Pennsylvania Legislature- Report of the Senate Select Committee on the Dred Scott Case

The majority of the Select Committee of the Senate on the resolutions in the Dred Scott case have made a lengthy and able report, accompanied with the resolutions declaring that the opinion of the Supreme Court announces principles in palpable opposition to the judicial and legislative history of the Union, and in violation of the plain provisions of the Constitution of the United States; that the opinion, except on the question of jurisdiction, being delivered on a case over which the Court admitted it had no jurisdiction, may be justly regarded as obita dicta ceram non judico, and inoperative as law: that the five judges who concurred in the same opinion made a wanton attack on the sovereignty of the Free States, and an important attempt to nullify the established laws of the country, and by extra judicial action caused unnecessary excitement in the public mind in regard to the subject of Slavery, and thereby forfeited the confidence and respect due to their exalted station.