Roger B. Taney. has been said that in conducting a cause before a court and jury he had few equals. On his removal to Baltimore, where there were many well known and brilliant lawyers, his ability soon placed him at the head of the Monumental City Bar. In 1827 Mr. Taney was appointed Attorney-General of Maryland, the only office he ever expressed any desire to hold. General Jackson, soon after his election to the Presidency, in consultation with his friends, was told by one of them, " Roger B. Taney, now leader of the Maryland Bar, is suited for Attorney-General." Although personally unacquainted, General Jackson knew that Mr. Taney was a man firm of purpose, and strongly in sympathy with his views. Mr. Francis Scott Key, knowing Mr. Taney's great aversion to political life, wrote to him, insisting upon his acceptance, as it would be a great gratification not only to General Jackson, but to his many friends. Mr. Taney's services in supporting the President's measures proved that he was a man after his own heart. General Jackson had determined to remove the Government deposits from the United States Bank. Mr. Duane, Secretary of the Treasury, who at the last moment withdrew his support from the President, was dismissed, and Mr. Taney appointed in his place. Mr. Taney's knowledge of finance and banking was thorough, his judgment sound, and his principles incorruptible. Mr. Taney's opin ion was that the United States Bank had become, in the hands of a few unscrupulous men, a political machine. The deposits were removed by Mr. Taney on the 1st of October, 1833. The Senate called upon the Secretary for a report of the financial condi tion of the Treasury, hoping to show that the Government would be without sufficient revenue, and that the President would be compelled to restore the deposits, and con tinue the bank. Mr. Taney's report was a crushing defeat for the Senate, as it showed an increased revenue in every branch of the
363
Government; vindicating his administration of the Treasury Department. Upon his retirement by the Senate he was congratulated by the friends of the President all over the country. Baltimore gave him a grand ovation : a barouche drawn by four white horses and escorted by a troop of several hundred horsemen conveyed him to his home. A dinner was given him a few days later, to which Martin Van Buren asked the favor of sending the following sen timent: " R. B. Taney, — He has, in his last, best, brilliant official career, passed through the severest ordeal to which a pub lic officer can be subjected, and he has come out of it with imperishable claims upon the favor and confidence of his country." Public dinners were everywhere tendered him. Primary meetings were held over the whole country at which resolutions were passed endorsing his wise policy. In Janu ary, 1836, he was invited to a dinner given in Cincinnati to celebrate the expiration of the United States Bank charter. So nice was Mr. Taney's sense of honor that he refused, while Secretary of the Treas ury, to accept two small boxes of fine cigars, sent to him by some unknown friend, and retained them unopened until he learned that they had been sent by a gentleman in the New York Custom-House, to whom, in a letter of thanks for his kind intentions, Mr. Taney enclosed the price of the cigars. He had made it a rule of his life that a public officer should accept no present, however trifling. On the death of Chief-Justice Marshall in 1835, President Jackson, entertaining the highest opinion of Mr. Taney's great ability, nominated him to fill the vacancy, and al though violently opposed by Clay and Web ster, the Senate ratified the nomination by a majority of fourteen. Mr. Taney's reputa tion as a great judge soon reversed the feelings of his old political enemies; they were now his greatest admirers. Mr. Clay, in the presence of Mr. Reverdy Johnson,
