28 The Late Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. 



great Chief Justice Marshall died in the summer, and the 

 president, in December, nominated Roger B. Taney to fill 

 his place. The majority in the senate had passed over to 

 the side of the administration, and in March, 1836, the 

 nomination was confirmed. The boy that had walked home 

 from college, eighty miles in two days, was now chief 

 justice of the United States. 



We have had a good many presidents ; only a few chief 

 justices. John Jay, an honored namein the history of New 

 York, held the office till 1794, when he was sent minister 

 to England. 



John Rutledge, of South Carolina, was then appointed, 

 and held the office one term ; his appointment was not 

 confirmed. 



Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, succeeded, and held 

 the office till J 99, when he was sent minister to France, as 

 Jay had been sent to England. In January, 1801, John 

 Marshall, of Virginia, was nominated to the office, and 

 unanimously confirmed. It is worthy of notice that these 

 four men were federalists, that they were not men of ex- 

 treme opinions, but men of large experience and great 

 natural capacity. The fifth in the line was educated in 

 the same school of politics. Not until the great rebellion 

 had been well nigh conquered, not until 1864, was that 

 high office filled by a man, Salmon P. Chase, educated in 

 the political faith of Thomas Jefferson. 



For many years Chief Justice Taney administered the 

 law, and discharged the duties of his office, with great 

 satisfaction to the country. It was thought by some that 

 he showed a leaning towards the doctrine of State Rights, 

 a tendency to limit the powers of the general government 

 to the strict letter of the constitution. He certainly showed 

 no disposition to enlarge the jurisdiction of that great 

 court over which he presided ; an excellent virtue this, in 

 the judge of a court constituted like that; the more ex- 



