Chief Justice Taney — A Sketch and a Criticism. 

 By Isaac Edwards, Esq. 



[Read before the Albany Institute, January 7, 1873.] 



The recent publication of a memoir of Chief Justice 

 Taney, naturally attracts attention. I do not propose a 

 review of that work. My purpose is rather to draw atten- 

 tion to the true features and characteristics of a distin- 

 guished man, in a candid and truth loving spirit. 



There are some characters, in history, apparently con- 

 demned by destiny to fight in a lost cause. The stars in 

 their courses fight against them. The Emperor Julian, 

 nicknamed the apostate (and rechristened the apostle by 

 an erudite Lord Chief Justice of England), is a conspicuous 

 representative of the ill-starred company; a unique figure 

 in history, with genius aud virtues that qualify him to 

 shine as the ruler of an empire, he stands condemned and 

 stained by an epithet of infamy, because he strove to re- 

 store the fading glories of pagan Rome, and entered into 

 controversy with a new and subtle power, which had the 

 promise of the future, arid was already growing into the 

 empire of mind. He could conquer the open enemies of 

 Rome, but he could not extinguish the Christian faith. 

 With all his power and enthusiasm for the old pagan faith, 

 he could not bring back the worship of Jupiter and Mi- 

 nerva. All that battle, therefore, with infinite skill and 

 pious fraud and smoking altars, was delivered in a lost 

 cause. 



Roger Brooke Taney, was born on the 17th of March, 

 1777, in Calvert county, Maryland. He was the third child 

 and second son in a family of seven children. His ances- 



