Entered according to Act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-nine

BY CALLAGHAN AND COMPANY,

in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D. C.

DAVID ATWOOD,
PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER,

MADISON, WIS.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE DRED SCOTT DECISION.

Annual Message of December 2, 1856.- Uncertainty of Parties.-—
Buchanan's Difficult Position.- Buchanan's Blindness. - The
Inaugural Address. - The Address and the Dred Scott Decis-
ion. History of the Development of the Federal Supreme
Court. Slavery and the Supreme Court of the United States.-
The Dred Scott Case.- History of the Dred Scott Decision.—
Justice Wayne's Statement.- Taney's Statement of the Case
and His Hypotheses -- Can Persons of Color Become Citi-
zens? The Decision Goes Beyond the Record. - Taney's Soph-
isms on the Jurisdiction of Appellate Courts.- Taney and the
Constitution on the Question of Property.- The Decision a
Political Enormity

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CHAPTER II.

THE LECOMPTON CONVENTION.

Split in the Democratic Party.- The Cabinet. The Situation in
Kansas.- Calling of the Constitutional Convention.— Gov-
ernor Walker.- The Census. -Walker's Intermediation.-- Elec-
tions to the Convention.-- Buchanan's Letter of the 12th of
July to Walker.- Buchanan's Letter of August 15th to the
Connecticut Clergy.- Adjournment of the Convention. - The
Fraudulent Election Lists.-- Buchanan's Attitude towards
Walker. — Activity of the Convention.-- The Lecompton Con-
stitution. Buchanan's Embarrassment. -Stanton Calls the
Legislature

CHAPTER III.

THE ANNUAL MESSAGE OF DECEMBER 8, 1857.

The Message on the Economic Situation.-The New Economic
Life in the United States.- Railway Construction.- The Bank-

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