The Supreme Court ruling Dred Scott vs. Sandfordheld out hope of settling the slavery controversy once and for all. Scott had accompanied his owner to Illinois and Wisconsin where slavery was illegal. Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that residence on free soil made him free. But the Supreme Court ruled that only whites could be citizens of the United States and, as a result, the Dred Scott decision declared the entire Republican platform unconstitutional for restricting slavery's expansion into the western United States.

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