FEATHERSTON, Winfield Scott, a Representative from Mississippi; born near Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, Tenn., August 8, 1820; completed preparatory studies; moved to Mississippi and settled in Houston; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1840 and commenced practice in Houston, Miss.; elected as a Democrat to the Thirtieth and Thirty-first Congresses (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1851); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1850 to the Thirty-second Congress; resumed the practice of law at Houston, Miss.; moved to Holly Springs in 1856; served in the Confederate Army

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.