Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-05-22
From the Southern Quarterly Review,
sketch OF Chief Justice fancy.


Roger Brooke fancy is native of Calvert
county, in the State of Maryland, and was born
on the 18th OF March, HIT. His ancestors were
among the earliest settlers of the colony, and
were of the Roman Catholic faith He graduated
at the Dickinson College, in 795;.studied law al
Annapolis, in the office OF Jeremiah Townley
Chase, and being admitted to the bar in 1893, re-
turned to his native county to practice his pro-
fession. He was elected a member of the House
of Delegates at the age of twenty three, and de-
Ginning reelection, removed TO Fredericktown,
now the city of Frederick, where he Continued
twenty-five years, until his removal TO Baltimore.
He soon earned for himself reputation, and was
actively engaged in the neghboring county courts,
and in the court of appeals. In 1916, Mr.. fancy
was elected a State senator from Frederick county,
and after serving out the term for which he was
elected, he again returned to the uninterrupted
pursuit Of his profession. Removing to Baltimore
in 1923, after the deaths of Martin, Harper,
Winder, and Pinckney, he STOOD with William
Writ, the only remaining representative Of the
older members of the profession, among band of
rising lawyers who have since shed brilliant.
lustre on the Baltimore bar, always remarkable
for learning and ability.
At this time he was introduced TO the Forum
of the Supreme Court, where he encountered
Webster, Writ, and Emmett. In 1897 he re-
ceived the appointment of Attorney General of
Maryland, from governor and council opposed
to him III politics, at a time, too, when party
feeling ran high. He enjoyed an extensive prac-
tice in the State and Federal courts, and down To
the time OF his appointment as Attorney General
of the United States, was engaged in nearly every
cause of Importance in the Maryland court of APP
peals; and after that time, his name still stood
among the list of eminent advocates in the i'm
portant causes which came before that tribunal.
In all this practice he was distinguished for the
most profound and extensive learning=-a clear,
simple, and logical style of argument and for the
which marked all his intercourse at the bar. In
1881, he came into the cabinet of General Jack
son, as Attorney General. With his course in
that bitter political contest all are familiar. His
appointment as Secretary of the Treasury was re-
iected by the Senate, and here ended his political
life. In December, 1895, he was nominated rs
Chief Justice-confrmed after violent opposi-
ton, and thus the calm lustre of his steady intel
lectual light was thrown solely in the more mar
row but not less useful or honorable pathway of
judicial eminence. He then stood with Marshall,
among those few great Americans who have been
peculiar lawyers; and happy has been the nation
in possessing admirable an illustration of how
noble and lofty such course may be, though the
instances of those who have attained celebrity in
its pursuits have been rare.
The judgments of Chief Justice fancy are
models of judicial style, land SO clear and cogent
in their logical power, that those even who hest
tate at the conclusions, can scarcely where TO
detect the error.
Those who have been so fortunate as to hear
Judge fancy from the BENCH are well acquainted
with that inimitable manner, that patient, never
varying attention, that instant appreciation of an
idea or argument, that combination of admirable
qualities which unite to make him -emnenty
distinguished presiding judge. To those who
have not seen and heard him, description would
be useless.
"We may point to Judge Taney," says the
author, Gas one of our best specimens of the
American lawyer and jurst His whole life, from
earliest manhood, has been professional. He is
one of the few really eminent men of the country
who have scarcely any political history with the
single exception of the brief period during which
he filled the office of Secretary of the Treasury in
the cabinet of General Jackson, he has never, at
any time, entirely withdrawn from the studies
connected with his profession. The few years Of
his service in the Maryland Legislature, tempo
rarily diverted his attention, but did not entirely
interrupt his legal pursuits. His appointment
Attorney General of the United States introduced
him merely to a wider theatre of professional ac-
ton. He came to the bench deeply read and
profoundly learned lawyer master Of the prin-
cples and thoroughly skilled in the practice Of
the law. lie brought with him large acquire
ments and the fruits of ripe experience, and the
result has been, that he has sustained himself
with ability and honor the head of the Federal
Judiciary, and has proved himself, in the words
of Mr.. Clay, worthy successor of Chief Justice
ividrsHaI.t Long may he commune To MI the
place and enjoy that merited distinction. To one
like him we may address, in no spirit of nmean-
ing adulation, the words of the Roman bard.
'Selus in CGLuni rcdeas.'"
What are the reflections naturally excited by
the consideration of the judicial career of two
such men as Marshall and Taneyi What are the
sources of that pride with which we contemplate
the Supreme Court of the United States; Prom
inent among its glories, nay, the groundwork
and basis OF all its grandeur, is its perfect indie
pendence. The Judge upon that bench has pre-
sented TO his mind no motive for wrong action
every motive for honorable and upright conduct.
No mandate of usurping Executive power can
reach him on that seat. in the silence of the SC
cluded chamber at Washington, amid the popu-
lar masses, cut off from the influence of section
and State, the voice of clan, and the cutlery Of
excited WILL dies before il reaches his isolated po
sition. Every prompting of conscience, urging
him to consult his own reason and sense Of right,
is aided and made strong by the knowledge that
his true fame in the future is linked, indissolubly,
with what honor and virtue call on him to do.
To the preservation Of public virtue, and the
curty of private right the independence Of judges
is absolutely necessary.
Said Chief Justice Marshall: 81 have always
thought from my earliest youth till now, that the
greatest scourge which an angry Heaven ever in
ficted upon an ungrateful and SHINING people,
was an ignorant, corrupt, or dependent judi
GARY"
II was thought that the great bulwark Of Eng
lsh liberty had been set up, when the Judges
were removed from their dependence on the SOW
ereign power. In America, sovereignty resides
in the people, and IL the rights of an individual
subject required that sovereign king should not
control the magistrate who might sit in judgment
on the life, liberty, and property Of that subject,
so the rights of an individual citizen require, that
the Judge who may decide his earthly destiny
should not he governed by sovereign majority.
Authorship.
American authors are not SO poor as they have
been thought TO be; nor does il by any means APP
pear that American authorship is not a rcmune-
rative profession, If such IL may be called. r.
ving-the genial, quaint, and numerous Irving
lives cozily in "Wolfert's Roost" on the noble
Hudson, and possesses fortune from his wri-
tngs. Cooper also derived large fortune from
his books, which now yields more than ample
support for his family. Bancroft possesses an
ample fortune, great portion of which be rea-
lized from the sale Of his History Of the United