Hist signature assignment

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney on the Declaration of Independence

President Andrew Jackson appointed in 1836 Roger B. Taney to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Chief Justice John Marshall. Taney earned his appointment by being a loyal “Jackson man” and by his willingness, as acting Secretary of the Treasury, to remove the federal deposits from the Bank of the United States (effectively putting it out of business). Critics of the appointment predicted that the Supreme Court under Taney would destroy the legacy of the Marshall Court and ultimately undermine the Republic. That turned out to be an exaggeration. Taney Court rulings promoted the economic development of the U.S., although the Court tended to favor state power more than its predecessor had. By the 1850s, the Court had developed a good reputation within the American political class. As it did so, however, the Taney Court also developed a decidedly proslavery jurisprudence. Its efforts culminated in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), a decision almost universally considered to be one of the worst, perhaps the worst, Supreme Court decision in American history. Taney’s opinion wrecked the Court’s reputation and allowed Republican critics make a plausible case that the Court had been captured by a proslavery conspiracy. In the passage here, Taney recounted the history of African Americans, noting that in the colonial period blacks “had no rights that white men were bound to respect.” As you read this passage, ask yourself whether Taney believed anything had changed with the Declaration of Independence? How did the Declaration and the Constitution impact the status of African Americans? Finally, think about which of the other documents you have read support or contradict Taney’s arguments.