For I was young, and little schooled in the submissiveness and acquiescence in the will of God which you have derived from a long and wise life. Allow me now to say-alas, that it should be all I can say!- that you have my deepest sympathy. How little any human feeling can aid us in such trials, I know. But I think I also know that you have that strength which is" in quietness and confidence." Quietness of a mind which can look back over a long life usefully spent, and confidence in the goodness and mercy of God.

I am not willing you should take the trouble to write to me; but if Mr. Campbell would do so, and say how you are, I should take it as a favor. I strongly hope I shall meet you at Washington, at the beginning of the term, as well as you were during the last winter.

With great respect and regard,

I am your obedient servant,
B. R. CURTIS.

Mr. Chief-Justice TANEY,

Baltimore.

The Chief Justice responded to this kind letter as follows:

BALTIMORE, November 3, 1855.

DEAR SIR-I cannot turn your letter over to Mr. Campbell as you suggest, but must answer it myself, to thank you for the kind terms in which it is written, and to assure you that I am grateful for it.

It would be useless for me to tell you what I have passed through. But it has pleased God to support me in the trial, and to enable me to resign myself in

humble submission to his will. And I am again endeavoring to fulfil the duties which may yet remain to me in this world.

The Circuit Court for this District begins on Monday next, and I propose to take my seat on the bench, and busy myself, if I can, in the business of the term. I hope also to meet you at the Supreme Court at the beginning of the session, and have made my arrangements with that view.

But I shall enter upon those duties with the painful consciousness that they will be imperfectly discharged. The chastisement with which it has pleased God to visit me has told sensibly upon a body already worn by age, as well as upon the mind; and I shall meet you with broken health and with a broken spirit.

May you and Mrs. Curtis be long spared to one another, and with best wishes for the health and happiness of you both,

I am, dear sir, very truly your friend,
R. B. TANEY.

Hon. B. R. CURTIS,

Boston.

It was not from the great alone that the Chief Justice received words of sympathy. It was befitting that the humble should feel the private sorrow of this great and good magistrate. I have, in the second chapter of this Memoir, spoken of the happy plantation home where Mrs. Taney was born, and lived at her marriage. The negroes, who there had so often looked with pleasure and pride at the beauty and

grace and gentleness and fulness of feeling of their young mistress, and received so many kindnesses from her gracious hands, could never forget her. So that now, when she had been taken from earth, one of these servants, who had for many years been living in Pennsylvania, far away from the scenes of early life, wrote the Chief Justice the following letter:

QUAKERTOWN, November 26, 1855.
BUCKS COUNTY, PA.

DEAR SIR:-Being informed lately of the irreparable loss you have sustained in the death of your affectionate wife, one who I had every reason to respect and regard for the many kindnesses and attentions shown me while a servant in her father's family, I thought perhaps a few lines from one, though in inferior station, who remembers her virtues and amiable disposition, in the way of consolation to you, sir, suffering under the privation of so valuable a companion, might not be considered arrogant or improper, for I can truly say I was very sorry when I was informed of her death, and hope you may so bear your affliction as that it may be sanctified to your eternal comfort and a reunion in a better world with her.

I am getting to be an old man, failing some in bodily strength, but my mind I believe pretty sound, and my memory a little failing of things recently past, but of things that happened in early life I have clear recollections, and hence the remembrance of the respected Mrs. Taney. Excuse me for thus approaching you, but I have written as I felt best, and therefore hope it will be accepted in all good feeling by you.

I shall forward this by Dr. Samuel Bradshaw, a member of Congress from our place, for whom I have a high regard, having labored for him often.

With sentiments of profound respect, I remain your humble friend, who was one of the servants of General J. Ross Key.

JARAD.

The Chief Justice's answer to this letter I have not been able to recover; though I wrote to Dr. Samuel C. Bradshaw, who, as a member of Congress, franked the letter, and was living when I wrote, and I suppose is now. Jarad, I suppose, is dead.

CHAPTER V.

JUDICIAL LIFE.

A. D. 1856-1860.

WITHSTANDING the exalted place which,

Norw

as we have seen, Chief-Justice Taney had attained in the esteem of the great men of all political parties, we shall now see him assailed, for political ends, until he becomes an object of especial hate to a powerful political combination. As the head of the Federal judiciary, he stood between that political combination and the Constitution, which was a barrier in the way to their to their purposes.

It is a sad chapter in the history of the United States upon which we now enter. Chief-Justice Taney was a grand actor in its successive melancholy scenes. By the part he took, he consummated the glory of his high career.

Before the Federal Government was formed, and even before the war of independence, there were two diverse forms of civilization in this country- that of Virginia and the other Southern States, and that of Massachusetts and the other New England States. Besides that, the first settlers of the two regions were very different in character and opinions. the Cavaliers having settled the Southern States, and the