In legal learning, and in dignity and purity of character, he was unsurpassed.

His opinion became, therefore, of inestimable value to the cause of freedom.

It represented the well-settled conclusion of the most learned jurists, was in harmony with the enlightened conscience of the North, and gave a powerful rallying-cry to the opponents of slavery.

It upheld with unanswerable arguments the absolute right of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the Territories of the Union.

Every judge delivered his views separately, but the dissenting opinion of Judge McLean, as well as of the six who sustained the views of the Chief Justice, arrested but a small share of public attention.