ROGER BROOK TANEY, the late
Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was born in Calvert
County, Maryland, March 17, 1777. His ancestors immigrated into that State two
centuries ago. They were English, but of the Roman Catholic faith.
Educated at Dickinson College,
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he was admitted in 1799 to the bar. He practiced law for
a short time in his native county, from which, in 1800, he was elected a
delegate to the General Assembly. He took up his residence at Frederick in 1801,
and was elected State Senator in 1816. At the age of forty-five Mr. TANEY
removed to Baltimore, where he resided during the remainder of his life. He was
appointed Attorney-General of Maryland, holding that office for four years, at
the expiration of which term lie was appointed by President JACKSON Attorney -
General of the United States.
This, it will be remembered, was
the period when there was great political strife on the subject of a United
States Bank. Two years after his appointment, in 1833, JACKSON had determined
upon a singular measure to carry out his policy. Mr. DUANE was then Secretary of
the Treasury, and, thoroughly in favor of the Bank, was therefore opposed to the
policy of the President. Without the knowledge of his Cabinet, JACKSON
instructed DUANE to remove the public deposits from the United States Bank. The
Secretary declined to follow this instruction, and was, in accordance with
JACKSON'S usual manner, summarily deposed. TANEY was then appointed Secretary of
the Treasury, and immediately had the deposits removed. TANEY had been appointed
by the President, but as the appointment was certain to be rejected by the
Senate, it was not submitted to that body until the latest moment.
Mr. TANEY at this crisis
resigned, but within a year was appointed by the President Associate-Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States, in place of DUVALL, resigned. This
appointment also was rejected by the Senate, much to JACKSON'S chagrin. But it
was not long before Chief-Justice MARSHALL was so good as to die, and leave
vacant a still higher office in the President's gift. The Senate had been
somewhat remodeled in the interval, and when the appointment of TANEY to fill
the office vacated was submitted to that body it was duly confirmed.
Chief-Justice TANEY took his seat on the Supreme Bench in 1837, at the age of
Judge TANEY has held this high
and honorable position for twenty-seven years. During this time he has
administered the official oath at the inauguration of seven Presidents.—His
decisions have been always respected, and, with the exception of the famous Dred
Scott decision, have been subject to no animadversion.
Chief-Justice TANEY died at
Washington October 12, 1864, at the age of eighty-seven. He is buried at
Frederick, his former residence.
the Darbytown Road he was attacked in flank, but succeeded, under cover of his
guns, in drawing off his men.
An illustration on page 692
represents the PENNSYLVANIA SOLDIERS VOTING at the Head-quarters of the Army of
the James. Our soldiers do not by fighting our battles cease to be citizens, but
are even more interested than others in the maintenance of the civil
institutions for which they are ready to give up their lives. There can be no
doubt as to the loyalty and sincerity of these men.
On the same page we have another
scene at Head-quarters—viz., at the Guard-House, where deserters and rebel
prisoners are gathered together, in various attitudes and costumes, about their
wood fire. The two elderly men—one with the silk hat, and the other at his
side—are the two clerks in the Treasury Department at Richmond who were out on
picket duty, and walked accidentally into our lines. They will be among the
prisoners that General BUTLER proposes to place in Dutch Gap, in retaliation for
the ill-treatment of our colored soldiers who have been placed in labor at Fort
The sketch on page 696 represents
the scenes attending a NIGHT AFTER A BATTLE. The night is usually spent in
bringing in the dead and wounded. Sometimes this is not possible, and the
sufferings of the wounded are in such cases pitiable, ending not unfrequently in
GROUP OF CAVALRY. OFFICERS.
ON our first page we give a
sketch in which are grouped together three of our most distinguished cavalry
officers, namely, KAUTZ, MERRITT, and WILSON.
AUGUST V. KAUTZ was born in
Germany. He was appointed to the Military Academy from Ohio in 1848, and four
years afterward graduated with the rank of Brevet Second Lieutenant of Infantry.
He has performed distinguished services in many a raid during this war. Ill-luck
has sometimes attended him—as in the (Next
THE LATE CHIEF-JUSTICE ROGER B.