Final answer:
Individuals most likely to agree with the Dred Scott decision were southerners who supported slavery and its expansion, as the ruling fortified slavery as a national institution and nullified the free state-slave state distinction.
Step-by-step explanation:
Who Would Agree with the Dred Scott Decision?
Those who would most likely agree with the Dred Scott decision of 1857 were typically southerners who supported the perpetuation and expansion of slavery. According to Vernon Burton, the decision was "pure joy for southerners" as it not only provided protection for their 'human property' but also affirmed their rights to take enslaved people anywhere in the country. This made slavery a national institution and essentially eliminated the distinction between slave and free states. Additionally, proponents believed this Supreme Court ruling would weaken the Republican Party, which opposed the spread of slavery.
The decision itself, authored by Chief Justice Roger Taney, declared that Dred Scott, despite having lived in free territories, remained enslaved. It also stated that Black people could not be citizens and that Congress had no authority to prohibit the spread of slavery into new territories. Therefore, supporters of these views, who promoted slavery and viewed it as a constitutional right, would most likely agree with the outcome of Dred Scott v. Sandford.
In contrast, the ruling was met with fierce opposition from northerners, Republicans, and abolitionists who viewed it as an overreach of the Slave Power and a hurdle to ending slavery legally, only feasible now through a constitutional amendment, which seemed unlikely at the time.