CHAPTER IV.

JUDICIAL LIFE.

A. D. 1836-1856.

E now enter upon the narrative of that part of

WE

Mr. Taney's life in which we shall contemplate him in the full dimensions of his greatness.

Chief-Justice Marshall died in the summer of 1835. On the succeeding 28th of December, President Jackson nominated to the Senate Mr. Taney, to fill his place in the Supreme Court. Since his nomination as Associate Justice, the political complexion of the Senate had changed. Yet the nomination was opposed with great determination. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster led the opposition. So violent were his feelings of hostility to Mr. Taney, engendered during the strife with the Bank of the United States, that Mr. Clay permitted his assaults to degenerate into scurrility. Little did he and Mr. Webster dream that the great Chief-Justice Marshall had endeavored to help Mr. Taney to sit by his side as an Associate Justice. On the 15th of March, 1836, the nomination was confirmed by a majority of fourteen

votes.

Members of the Senate and distinguished persons everywhere congratulated Mr. Taney upon his appointment. But I shall pass by all their letters of congratulation, to give place to one from James Dixon, of the Frederick bar, who, as we have seen, studied law under Mr. Taney, and was appointed by him one of his deputies when he was made Attorney-General of Maryland.

FREDERICK, MARYLAND, March 17, 1836. DEAR SIR-I have just understood that your nomination as the Chief Justice has been ratified, and I cannot but take leave to offer you my sincerest congratulations. I know you will believe me, when I say frankly that I have no selfish motive in this communication, but write simply to utter a few thoughts which I am unwilling to stifle, though to you of small value. There never lived a mortal, except my mother, for whom I have felt so much unmixed regard and friendship; yea, I may add any other word the language affords, and yet fail to express my feelingsdeep feelings -on that subject. There is no one alive to whom I feel so deep a debtor; though I have always known that you neither knew nor dreamed I was under any obligation. In a word, I never left your presence without feeling in love with virtue, and have often and often recorded the same in my diary; for I have kept one almost all my life. I am proud that you will be now the very head itself of a profession you have always loved and honored; but though fitly then, you will never receive, even in that exalted seat, a single particle more of my respect than you have

long had already. You have had my best and purest, and more I shall never attempt to offer.

Yours sincerely,

Hon. R. B. TANEY.

J. DIXON.

This letter I found among the papers of the Chief Justice. The writer is long since dead, and his diary is destroyed. I know full well that I act in harmony with the sentiments of the Chief Justice, when I present this letter from his old pupil, in this memoir, in preference to congratulations from those high in places of ambition. And, besides, it gives insight into Mr. Taney's character. It shows how he appeared to Mr. Dixon, who knew him so entirely.

It has been said, and perhaps was true, that Mr Taney was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court because of his aid to General Jackson on the bank question, and especially for the act of removing the public deposits. And it is quite certain that his great predecessor, Marshall, was appointed Chief Justice because of his defense, when a representative in Congress, of Mr. Adams's administration, in the case of Jonathan Robbins, who claimed to be an American citizen, but was delivered up to the British Government as a deserter, and was hanged at the yard-arm of a British man-of-war. The act was seized upon by the opposite party and denounced by resolutions offered in the House of Representatives; but the transcendent speech of Marshall on the floor of the House

shut their mouths. The office in each case was bestowed as a reward for political services. But the eminent fitness of each man justified his appointment on grounds of patriotism and good government. The rewards were not offered beforehand, but after great services rendered in the interests of the country. And as the great Marshall fulfilled the high trust to the uttermost, so, we shall see, did his successor. Their successive administration of justice is the noblest chapter in the history of our Government.

In order to show the services which Mr. Taney rendered to his country as Chief Justice, it is first necessary to give some account of the Court over whose deliberations he presided, and point out its functions in the working of the Federal Government.

The framers of the Constitution of the United States were men familiar with the history of nations. They had studied human society in its progress through all recorded time, in relation to Governments as they had sprung up in various forms suited to the peculiarities of different peoples. When, therefore, they were about to frame a general Government for the purpose of uniting a number of small, independent sovereign States into one body politic, their thought was some device by which questions which lead to war between States should be settled by judicial adjustment. For this purpose they gave to a Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as Congress may from

time to time ordain and establish, judicial power over all cases in law and equity arising under the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority; over all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; over all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; over controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more States; between a State and citizens of another State; between citizens of different States; between citizens of the same State claiming lands under grants of different States, citizens, or subjects.

In all cases affecting ambassadors, or other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be a party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as Congress shall make.

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trials shall be held in the State where the said crime shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may, by law, have directed. The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.