ROGER BROOKE TANEY. BY MARY Florence TANEY. Roger B. Taney was born on the 17th of March, 1777, in Calvert county, in Maryland. His father, Michael Taney, whose plantation was situated on the banks of the Patuxent river about twenty miles from its mouth, had sufficient property to enable him to live comfortably and educate his children. His forefathers on the paternal side-all Roman Catholics-were among the early emigrants to Maryland. His mother, Monica Brooke, was the daughter of Roger Brooke who owned a large landed estate on Battel Creek. He was lineally descended from Robert Brooke, who left a written memorandum of his family and of the time of his settlement in Maryland. Robert Brooke was appointed by Lord Baltimore commander of Charles county, and was chosen by the commissioners appointed by Cromwell, governor of Maryland. It is not known to what religious sect Robert Brooke belonged, but the maternal grandfather of Roger B. Taney, Roger Brooke, was also a Roman Catholic. His parents lived to an advanced age, their family consisting of four sons and three daughters. Roger Brooke Taney was the second son and third child. At the age of eighteen he graduated at Dickinson College, in Pennsylvania, where he received the diploma of Bachelor of Arts. In 1796, he went to Annapolis to study law in the office of Jeremiah Townley Chase, one of the judges of the General Court of Maryland. In the spring of 1799, he was admitted to the bar. The frequent election of Michael Taney to the House of Delegates had given him a taste for public life and an ambition for political eminence, which he hoped to fully realize through his son. Recognizing his capacity he proposed that he become a candidate for the House of Delegates. The two parties of the day were the Federalists and the Republicans, the Taneys being affiliated with the former. He was elected by a large majority, and took his place in the first session of the Assembly in November, 1792. At the close of the session he returned to his home, and we have this glimpse of his life from his own pen: "I mixed but little in the society of the county, and returned again very much to my own retired domestic life, spending my time with my own family. Indeed I have always loved the country too much to study except in the long nights of winter. When the weather permitted I was always out, wandering on the shore of the river or in the woods, much of the time alone, occupied with my own meditations, or sitting often for hours together under the shade, and looking almost listlessly at the prospect before me. There was always a love of the romantic about me, and my thoughts and imaginings when alone were more frequently in that direction than the real business of life. When I did work in earnest my chief business was to make myself familiar with the interests of the State, in order that I might qualify myself to take a leading part at the next session." In 1801, he took up his residence in Frederick where he studied law. In 1806, he married Miss Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, daughter of John Ross Key, and sister of Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner." No man's professional life was more marked by deference to the bench, respect for the jury and courtesy towards his professional brethren. Mr. William Schley, an eminent lawyer of the Baltimore Bar, gives the following outline of the professional character of Roger Brooke Taney: "I knew Mr. Taney from early childhood. For many years he resided in my native town. As a boy, as a youth and afterwards as a student of law, I heard him very often in cases of magnitude in the Court of Frederick; and his arguments and his manner made a deep impression upon me. He sought no aid from rules of rhetoric, none from the supposed graces of elocution. I do not remember to have heard him at any time make a single quotation from any of the poets. Yet his language was always chaste and classical, and his eloquence undoubtedly was great-sometimes persuasive and gentle, sometimes impetuous and overwhelming. He spoke when excited from the feelings of his heart, and as his heart was right, he spoke with prodigious effect. And yet perhaps above all other attributes his exalted private character gave him, with honest right-minded juries of Frederick Co. an extent of success which even his great abilities as an advocate would not have enabled him otherwise to secure. The people knew that he was sincere and honest. They knew also that while he was earnest, strenuous and indefatigable in his efforts to secure for his clients their full rights, yet he never sought to gain from the other party any undue advantage.” During the administration of Mr. Monroe, the Federal party had practically ceased to exist, and the Republican party as an organization had fallen to pieces. Mr. Taney's dissatisfaction with the course of the Eastern Federalists during the War of 1812, led to his joining the party supporting General Jackson. At this time Mr. Taney was the leading lawyer at the Baltimore Bar. An amusing incident preserved in the memoirs of the Taney family is here given in the words of Mr. Wirt, who had just retired from the office of Attorney General of the United States : "I dined yesterday with the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, at Mr. Oliver's. He is about thirty-five years old, and looks like a Russian, or one of those gigantic Cossacks. He speaks English tolerably well, yet he has the apparent dullness of apprehension which always accompanies a defective knowledge of a language, and renders it rather up-hill work to talk with him. He sat between Mr. Oliver and Mr. Barney neither of whom seemed to be able to find him in talk. Taney, who you know is a pious Roman Catholic, as well as a most amiable gentleman, said, 'Come Mr. Barney, Mr. Wirt and I sit side by side quite enough in court; let me change places with you,' his object being to amuse the Duke. The change was made and Taney and the Duke got into a side talk. The Duke was soon observed to speak with a most 'saracenical and vandalic' fury and as I was afterwards informed was pronouncing a philippic against the Roman Catholic Religion, which he blamed for all the political conspiracies in Europe. Taney took the occasion to tell him that he was a Roman Catholic. This produced some embarrassment but the Duke got over it. Taney changed the subject to the war in which the Duke had figured,-particularly at Waterloo, and unluckily asked the Duke about Blucher. Now Blucher it seems had on some occasion gone into the Duke's territories and was exacting contributions from his subjects, which the Duke hearing of had put him in prison. So here was a new contretemps and as there was a general pause at the table, I attempted to relieve it by asking the Duke another question which contributed to increase the difficulty. I dare say he wished himself among the wild boars of the forest in Westphalia!" In 1827, Mr. Taney, with the unanimous recommendation of the Baltimore Bar, was appointed Attorney-General of Maryland. From this time his professional labors absorbed his time and energy. He worked by day and by night. Not a moment was spent in fashionable life. He looked at the world from the point of duty. Yet he walked in the straight and steep path with unchanging cheerfulness, greeting with singular cordiality every one he met. Now begins a new era in Mr. Taney's life-he is forced into the world of ambition against all his tastes and his strongest judgment in regard to true happiness. On June 21st, he was appointed AttorneyGeneral of the United States, by President Jackson. On the 8th of December, 1829, President Jackson delivered his first annual message to Congress, which was the first practical step in his administration. It was to assist President Jackson in maintaining the principles and policy avowed in his inaugural, his messages and his toast, that Mr. Taney consented to become a member of his cabinet. The men at Washington, says Tyler : "little knew the man they were dealing with. In the mysterious drama of human life there has never yet trod the stage a more chivalric man than Roger B. Taney. The fiery temper of his soul had been chastened by that form of Christianity which is ministered by the Church that sits on the seven hills of Rome, the imperial mistress of the moral order of the modern world. In his Christian faith was his security from inflicting upon insolence the punishment which an angry temper would suggest." On September 23, 1833, Mr. Taney was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. On the 26th of the same month he gave his famous order for the removal of the deposits from the United States Bank. Chief Justice Marshall died in the summer of 1835 and on the succeeding 28th of December, President Jackson nominated to the Senate Mr. Taney, to fill his place in the Supreme Court. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster opposed the nomination with great determination, so violent were the feelings of hostility engendered during the strife with the Bank of the United States. On the 15th of March, however, the nomination was confirmed by a majority of fourteen votes. No man ever realized more entirely the grandeur of high judicial functions, and felt more profoundly its responsibilities. And never did a man bring to the discharge of duty a more sublime moral courage. It is gratifying to know that Mr. Clay in the presence of Mr. Reverdy Johnson of the |