I CHAPTER VII. PRIVATE LIFE. FEEL that in this chapter I am undertaking a task almost too delicate for the pen of the historian, while members of the family of Chief-Justice Taney (and they ladies) are still living. The incidents of his domestic circle, which would illustrate with most beauty the private life of the Chief Justice, cannot be unveiled to public view. But in the great trial of life the Chief Justice was destined to walk over the hottest ploughshares ever put under the feet of a public man by his countrymen; and it is my duty to show, by his virtues, that he passed through the ordeal unhurt. I must therefore say more of his private life than has thus far been revealed in this Memoir. The private intercourse of Chief-Justice Taney with the officers and other officials of the Supreme Court deserves the first notice. It was such that they all had, and still have, and always will have, his praise upon their tongues. His very name warms their hearts and brightens their countenances. The memory of no father was ever cherished by his children with more affectionate reverence, than that of Chief Justice Taney is this day by every officer of the Supreme Court who was there when he presided over its deliberations. And such was the charm of his manner that every newly-appointed officer was, at his very first interview with the Chief Justice, brought to regard him with affectionate reverence. Soon after the death of the Chief Justice, Mr. Lamon, who had been appointed Marshal of the Supreme Court by President Lincoln, remarked to me: "Chief-Justice Taney was the greatest and best man I ever saw. I never went into his presence on business that his gracious courtesy and kind consideration did not make me feel that I was a better man for being in his presence." I said, "Your experience is that of every officer about the Court. Mr. Meehan, the Librarian, has often, when I have been in the library, come from the presence of the Chief Justice, and said, 'What a glorious old gentleman the Chief Justice is! He always treats me in such a way as to increase my respect for myself."" That a man of such an iron will, such determined purpose, such undaunted courage, and all the heroic elements of character, should have such a delicate sentiment of kindness manifested in his courtesy, has always been a subject of observation by those who knew the Chief Justice best. Its source was his charity of heart and his high breeding. It was, for some years, the custom of the Judges of the Court of Appeals of Maryland to write to ChiefJustice Taney a letter of compliment on his birthday. I have been able to procure but one of his answers, which is the following letter: WASHINGTON, March 19, 1860. GENTLEMEN:-I return my cordial thanks for your very kind letter on my birthday. If I have done anything to merit in any degree the approbation you are pleased to express, I owe it to my training in the Maryland Courts and at the Maryland Bar; and no mark of approval could be more grateful to me, or more highly valued, than the one you have sent me from the highest judicial tribunal of the State. At the same time I am sensible of the personal kindness which prompted your letter, and am grateful for it. With the highest respect and esteem, I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, Hon. JOHN C. LEGRAND, Chief Justice. Hon. J. B. ECCLESTON, R. B. TANEY. Hon. WILLIAM F. TUCK, Judges of the Court of Appeals. Chief-Justice Taney was of a singularly domestic nature. All through life he loved to talk of his early home in Calvert County, Maryland. The friends of his youth were remembered with great warmth of affection. But he lived so long that all had died and left him, except Mr. Justice Morsell, for many years one of the Judges of the Circuit Court in the District of Columbia. Judge Morsell was older than himself. They were born in the same neighborhood, and were playmates, hunting wild game in the woods, and fishing and bathing in the streams and rivers of their native county; and were linked together by their youthful joys in an enduring friendship. They had now walked down the hill of life together, to rest forever at its base; and the country they both had seen moving in such a grand career was now torn by civil war. As a last parting token of his friendship, ChiefJustice Taney sent his friend a photograph of himself. The note accompanying it, I could not procure. The following is Judge Morsell's acknowledgment. MY DEAR SIR: receipt of your card, GEORGE TOWN, May 5, 1863. I have been favored with the a most welcome token, indeed, of a highly-prized, early, and long-continued friendship, formed in better days of law and order, and without change continued. Let it never be severed! With much esteem and respect, yours, The Hon. Chief-Justice TANEY, JAMES S. MORSELL. Washington. It surely is pleasant and exalting, to contemplate such friendship as this between two such aged men. I record it with unspeakable pleasure, to testify of the noble nature of Judge Morsell, whom I knew well, and to show how Chief-Justice Taney lived in the hearts of those who knew him best. In the first chapter of this Memoir, Chief-Justice Taney speaks of Joshua Williams, one of his classmates at Dickinson College. When the Rev. Dr. Sprague was preparing his "Annals of the American Pulpit," he inquired, by letter, of Chief-Justice Taney about Mr. Williams. I find in the fourth volume of the Annals the following letter in answer: WASHINGTON CITY, May 20, 1850. DEAR SIR: You ask for my recollections of my class-mate Joshua Williams. More than fifty years have passed since we graduated together at Dickinson College; but my recollection of him seems as fresh as the day after we parted, for he was not a man to be forgotten by his companions. It is not in my power to give you any particular incidents in his life worth repeating. Indeed, in the calm and quiet life of a student faithfully performing his college duties, and preparing himself for future usefulness, there is scarcely ever any striking event worth recording in his biography. Such, according to my recollection, was Mr. Williams. He was, I believe, a few years older than myself. His standing as a scholar was equal to the highest in the class. He was studious, yet cheerful, social, and a general favorite. His life was pure and unsullied, and it is a pleasure to recall him to memory such as he then was. We all thought him eloquent; and, although he and I never met after we left college, I have often inquired after him and heard of him, and have been gratified to find that his future did not disappoint the anticipations of |