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 Roger Brooke Taney

167

Curtis tells us that his opinions would

In this hour of trial, but not of hu militation, as alone and unaided he steered his course true to the oath and duties of his oﬁce and the noblest tra ditions of his profession, it was not

his associates an opportunity to express

granted to him to foresee that less than six years would pass when the Supreme

their views. If the test of a judge, as Curtis wrote to Story, is his work at m'si pn'us,

Courts of Wisconsin, Indiana and New York,24 and the Supreme Court of the United States in Ex parte Milligan,25 by their decisions would reaﬁirrn the prin

Taney there united in marked degree the

have been more numerous notwithstand

ing his semi-invalidism, but being ab solutely free from vanity, he gave all

two most essential judicial qualities, an earnest desire to arrive at a just conclu

ciples he unfalteringly had laid down,

sion, with inﬂexible courage to inforce it. Of the home life of the Chief Justice,

and like him interpose the bulwark of the law, to the end that no citizen of a state not in insurrection and who

and of his friendships much might be said, but the time already taken to bring out important matters without which

was not in military service, should be despoiled of his freedom, or deprived

his entire career cannot be understood or appreciated forbids any extended re view. The death of his wife in 1855,

of his life, except by the judgment of his peers and the law of the land. The long day's work was done. This was his last important decision. The careers of lawyers and judges, however eminent, leave but a ﬂeeting im pression upon the popular mind and memory. A few names may linger,

Webster, Choate and Pinckney, Marshall, Kent and Story still recur in the thought of the people, as connected with the

history of the administration of the law. But with the exception of Kent and Story each of them had entered largely into the political life of their times, while these two by their Commentaries have achieved an enduring place in legal literature. If within this group the name of Taney may be appropri ately included, we must turn to the re ports for the summing up of his judicial

labor. In the twenty-eight years of service he wrote about three hundred

to whom he was tenderly attached, was

the great sorrow of his life.

She died

when he had begun to write his auto

biography, and the affliction so aﬂected him that he never resumed the work. A devout Christian and a regular com municant of his church, his sympathies were broad, and his personal friends were drawn from all ranks and conditions

of men. To the last he was accustomed to talk about the aﬁairs of the day with keen interest and large insight. The man who by his personal qualities had gained and kept the aﬁection of his as sociates, however much some of them

diﬂered from him on constitutional questions, and the esteem of the leaders

of the bar of the United States, and the good will of the humblest person with whom he came in close personal touch, must have possessed, as all his contem

poraries unite in saying that he did,

opinions, of which it is a pleasure to say only seven were dissents. He diﬁered in but twenty-six cases from the judg ment of the court, and in these, two or

which made him “in social life. . . at tractive as he was instructive and emi nent in professional life.” His dis

three of his associates concurred. Judge

tinguished and strenuous career closed

M In re Kemp. 16 Wis. 360; Gn'ﬁin v. Wilcox, 21 Ind. 370: People v. Gaul, 44 Barbour 98. u 4 Wall. 2-142.

Oct. 12, 1864, in the eighty-eighth year of his age.

traits of character, with a disposition,