Lawyer in frederick county, maryland, taney had defended jacob gruber, an antislavery methodist minister accused of disturbing the peace and inciting rebellion. And in the process, taney had cited the declaration of independence in support of his antislavery views and had actually called slavery a blot on our national character. The author of the unjust judge made much of this type of change of heart, describing taney as failing to live up to his early ideals as well as those of the nations founders. In hid analysis, he said that africanamericans, contrary to taneys assertion, had been included in the Political Community at the time of the founding. But more than an academic criticism of taneys reasoning in the dred scott came in t, t unjust judge constituted a rhetorical assault on the character of the nations fifth chief justice. The author excoriated taney as a malevolent old man engaged in the most nefarious of purposes, a man has untrue to the principles of the christian religion
People, i think. Well, im happy to welcome all of you to this i guess its the third in our series of lectures named after the former president of the Supreme Court Historical Society. And this lecture is as you have heard on its the third in a fourpart series on the Supreme Court and the civil war revisited. The Historical Society has an Educational Outreach mission that includes these lectures. It includes Training Programs for teachers. And it includes the publication of such publications as court watchers, eyewitness accounts in Supreme Court history which came out a few years ago which is a general interest history of the court with firsthand anecdotes. My colleagues on the court and i appreciate the societys wide and varied efforts to improve public understanding of the Supreme Court and of our nations constitutional form of government. I could go on about other efforts that the Supreme Court Historical Society has made in that regard but you are here for a lecture on chief juice