heard many who voted for him say they felt no great anxiety about his election; that they took him in preference to Mr. Jefferson, but should care very little if he was defeated. When we knew that such opinions prevailed extensively in the party, and the only object of the proposed measure was to secure the election of Mr. Adams, I think we were over-sanguine in looking so confidently for success.

My father and myself, as may be supposed, were sufficiently mortified at this defeat. It put an end to any prospect of immediate political elevation. And as it never had been intended that Calvert should be my permanent place of residence, there was no object to be gained by continuing there any longer. As I have said, there was not business enough in the county to make the profession of the law worth pursuing, and any hopes of political distinction must be postponed to a future day. We expected, to be sure, that the Federalists would soon recover their lost power in the county and the State. But I was not willing (nor did he wish that I should) to remain there another year, doing nothing to advance me in my profession, but wasting my time in small contests for county ascendency.

As I was not in public life, it was desirable that I should at once select a place for my permanent residence and the pursuit of my profession. We had many consultations upon the subject. He suggested Baltimore. But I had scarcely any personal acquaint

ances there, and I feared I should be lost in a large city, without any friends to give me an opportunity of coming forward. I therefore proposed Frederick. My inducement for selecting Frederick was that, next to Annapolis and Baltimore, it was, with a view to profit, the best point of practice in the State. The two lawyers who had been for years at the head of the profession in that place were John Thomson Mason and Arthur Shaaff. The former had recently retired from practice, and the latter removed to Annapolis; and the bar was a young one, most of the members being but a few years older than myself. Besides, I had at Annapolis formed friendships with some young men near my own age who resided in Frederick. And I felt that I should not there be as lonely and without friends, on my first arrival, as I should have been in Baltimore.

My father yielded to these considerations, and in March, 1801, I took up my residence there, and appeared in Court and made my first speech. It was a volunteer speech: Mr. Shaaff, who still practised in Frederick, having invited me to take part in one of his cases, in order to give me an opportunity of appearing before the public.

Thus far Mr. Taney wrote his own life, but no farther.

CHAPTER II.

LIFE IN FREDERICK.

A. D. 1801-1823.

REDERICK, now usually called Frederick City,

FRE

the seat of justice in Frederick County, and contained, at that time, about three thousand inhabitants. It is situated in a valley remarkable for fertility, salubrity, and picturesque scenery. On the east, at a distance of eight miles, the Linganore hills, with their gentle slopes, are seen stretching from north to south. On the west, at a distance of three miles, is the Catoctin Mountain, with its woody sides and undulating summits, running parallel with the Linganore hills. At the north, the valley seems closed by the converging mountain and hills, and at the south stands the Sugar Loaf Mountain, with its solitary summit in the blue distance. Not many miles from the town, in all directions, were fine country-seats, owned and occupied by wealthy farmers. The society of the town and the neighborhood was intellectual, refined, and hospitable.

The business of the place was, for that early period, very considerable. During the Revolutionary War, there sprang up in the neighborhood a variety of

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manufactures. Even powder and cannon were manufactured there. In the town, and throughout the county, there were tanneries and flour-mills. The manufacture of hats and shoes, and saddles and harness, and carriages, wagons, ploughs, and all kinds of farming-implements, constituted a large business in the town. Coopering of casks and barrels was also a profitable employment. There were also in the neighborhood a manufactory of glass, and works for smelting and casting iron. Here and there throughout the county were distilleries for making whiskey and fattening hogs. Horses and cattle of all kinds were raised for sale. Books, as well as newspapers, were printed in the town. So, too, there were looms for weaving coarse cloths, and potteries for making earthenware. Dry-good stores, groceries, and hardware stores abounded; and banks and money-lenders gave life to business. As Frederick was situated on the Cumberland Road, the great highway from Baltimore and Washington to the West, it was always enlivened by stage-coaches and by wagons, and the entry and exit of travellers. During the early history of the State, and until 1776, Frederick County embraced what are now Montgomery and Washington and Alleghany Counties, and a part of Carroll; and Frederick was the county town. It continued to be the great western town of the State. Not only were lawyers attracted to it, but also physicians who had

received a European education. Among the lawyers who resided there at the time, and for many years previous, was Thomas Johnson-on whose nomination, the 15th of June, 1775, as a delegate from Maryland to the Continental Congress, General Washington was chosen commander-in-chief of the American forces; and who was the first Governor of Maryland after the Declaration of Independence; and to whom President Washington offered, first a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, which was accepted, but was resigned after a service of two years, and afterwards, the Secretaryship of State, which was declined. He stood in the first rank of Maryland lawyers, but was now retired from practice. Being born in the same county with Mr. Taney, and an intimate friend of his father, he often went to his office. and advised him in matters of his profession, and talked of the men and events of the Revolution. His conversations made so much impression on the mind of Mr. Taney that often, in the last years of his life, he narrated some of them to me, in regard to the men of that period, especially Mr. Madison.

Such was the professional field where Mr. Taney now appeared. In the transactions of such various business as I have described, there was much need of the aid of lawyers for direction, as well as conducting lawsuits that inevitably arise out of the disputes of business. And as at that early day the boundaries