CHIEF JUSTICE ROGER B. TANEY - DOCUMENT SIGNED 02/21/1813 - HFSID 27616

ROGER BROOKE TANEY
Legal document signed by Roger Brooke Taney in $400 lawsuit while he was still a Maryland attorney
Document signed: "R. B. Taney" in brown ink on verso. 1 page front and verso, 7¾x12½. February 10, 1813. Frederick County, Maryland. Black ink notations in unknown hand on docket. Legal affidavit in the case of Joshua Hallen and Joseph Hallen vs. Henry G. Waters, George Hardman & John Otto (1813) written in unknown hand. Joshua and Joseph claim "that the said Henry G. Waters, George Hardman and John Otto, on the first day of January Eighteen hundred and thirteen at Frederick County aforesaid with force and arms and so forthe a certain dark bay show Horse of the said Joshua and Joseph of value of two hundred dollars current money with staves, stichs, stones, clubs, fists, and knives the dark bay show horse aforesaid so maliciously and violently did beat, bruise, wound, cut and maim so that the show Horse aforesaid by the beating, bruising, wounding, cutting and maiming aforesaid died and other Harms to the said Joshua & Joseph [illegible] and there did to them great damage of the said Joshua & Joseph and against the peace, & so forthe". They sought 400 dollars in reparations and damages. Taney signed this document while he was an attorney in Maryland and long before he became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taney (1777-1864, born in Calvert County, Maryland) was educated privately before attending Dickinson College, where he graduated first in his class. Taney apprenticed with an Annapolis lawyer for three years and was admitted to the bar in 1799 when he was 22. After two years as a Federalist member of the Maryland House of Delegates, he began his legal career in earnest in Frederick, Maryland. There, he met Anne Phoebe Charlton Key, the sister of Francis Scott Key, whom he married in January of 1806. Taney, who became one of Maryland's leading lawyers, became an avid supporter of Andrew Jackson after the Federalist Party faded away. In 1831, Jackson appointed Taney as both Attorney General (1831-1833) and acting Secretary of War before naming him Secretary of the Treasury on Sept. 23, 1833. Taney served until June 24, 1834, when his appointment was rejected by the United States Senate. In 1836, after a political change in the makeup of the Senate, Jackson appointed Taney as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Taney served until his death in 1864. He is chiefly remembered for his decision in the Dred Scott case (1857),which stated that slaves were not citizens and that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in territories. Heavily toned. Stained and creased. Very worn and torn along mailing folds. Discolored on folds. Edges and corners worn. Ink stains throughout. Otherwise, fined condition.