The subsequent sale of Dred Scott to a citizen of New York named Sandford afforded Roswell Field the opportunity to renew the fight for Scott’s freedom in the United States Circuit Court at St. Louis.  The case was tried in May, 1854, and it was again declared that Scott and his family “were negro slaves, the lawful property of Sandford.”  Roswell Field immediately appealed by writ of error to the Supreme Court of the United States, where the appeal was first argued early in 1856, and a second time in December of the same year.  Mr. Field’s connection with the case ended when he prepared the papers on appeal and sent his brief to Montgomery Blair, with whom was associated for Scott on the second hearing George Ticknor Curtis.  Both of these eminent lawyers emulated the example of Eugene Field’s father, who for nearly nine years had devoted a large share of his time and energy to the fight of a penniless negro slave for liberty.

Looking back now it is almost impossible to realize how the issue in this case stirred the nation to its depth.  It was first argued while the country was in the throes of the fierce Fremont-Buchanan campaign, and it was believed that the second hearing was ordered by a pro-slavery court after Buchanan’s election, to permit more time in which to formulate the extraordinary decision at which the majority of the court arrived.  The decision was political rather than judicial, and challenged the attention of the people beyond any act of the Supreme Court before or since.

The Civil War was virtually an appeal from the judgment of Chief Justice Taney and his associates to the God of Battles.

It must not be thought that a single case, although the most celebrated in the annals of American jurisprudence, was Roswell Field’s sole claim to the title of leader of the Missouri bar during his lifetime.  The records of the Superior Court of that state bear interesting and convincing testimony to the exceptional brilliancy of Eugene Field’s father, while the tributes to his memory, by his brothers at the bar and the judges before whom he appeared, prove that in all the relations of life he fulfilled the promise of ability and genius given in his graduation from college at an age when most boys are entering a preparatory school.

Before dismissing Roswell Field to take up the story of his son’s career, I wish to quote a few passages from a brief memoir which is preserved in the history of Newfane, as throwing direct hereditary light on the peculiar character, fascinating personality, and entertaining genius of his son.

As I may hereafter have occasion to refer to Eugene Field’s political convictions, let us begin these quotations with one as to his father’s politics: 

“In the dark days of the Rebellion, during the years 1861 and 1862, when the friends of the Union in St. Louis and Missouri felt that they were in imminent danger of being drawn from their homes and of having their estates confiscated by rebels and traitors, General Lyon, General Blair, and R.M.  Field were among the calm, loyal, and patriotic men who influenced public action and saved the city and state.”