# Roger B. Taney *American lawyer and politician; fifth chief justice of the United States (1836–1864)* Roger Brooke Taney (March 17, 1777 – October 12, 1864), a lawyer and politician, was the fifth chief justice of the United States. He held the office from 1836 until he died in 1864.[^1] Earlier, under President Andrew Jackson, he was U.S. attorney general. From 1833 he was secretary of the treasury by recess appointment, but the [[United States Senate]] rejected his nomination to that post.[^1] Taney came from a wealthy, slave-owning family in Calvert County, Maryland. He sat in the Maryland House of Delegates and, from 1816, the Maryland Senate. He became the state's attorney general in 1827 and then joined Jackson's [[Democratic Party (United States)]].[^1] He is chiefly remembered as the author of the majority opinion in *Dred Scott v. Sandford* (1857). That ruling held that African Americans could not be counted as U.S. citizens and that Congress lacked power to bar slavery from the federal territories.[^1] The ruling angered many Northerners and strengthened the anti-slavery [[Republican Party (United States)]]. The party's nominee, [[Abraham Lincoln]], won the presidency in 1860.[^1] ## Early life and career Taney's parents were Michael Taney V. and Monica Brooke Taney, and he was born on March 17, 1777, in Calvert County, Maryland.[^2] His ancestor Michael Taney I had come to Maryland from England in 1660. The family became prominent Catholic landowners, and their tobacco plantation ran on slave labor.[^2] His older brother was expected to inherit the plantation, so his father encouraged Roger toward law.[^2] He was sent to Dickinson College at fifteen and graduated in 1796. He then read law under Judge Jeremiah Townley Chase in Annapolis and entered the Maryland bar in 1799.[^2] The American Philosophical Society elected him a member in 1844.[^2] ## Marriage and family His wife, Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, was a sister of Francis Scott Key. The couple had six daughters, who were brought up in Anne's Episcopal Church while Taney stayed Catholic.[^3] The family kept a permanent home in Baltimore, and Taney rented an apartment during his federal service. After Anne's death in 1855, Taney and two unmarried daughters settled permanently in Washington, D.C.[^3] ## Early political career Once admitted to the bar, Taney practiced law in Frederick, Maryland. At his father's urging he ran as a Federalist for the Maryland House of Delegates and won, but he lost his bid for a second term.[^4] He left the Federalists over his support for the War of 1812. In 1816 he was elected to a five-year term in the Maryland State Senate.[^4] He moved his practice to Baltimore in 1823. In 1826 he and Daniel Webster represented the merchant Solomon Etting in a case before the [[Supreme Court of the United States]].[^4] In 1827 he was appointed Attorney General of Maryland.[^4] He backed Jackson in the 1824 and 1828 presidential elections, joined Jackson's Democratic Party, and helped lead Jackson's 1828 campaign in Maryland.[^4] According to the source, Taney considered slavery an evil practice. He freed the slaves he inherited from his father and, for as long as they lived, paid monthly pensions to the older ones who could not work.[^4] He also held that slavery should be resolved gradually and mainly by the states where it existed, and he blamed abolitionists for "ripping the country apart".[^4] In 1819 he defended Jacob Gruber, an abolitionist Methodist minister arrested for criticizing slavery. Gruber was charged with attempting to stir up "acts of mutiny and rebellion".[^4] ## Jackson administration After the Petticoat Affair, Jackson in 1831 asked most of his cabinet to resign, including Attorney General John M. Berrien. He chose Taney to fill Berrien's place.[^5] In one advisory opinion to the president, Taney argued that the Constitution's protections did not extend to free blacks, a question he returned to later in his career.[^5] While attorney general he kept a private practice and acted as counsel for the city of Baltimore in *Barron v. Baltimore*.[^5] The Bank War was Jackson's clash with the Second Bank of the United States. Unlike other cabinet members, Taney argued that the bank was unconstitutional and urged Jackson to seek its abolition.[^5] With his backing, Jackson vetoed a bill renewing the bank's charter, which was due to expire in 1836. The bank was the central issue of the 1832 election, in which Jackson defeated Henry Clay.[^5] Treasury Secretary William J. Duane refused to authorize removing federal deposits from the bank. Jackson dismissed him and gave Taney a recess appointment as secretary of the treasury, beginning in 1833.[^5] The Senate rejected the nomination.[^1] ## Taney Court In 1835, after Democrats took control of the Senate, Jackson named Taney to succeed the late [[John Marshall]] as chief justice. Taney was the first Catholic to sit on the Supreme Court.[^1] Many Whigs regarded him as a "political hack". Jackson appointees formed a majority of the Court, although Marshall's ally, Associate Justice [[Joseph Story]], remained.[^6] The source states that Taney presided over a shift toward states' rights, but that his Court did not reject broad federal authority as far as many Whigs had feared.[^6] One of the Court's first major cases was *Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge*. The Massachusetts [[Legislature]] had chartered a company in 1785 to build the Charles River Bridge.[^6] In 1828 it chartered a second company to build the Warren Bridge about 100 yards away. The first bridge's owners sued, claiming their charter gave them a monopoly.[^6] Daniel Webster argued for the Charles River Bridge. Simon Greenleaf, for Massachusetts, contended that the charter granted no explicit monopoly.[^6] By the early 1850s Taney was widely respected, and some elected officials looked to the Supreme Court to settle the national debate over slavery.[^1] The *Dred Scott* decision followed in 1857.[^1] ## Death Taney died on October 12, 1864, aged 87. That was the same day Maryland passed an amendment abolishing slavery.[^7] He served as chief justice for 28 years and 198 days, the second-longest tenure of any chief justice, and he was the oldest chief justice ever to serve.[^7] He administered the presidential oath of office to seven incoming presidents. His estate consisted of a $10,000 life insurance policy and worthless bonds from Virginia.[^7] Lincoln issued no public statement on the death. He attended the memorial service in Washington with three cabinet members: Secretary of State William H. Seward, Attorney General Edward Bates and Postmaster General William Dennison.[^7] Only Bates joined the cortège to Frederick, Maryland, for burial at St. John the Evangelist Cemetery.[^7] After his re-election, Lincoln appointed [[Salmon P. Chase]], an anti-slavery Republican from Ohio, to succeed Taney.[^7] ## Legacy Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles said the *Dred Scott* decision "forfeited respect for [Taney] as a man or a judge".[^8] In early 1865 the House of Representatives passed a bill to fund a bust of Taney for the Supreme Court, to stand beside those of his four predecessors.[^8] In response, Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts called the *Dred Scott* opinion "more thoroughly abominable than anything of the kind in the history of courts."[^8] An anonymous 68-page pamphlet, *The Unjust Judge: A Memorial of Roger Brooke Taney*, was published in 1865. In 1964 a scholar speculated that Sumner wrote it.[^8] George Ticknor Curtis, who argued for Dred Scott before Taney, wrote a volume of memoirs for his brother [[Benjamin Robbins Curtis]]. In it he described Taney as "a great magistrate, and a man of singular purity of life and character."[^8] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, lead section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — offices, Senate rejection of the treasury nomination, 1835 appointment as chief justice, *Dred Scott* ruling and its political effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^2]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Early life and career" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — birth, family, schooling, bar admission, 1844 election to the American Philosophical Society. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^3]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Marriage and family" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — marriage, children, residence, Anne Taney's death in 1855. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^4]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Early political career" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Maryland offices, Etting case, support for Jackson, views on slavery, 1819 Gruber defence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^5]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Jackson administration" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — 1831 appointment as attorney general, advisory opinion, *Barron v. Baltimore*, Bank War, Duane's dismissal and the recess appointment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^6]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Taney Court" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Court composition, states'-rights shift, *Charles River Bridge v. Warren Bridge*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^7]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Death" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — date of death, tenure, oaths administered, estate, memorial service, funeral, appointment of Chase. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney [^8]: Wikipedia contributors, *Roger B. Taney*, "Legacy" section (revision 1378636535, retrieved 2026-10-26) — statements of Welles, Sumner and G. T. Curtis, the 1865 bust bill and *The Unjust Judge* pamphlet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney