Lincoln and Taney

[LincolnToddFan]

(02-04-2015 07:56 PM)HerbS Wrote:  Taney was the Author of the Fugitive Slave Law,was he not.If not, I stand corrected with my thoughts about him being a racist.

You do not need to be corrected about Taney being a racist. The great majority of Americans in the 19th century(including Abraham Lincoln) believed in the inherit inferiority of anyone not Anglo-Saxon.

Fair enough with the argument that Taney was "just upholding the Constitution". So how come most legal minds and historians today-quite respected and brilliant ones- are in agreement that the Dred Scott decision was one of the worst decisions ever in the history of American jurisprudence?

I lose patience with the idea that cruelty and injustice can be excused as long as it's legal.