Beschreibung:

TANEY, ROGER BROOKE, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court . Five autograph letters signed ("R B. Taney") to John Young Mason, as Secretary of the Navy and Attorney General, in Washington; Baltimore, 14 June 1844 - 27 October 1845 and Washington, 9 December 1846. Together eight pages, 4to, three with address panels in Taney's hand, fraying to a few edges and folds, one or two small holes . Taney, the first Roman Catholic to sit on the Supreme Court, is most widely known for his decision in the Dred Scott case, in which he argued that the Constitution did not extend the rights of citizens to blacks, who could therefore not sue in a federal court, and that Congress was powerless to outlaw slavery in the new territories. This judgement earned him wide-spread derision; it was years before his real contributions to the Court were recognized. Four of the present letters introduce promising or well-connected young men, among them Taney's son-in-law James Mason Campbell. On 25 March 1845 he requests that Mason--appointed Attorney-General three weeks earlier--think of Campbell when the post of district attorney of the United States becomes available: "It is understood here that the present district attorney of the U. States will not be continued -- and indeed between you and I, he ought not be continued...". On 27 October he considers another problematical appointment: "I thought that I had written to you my last letter about officers, but having heard today that renewed efforts are making to remove Mr. James P. Heath from the officer of weightmaster, I must take the liberty of asking your attention to the letter I formerly wrote to you on that subject... that whatever may be said to the contrary, his removal is not called for by the party to which he belongs -- and that in my judgement, & for the reasons I before stated to you, his removal would be an act of gross political injustice which no government ought ever to commit...." (5)