Wichita eagle., 1888-03-31
A DEMOCRATIC CEIEF-JUSTICE.

! Indianapolis Journal.
The prospect of Democratic chief
| justice recalls tie last one, Roger b.
! fancy, whose term extended from 1888,
| till his death in 1864. fancy was Mary
| land Democrat of the old school. Nat
urally narrow minded he was by instinct
and training partisan. He was an
acute lawyer and during his long term
of service made high reputation as a
| judge, but he was not great Jurist IN
! the broad sense of the term He earned
his appointment as chief-iustice by his
political adherence to- President Jackson.
and especially by his services as a mem
Der of JacksOns cabinet. He was an
ardent supporter Of Jackson III the latter S
controversy with the United States
bank, and as secretary of the treasury he
ordered the removal of the government
deposits from that institution, thus has
tening its downfall. Taney's appoint
ment as secretary Of the treasury was
rejected by the senate, but he had already
done the principal work for which he
was appointed. He was then nominated
as justice of the supreme court and was
again rejected by the senate. In 1887,
on the death of Chief Justice Marshall,
Justice, and the senate, being then DEM
ocratic, confirmed him. Judge Taney's
name is inseparably connected in his
tory with the famous or infamous bred
Scott decision, in which he went out of
his way to place the colored race
under a ban of constitutional
disability. The case arose under the fug-
tive slave law, and was intended to test
IA e h..
act and the laws enforcing it. The de-
cision OF the court. pronounced by Chief
Justice fancy. swept away every yestige
of legal right and every chance of liberty
for the negro. The decision declared
that for more than a century prior to the
Declaration Of independence, negroes.
whether slave or free, had been regarded
las beings of an inferior order. and alto
gether unfit 10 associate with the white
race, either in social or political relations.
and SO far inferior that they had no
rights which the white man was bound
to respect" Elsewhere thew were
referred TO as "a subordinate and
inferior class of beings, who
had been subiugated by the dominant
race" as ''never thought of or spoken
OF except as property, and SO on for
quantity. In the night OF modern history
this sounds strangely, but it was good
Democratic doctrine as expounded bv
the last Democratic chief justice in the
year of our Lord, 1851 The mills of
God were then grinding and Chief JUS
tice fancy lived to see some things
ground exceedingly small, among others
the bred Scott decision. At that time
the supreme court was decidedly parti-
san, eight of the nine judges having
been selected from the ranks of the
Democratic party, and most of them
for partisan reasons. The bred Scott de-
cision, which was intended to aid and
strengthen slavery, was one of the things
that contributed to its ultimate extinc
ton. Judge Taney's attempt to arrest
the rising tide of public opinion and turn
back the moral sentiment of the nation
was as futile as Mrs. Partington's effort
to sweep the Atlantic ocean out Of her
back yard. However, the world has
moved since then, and even the Demo-
cratic party has learned something.
though it has not yet got rid of negro
phobia.