During the pendency of the Dred Scott decision, Catron wrote to ask President James Buchanan to lobby fellow Pennsylvanian and Democrat Justice Robert Grier to vote with the Taney majority. Later he disclosed the nature of the decision to the President before it was announced. Catron even drafted a statement that President Buchanan could use in his inaugural address, asking the public to abide by whatever decision the Supreme Court rendered in Dred Scott.

Daniel brought to the court a devotion to simple Jeffersonian agrarianism and an inveterate hatred of banks and corporations in general. Passionately committed to states' rights, state sovereignty, and limited government, he envisioned himself as a crusader against rising national power and economic consolidation and a defender of slavery. In a rapidly changing economic and social world, Daniel was doomed to fight a rearguard action against American progress and the irrepressible legal and constitutional developments that came with it.