its powers in order to hunt and recapture runaway slaves as divisions intensified chief justice roger taney that that he could solve the contradictions by terminating the concept of equality in 1857. this supreme court issued the dred scott decision stating that a black person could never be a citizen since the constitution was written by and for white men alone and that black people were property by birth. instantly most people in free states. saw the problem. they would soon be no free states as slavery would be nationalized. as illinois senate candidate abraham lincoln best summarized the situation and i quote a house divided against itself. cannot stand. either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction or its advocates will push it forward. until it should become lawful and all the states north as well as south end quote lincoln captured. well the fear that the dred scott decision would lead directly to the creation of a slavery republic that certainty led to l