Politics reddened the plains of Kansas; politics had recently desecrated the Senate chamber with a murderous personal assault; politics contended greedily for the spoils of a new administration: politics nursed a tacit conspiracy to nationalize slavery.

The slavery sentiment ruled society, ruled the Senate, ruled the Executive Mansion.

It is not surprising that this universal influence flowed in at the open door of the national hall of justice--that it filtered through the very walls which surrounded the consulting-room of the Supreme Court.
[Sidenote] Wayne, J., Opinion in the Dred Scott case, 19 Howard, pp.

454-5.
The judges were, after all, but men.

They dined, they talked, they exchanged daily personal and social courtesies with the political world.