Roger Brooke Taney. on the bench I have felt very unwilling to have my name in any way connected with a measure pending before the legislative or ex ecutive departments of the government; and have studiously abstained from doing any thing that might be construed into interfer ence on my part. I have adopted this course from the belief that it would enable me to dis charge my judicial duties more usefully to the public." He never arrogated anything to himself, and his humility was as striking as it was sincere. Born and bred a Roman Catholic, with characteristic loyalty and faith, he was ever a devout but unobtrusive worshipper in that communion. I venture to think that it would be impossible to give a better conception of the singular personal charm and dignity of this quiet, taciturn, deep thinking and deep feeling man, than by quoting here a letter which he wrote to his wife on January 7, 1852: "I cannot, my dearest wife, suffer the seventh of January to pass without renewing to you the pledges of love which I made to you on the seventh of January forty-six years ago. And although I am sensible that in that long period I have done many things that I ought not to have done, and have left undone many things that I ought to have done, yet in con stant affection to you I have never wavered —never being insensible how much I owe to you—and now pledge to you again a love as true and sincere as that I offered on the seventh of January, 1806." The early life of most lawyers is devoid of general interest. Taney's was no exception to the rule. The bald statement of facts and dates is laboriously crude, but will be here set down as succinctly as may be. There were no great public events in his early manhood which could bring out his strength or place him in a prominent posi tion or give color to his life. The heroic age of the Republic was passed. His profes sional beginnings were small and unimpor tant. His rise to the leadership of the bar of Maryland seems to have been steady and consistent. His political campaigns for the
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State Legislature do not appear to have interrupted his professional work or added to his reputation. In reality, until his entrance into Jackson's cabinet, he was only a private citizen, unknown except in his own State. Roger Brooke Taney was born on March 17, 1777, in the county of Calvert and State of Maryland. His father owned a large plantation on the banks of the Patuxent River. His earliest instruction was by an ignorant old man, who kept a school in a log-cabin about three miles from his home, whither, from want of a better, he was sent. After three years of this tuition he went to the grammar school of the county, where he began the study of Latin. In a few months, however, the teacher became insane, and the young scholar returned home to be prepared for college by a tutor. At the age of fifteen he entered Dickinson College at Carlisle, Penn sylvania. There he seems to have enjoyed the life of the small institution, and was elected the valedictorian of his class. Upon his grad uation, in the fall of 1795, he returned home to spend the winter in the joyous pursuit of hunting and the pleasant reveries created by unlimited egg-nog. The attractive picture which he gives in his autobiography of this period of his life shows the strong impres sion which it made upon him. He speaks of the hard riding in the frosty mornings, the gay conversation around the fires in the afternoons and evenings, with the discus sions of the mishaps of the day and the arrangements for the morrow, the playing of cards and the drinking. But he is careful to add that there was no drunkenness and no gambling. It was altogether an ideal life, idle, but none the less invigorating. He says of it: "It was intended, I presume, to give me a season of relaxation and amusement before I entered on the study of the law; and I liked it and enjoyed it greatly. For although my health was not robust and eggnog was very apt to give me a headache, yet, in the excitement of the morning, I forgot the fatigue of the preceding day, and
