Hamilton Rowan Gamble, Dred Scott (American National Biography)

When Missouri moved to an elected supreme court in 1851, a change that Gamble had championed for some time, he secured an easy election, serving until 1854. In the most noted case to come before the court during his term, Gamble, in a lone dissenting vote, asserted that Dred Scott was entitled to his freedom because his master had taken him into free territory--a view in accord with eight previous decisions by the Missouri Supreme Court but now unpopular with his two fellow justices, who were proslavery Democrats.