Chapter 90: Buchanan’s Inaugural Address reassures the South.

On March 4 Buchanan asserts that agitation over the slavery issue is over, while praising the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act and the wisdom of the “popular sovereignty” voting solution.

What a happy conception…that Congress is neither to legislate slavery into any
Territory or State nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way,
subject only to the Constitution of the United States.

His optimism reflects the fact that Justice John Catron has informed him in advance of the desired Dred Scott case ruling.