ROGER B. TANEY.

To the stranger who for the first time visits the Capitol at Washington, there is no more interesting or attractive place of resort than the hall where are held the sessions of the Supreme Court of the United States. It is situated on the ground-floor of the building, in the story below that which contains the chambers where the two branches of the National Legislature assemble. The approach to it, through the main part of the Capitol, is by no means inviting. It is from the dark, damp, cellar-like, circular enclosure immediately under the rotunda, where groups of colossal columns are thickly clustered together for the support of the dome above, conveying to the mind the sole idea of solid, massive, Egyptian-like architectural strength. A hall leading from this enclosure to the south entrance of the Capitol conducts to the Supreme Court room, an apartment of moderate size, which, though neat, is perfectly plain in appearance, and simple in its decorations and furniture. This apartment is lighted by windows immediately behind the seats of the judges-the bar and the audience sitting in front. The consequence of this arrangement is, that so far as the audience is concerned the light is defective, and it is often difficult, and in a dark day impossible, for those sitting immediately in front, to distinguish the features of the members of the Court after they have taken their seats.

If the visitor desires to see the Court in session, he has but to take his seat and wait patiently until the appearance of the Judges. He will ordinarily observe some few members of the bar, other than the counsel engaged in the cause under argument, sauntering in, and taking their seats, and occasionally strangers or other visitors attracted

by interest or curiosity; unless, indeed, some advocate of distinguished reputation is to address the Court, or some cause of more than usual interest is to be called, in which case the Court room is quickly filled, and often by an imposing and brilliant audience of ladies. It may be perhaps a few minutes after the appointed hour of meeting, when, without any flourish of parade, or announcement, the Judges. enter in their black silk gowns, in procession, ranked according to the dates of their respective commissions. At the head of the procession you observe a tall, thin man, slightly bent with the weight of years, of pale complexion, and features somewhat attenuated and careworn, but lighted up by that benignant expression which is indicative at once of a gentle temper and a kindly heart. With a firm and steady step, by no means indicating the years which have actually rolled over his head, he approaches to take his seat. His brothers and associates range themselves on either hand, according to their rank, determined by the date of their respective appointments. Immediately on the right Mr. Justice MCLEAN of Ohio, the oldest Judge in commission on the bench, takes his seat; Mr. Justice WAYNE of Georgia on the left; and so alternately on the right and left Mr. Justice CATRON of Tennessee, and Mr. Justice DANIEL of Virginia, Mr. Justice NELSON of New York, and Mr. Justice GRIER of Pennsylvania, Mr. Justice CURTIS of Massachusetts, and Mr. Justice CAMPBELL of Alabama. Presently the crier will open the Court with that quaint and half ludicrous old formula, which has come down to us from the earliest times, commencing, "O yes-O yes," and ending, "God save the United States and this honorable Court !" The Court is now in session and you are in the presence of one of the three co-ordinate branches of the Federal government.

If it be a cloudy day, you will not be able to distinguish, beneath the dark mass of hair which overhangs the forehead of the tall, thin, venerable old man who has just taken his seat in the midst of that group of Judges, anything more than the mere outlines of his features; but you will presently hear his voice, in the blandest and most affable of tones: "The Court is ready to hear you, Mr AttorneyGeneral," whereupon the argument of the case at bar immediately proceeds.

The person who has spoken these words is MR. CHIEF-JUSTICE Taney,

of whose life and judicial career I am now to attempt a sketch. He is just seventy-seven years of age,* and though not in the enjoyment of robust health, as his countenance indicates, yet he continues in the full possession of his vigorous intellectual faculties. The present session completes the eighteenth year of his service on the bench of the tribunal over which he presides, and to which he was appointed as the successor of Chief-Justice Marshall.

ROGER BROOKE TANEY is a native of Maryland, and was born in Calvert County, in that State, on the 17th day of March, 1777. His ancestors, both on the father's and mother's side, were among the earliest settlers of Maryland, having emigrated from England to that colony in Cromwell's time. The name of Taney is of Welsh, or at least of aboriginal British origin, and though not common in England at the present day, is, I am informed, still known there.† The paternal ancestor of Mr. Taney, who came to Maryland about the year 1656, was of the Catholic faith. Like the Puritans of England in the time of Charles I., he sought repose and liberty of conscience in the wilds of the new world; for the otherwise liberal policy of the Protector, in matters of religions worship and faith, did not embrace the Catholic, and indeed scarcely included the prelatist, within the pale of toleration. While the government of Charles I. drove the Puritan to the shores of New England, that of Cromwell forced the Catholic into the wilderness of Maryland, and thus America became peopled with the bone and sinew of the English nation. The descendants of this gentleman for several generations, Catholics like himself, experienced, even in their secluded retreat in Calvert County, where they tilled the soil in peace with all men, those civil disabilities, and political disfranchisements, which the intolerant legislation of the mother country fastened upon a proscribed church. The Maryland Convention in 1776, however, by its Constitution and Bill of Rights, abolished these arbitrary distinctions, and established full and absolute cquality of citizenship and privilege for all religious denominations. Subsequent to this period the father of the present Chief-Justice was repeatedly

* March, 1854.

† Its orthography there seems to have corresponded more closely with its pronunciation. The case of Tawney vs. Crowther may be found in 4th Brown's Chancery Cases.

elected to represent his native country in the Maryland House of Delegates.

On the mother's side Chief-Justice Taney is descended from Dr. Roger Mainwaring, Bishop of St. David's, in the time of Charles I., a gentleman of a noble family from Cheshire. The Bishop of St. David's was the friend of Archbishop Laud, and owed his preferment in the church to the good offices of that celebrated but unfortunate prelate. His second daughter, Mary, intermarried with Robert Brooke, Esquire, a gentleman of good family in Sussex, and one of the issue of this marriage was Roger Brooke, the lineal ancestor of the ChiefJustice, from whom his Christian names are derived. The family came to America in 1650, and settled in Calvert County, where the paternal ancestors of the Chief-Justice, after their arrival, also resided.*

ROGER BROOKE TANEY was born in Calvert county in the State of Maryland, on the 17th March, 1777. He was educated at Dickinson College, Carlisle, in the State of Pennsylvania, of which Institution he became a student in the spring of 1792. The College was then under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Nesbitt, a Scotch Presbyterian divine, celebrated for his wit and classical attainments. Taney continued a member of this institution three years, and was graduated in the year 1795. He commenced the study of the law in the spring of the following year at Annapolis, where the principal courts of Maryland were then held, in the office of Jeremiah Townley Chase, who two years before had been appointed Chief-Judge of the General Court of Maryland. The bar of this Court, at that time, was ornamented with a brilliant constellation of professional talent, which might compare favorably with that of any other State in the Union. The advantage of mingling with his older professional brethren, and of witnessing their efforts, was not without its influence on the mind of the young student, and excited in his breast a warm and eager

* Robert Brooke, who came to America in 1650, was the first who seated Patux ent, about twenty miles up the river, at Delabrooke. Soon after his arrival Lord Baltimore appointed him Commander of Charles County, and when the govern ment of Cromwell became established in 1652, he was chosen by the Commissioners for reducing the Plantations, Governor of Maryland. About the same time he removed to the opposite side of the river Patuxent, and dying on the 20th July, 1663, was buried at his seat, Brooke Place Manor, in Calvert County, Maryland.

spirit of professional emulation. During this period, too, he laid the foundation of those solid professional attainments, and acquired those habits of industry and patient investigation which contributed so largely to his subsequent eminent success.

In the spring of 1799, three years after he commenced the study of the law, he was admitted to the bar, and immediately returned to his native county of Calvert to enter upon the practice of his profession. Almost before he had made his débût at the bar, however, he was called into political life, being elected in the autumn of the same year a delegate to the General Assembly of Maryland. Mr. Taney was then scarcely twenty-three years of age and the youngest member of the House of Delegates; yet it is said, that amid the stormy debates which occurred in that body, consequent upon the unprecedented popular excitement growing out of the canvass between Adams and Jefferson for the presidency, he displayed an intrepidity of character and an uprightness of motive which gained for him the admiration of his cotemporaries. He was in the house of delegates at the time the announcement of the death of Washington was made to that body, and well remembers the impressive scene. As Charles Carroll of Carrollton, and John Eager Howard, the Committee from the Senate, entered the hall of the House to make the announcement, the members received them standing and in respectful silence; and as Mr. Carroll communicated the afflicting intelligence, the tears streamed down his cheeks, while many an eye around him was also filled in sympathetic sorrow. It was a moment when the voice of faction was hushed, and the din of political strife melted away into profound and reverential silence; for all could unite in heartfelt homage to the memory of the illustrious dead.

Mr. Taney declined a reelection to the Maryland legislature, with the view of applying himself more closely to the practice of his profession. The following year he removed to Fredericktown, in the county of Frederick, that being regarded as a more eligible and extended field for the pursuit of his professional avocations. Here he remained in the practice of the law with a constantly increasing success and growing reputation, until his removal to Baltimore, a period of twenty-two years. When he entered upon it the scene was entirely new to him. He was comparatively a stran