of officers of the incoming administration." Then she mentions "I hope he will see Judge McLean who dissented from the opinion delivered by Chief Justice Taney in the Dred Scott case. It seems to me that opinion is to destroy all that has been done to check the growing evil of slavery." The Inauguration of President Buchanan was on March 4, 1857. The Dred Scott decision came out on March 6, 1857, holding that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that the U.S. Congress could not prohibit enslavement in the U.S. territories that had not attained statehood. An interesting letter showing the Northern sentiment about the Supreme Court in this contentious case on human slavery.