Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-05-17
From the Southern Quarterly Review
9lxatch of Chief Justice Tane1

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 March, l777 His ances-
tors were among the earliest settlers OF the
colony, and were Of the Roman Catholic faith. (
He graduated at the Dickinson College, IN
1885, studied law at Annapolis in the office
of Jeremiah Townley Chase, and being adj
mitted to the bar in 1893, returned 20 his ma
tive county to practice his profession. He
was elected 4 member of the House of Dele
gates at the age Of twenty-three and declin-
ing reelection, removed to FredercktOwn,
now the city of Frederick, where he contin- |
ued twenty-five years, until his removal 10
Baltimore. He soon earned for himself a
reputation, and was actively engaged in the
nelghborlng county courts, and in the Court Of
Appeals. In 1916, Mr.. Taney was elected
State Senator from Frederick county. and after
serving out the term Tor which he was elect
ed, lac again returned to the uninterrupted pur-
suit of his profession Removing TO Balti-
more in 1923, after the deaths Of Martin. Har-
per, Winder and Pinckney, he stood, with
William Writ the only remaining represen-
tative Of the older members Of the profess
sion, among a band Of rising lawyers who
have since shed a brilliant lustre on the Bal
timOre bar, always remarkable for learning and
ability.
At this time he was introduced to the Fo-
rum of the Supreme Court, where he encOun-
tered Webster, Writ and Emmett In 1927,
he received the appointment of Attorney
General of Maryland, from a governor and
council opposed to him in politics, al time,
too, when party feeling ran high. He enjoyed
an extensive practice in the State and Fede-
raj Courts and down TO the time Of his ap-
pointment as Attorney General of the United
States, was engaged in nearly every cause of
importance in the Maryland Court of Appeals;
and after that time, his name still stood among
the list of eminent advocates in the portant
causes which came before that tribunal In
all this practice he was distinguished for the
most profound and extensive learning
clear, -siHple aud logical style Of argument
and for the polished and modest urbanitv Of
department which marked all his intercourse
at the bar. In 1881, he came into the cabinet
of General Jackson, Attorney General
With his course in that bitter political con-
test all are familiar. His appointment as
Secretary of the Treasury WAS rejected bv the
Senate, and here ended his political life In
December, 1885, he was nominated as Chief
Justice-confirmed after violent opposition,
and thus the calm lustre of his steady intel
lectual ght was thrown solely in the more
narrow but not less useful or honorable path
way of judicial eminence. He then stood
with Marshall, among those few great Amer
leans who have been peculiar lawyers; and
happy has been the nation in possessing SO
admirable an illustration of how noble and
lofty such a course may be, though the in
stances of those who have attained celebrity
in its pursuits have been rare.
The judgments of Chief Justice fancy are
models of judicial style, and so clear and CO.
gent in their logical power, that-those even
who hesitate at the conclusions, can scarcely
see where to detect the error
Those who have been so fortunate as to
hear udge 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 pre-eminently distinguish
ed As presiding Judge. To those who have
not seen and heard him, description would be
useless.
eve may point to Judge Taney," saws the
author, "as one of our best specimens of the
American lawyer and juiist His whole life.
| from earliest manhood, has been professional
lie 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 connect
ed with his profession. The few years of his
service in the Maryland Legislature, tempo
rarily diverted his attention, but dill not en-
tirely interrupt his legal pursuits. His APP
pointment as Attorney General of the United
States introduced him merely to a wider the
atre of professional action. He came to the
bench deeply read and profoundly learned
lawyer-a master of the principles and tho.
roughly skilled in the practice of the law =
He brought with him large requirements and
the fruits of ripe experience and the result
has been, that he has sustained himself will
ability and honor as the head of the Fedora
Judiciary, and has proved himself, in the
words of Mr.. Clay, a worthy successor O
Chief Justice Marshall Long NAV he con.
Time to fill the place and to enjoy that merit
ed distinction. To one like him we may ad
dress, in no spirit of unmeaning adulation, the
words of the Roman bard lSeras IN Ceslun
releds.'"
What are the reflections naturally excited
by the consideration of the judicial career o
two such men as Marshall and fancy
What ere the sources OF that pride with which
we contemplate the Supreme Court of tn,
: United States Prominent among its glo
ries, nay, the groundwork and basis of all it
grandeur, is its perfect independence. Tn,
Judge upon that beLch has presented to hi
mind no motive for wrong actiOn-every mo
, tive for honorable and upright conduct
No mandate of usurping executive power
can reach him on that seat In the silence O
the secluded chamber at Washington, ami,
no popular masses, cut off from the iniiuenc
of section and State, the voice of clan, an,
the cutlery of excited will, dies before il reach
es his isolated position. Every prompting O
conscience, urging him 10 consult his own rea
son and sense of right, is aided and mad
strong by thu knowledge that his true fame i
the future is linked, indissolubly with wha
honor and virtue call on him to do To tn
! preservation of public virtue, and the securit
of private right, the independence of Judge
is absotely necessary.
Said Chief Justice Marshall, II have al
ways thought from my earliest youth till now
that the greatest scourge which an angry heJ
ven ever inflicted upon an ungrateful and sin
ming people, was an ignorant, corrupt, or
dependent Judiciary"
1t was thought that the great bulwark O
English liberty had been set up when th
Judges were removed from their dependenc
, on the sovereign power. In America. sove
reignty resides in the people, and if the right
of an individual subject required that a sove
reign king should not control the magistTat
who might sit in judgment on the life, liberty
and property Of that subject, so the rights q
an individual citizen require, that the .Judg
who may decide his earthly destiny, shoul'
not he governed by a sovereign majority.
Kansas.