They could settle the slavery question.

They could end sectional hatred, extinguish civil war, preserve the Union, save their country.

Advanced age, physical feebleness, party bias, the political ardor of the youngest and the satiety of the eldest, all conspired to draw them under the insidious influence of such considerations.

One of the judges in official language frankly avowed the motive and object of the majority of the court.

"The case," he wrote, "involves private rights of value, and constitutional principles of the highest importance, about which there had become such a difference of opinion that the peace and harmony of the country required the settlement of them by judicial decision." This language betrays the confusion of ideas and misconception of authority which tempted the judges beyond their proper duty.