156
The Green Bag
and his commission issued. It must have been with no little satisfaction that the old soldier remarked at the inaugura tion of Van Buren, “There is my de feated Minister to England sworn in as
President of the United States by my defeated judge of the Supreme Court." He had now obtained a position as the
had removed the deposits. But his predecessors, Ellsworth and Marshall, largely owed their advancement to effective service in the interests of the Federalists,while Salmon Portland Chase, his immediate successor and one of the chieftians of his party, went from the Secretaryship of the Treasury to the
head of a department to which Webster
bench.
and Bryce refer as "the most powerful
ther comment these attacks as the last echoes of party strife. Clay on his part recanted and generously gave his un qualified approval of the administration of the Chief Justice. Webster, always more temperate in comment, cordially recognized the excellence of the Court, and in a letter to Story commended the judicial work of Taney.
branch of the government." But this should be qualified by the reflection that the mandate of the Court may be functionless unless the executive recog
nizes and enforces it.
The physical
power of the federal government is under the control of the executive and of Con gress. There is a suggestion of a. grim possibility in Jackson's comment on the
We may dismiss without fur
The Chief Justice took his seat on the
opinion of the court in Worcester v. State
bench at circuit at the April term, 1836,
of Georgia, 6 Pet. 575,
in Baltimore, and at the January term,
"John Marshall
has made his decision, now let him en force it," or in the subsequent action of
President Lincoln, who ignored the writ
of habeas corpus from the same tribunal,
1837, presided for the first time over the full court. Without making radical de partures Taney sought to bring the
although Congress had not then voted to authorize him to suspend the privi
structure framed by Marshall into greater harmony with the plans of the makers of the Constitution. It has been
lege.
well said,3 "It is owing largely to the
looked
It should not however, be over
in
any consideration
of
the
functions of the court, or the judicial
conduct of its members as expressed in opinions on constitutional law,
genius of these two great Chief Justices that an indestructible nation of inde structible states is due. Who in this
cially is this true of appointments to
work performed the greater service is a. question which will be answered acc0rd~ ing to the political views of the person to whom it is propounded.” No history
the Supreme Court of the United States,
of the American nation worthy of the
which from its formation have always
the effect of the political convictions of
name can be written which does not deal with their work. As well might the historical student expect to compre hend the development of the English people without some knowledge of West
a lifetime.
minster Hall, the Assizes after Sedgemoor,
that judges carry their political views with them upon the bench, and espe
been largely partisan.
Taney, like his
predecessors, even when clothed with
the judicial ermine, was not exempt from It was repeatedly said by
opponents that he owed his appoint
and the Trial of the Seven Bishops.
ment to his aid and support of General Jackson in his contest with Biddle over
Historians and essayists vary accordingly as they write from the point of approach
the United States Bank, and because in obedience to the wishes of his chief he
3Great American Lawyers, v. 4, p. 77, “Taney,' by Prof. Mikell.
