试论斯科特案及其对美国内战的影响

The Scott Case and Its influence on the American Civil War

斯科特案是美国历史上最著名的案例之一。它是在南北双方关于联邦领地上的奴隶制问题争执不下之际,联邦国会和总统都无法对其进行彻底解决之时,由联邦最高法院试图借助斯科特案一劳永逸地解决该问题的一次尝试。在该案中,联邦最高法院裁决黑人奴隶不是美国公民,并宣布为限制奴隶制扩张的1820年《密苏里妥协案》违宪无效,进而裁定国会无权干涉联邦领地上的奴隶制问题。但该判决却在一定程度上加剧了南北冲突,加速了美国内战的爆发。

Scott Case was one of the most famous cases in American history. It was a case of which the Supreme Court tried to make use settling the questions of the slavery in the federal territory once for all, when the sectional conflict was tense enough and both the Congress and the President couldn＇t settle the slavery questions well. In the Case, the Supreme Court held that the Ngero slaves were not American citizens, and that the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, and declared that the Congress had no right to intervene in the slavery question of the federal territory. The judgment, however, produced so severe conflict between the North and South that the Case had strengthened, rather relieved, the sectional conflict.