Taney, ROGER BROOKE

Taney, ROGER BROOKE, American jurist, was born the son of a Maryland planter in 1777, admitted to the bar in 1799, and elected to the state senate in 1816. He was a courageous opponent of slavery as early as 1819. In 1824 he passed from the Federal into the Democratic party, and supported Andrew Jackson, who in 1831 appointed him attorney-general of the United States, and in 1833 secretary of the treasury. He encouraged and carried out the removal of the government deposits from the United States Bank (see JACKSON), and in June 1834 the senate for the first time refused to confirm a president's nomination of one of his cabinet officers. But the balance of parties changed, and in 1836 the senate confirmed his appointment as chief-justice of the United States. His early decisions were strongly in favour of the doctrine of state sovereignty (see STATES' RIGHTS), but his most famous decision was that in the Dred Scott Case (q.v.). He died 12th October 1864. There is a Memoir (autobiographical to 1801) by S. Tyler (1872).