Lincoln distinguished sharply between the sense in which he opposed the Dred Scott decision and the sense in which he did not. He disclaimed any intention of resisting the decision in so far as it affected Dred Scott. "We let this property abide by the decision, but we will try to reverse that decision. We will try to put it where Judge Douglas would not object, for he says he will obey it until it is reversed. Somebody has to reverse that decision, since it is made, and we mean to reverse it, and we mean to do it peaceably."[1] Lincoln did not indicate how far he would go to attain his end. Judge Douglas charged him with intending to pack the court.[2] I am not aware that Lincoln ever entered a denial.
The controversy between Lincoln and Douglas in 1858 suggests present-day conditions. The Republican party at its origin was an uprising against those extremists who considered the right to property in slaves paramount to the rights of man. The stand which it took against the Dred Scott decision contributed much to its growth and influence. With its advent to power, however, the party became more and more closely identified with the clandestine work of arranging tariff schedules, getting valuable franchises for a song, looking after the "pork" in river and harbor and public building bills, and with voting the public money for pensions. The leadership of the party suffered the inevitable consequences of long years in power. The moral enthusiasm which attended its origin grew less and less. In striking contrast to 1860, the tendency to emphasize the rights of property and to object to any and all criticisms of court decisions which uphold property rights became more and more pronounced. With Lincoln's arraignment of Douglas for accepting a court decision not at all "on its merits," but because "it is to him a 'Thus saith the Lord,'" the party came to have less and less sympathy. The leadership more and more approximated that of Douglas, who cared not whether slavery was voted up or voted down, and nothing so well describes it as Lincoln's characterization of his distinguished opponent. Said Mr. Lincoln:
Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him certainly, at no distant day, to be President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land-offices, marshallships and cabinet appointments, chargeships and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by his greedy hands. . ., On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out.[3]
Happily, in recent years many of the more prominent leaders in the Democratic as well as in the Republican party who answered to this de-
