20061115 Taney Taneytown and Tupac Shakur

Taneytown, Roger Taney, Raphael Taney, Dred Scott and Tupac Shakur

November 15th, 2006

Maryland Blogger Alliance member Crablaw has pondered in a November 11th, 2006 post, as to whether or not Taneytown was named after Roger Brooke Taney, the fifth Chief Justice of the United States from 1836 until his death in 1864. Chief Justice Taney lived from March 17, 1777 – October 12, 1864.

Another Maryland Blogger Alliance member, Maryland Conservatarian, joined Crablaw in discussion in the comment section.

First things first, as far as Crablaw’s oblique suggestion that Taneytown re-name Main Street to “Tupac Amaru Shakur Boulevard;” perhaps he may wanna take that up with Taneytown Councilman Paul E. Chamberlain Jr.

The idea is a great example of an opportunity to discuss semiotics and syntagma…

But I’ll tell ya what, if ya know anything about 2Pac’s life, you don’t wanna ever go jaywalking [21][22] on Shakur Boulevard.

For the rest of this post, I’m going to play referee over the matter as to whether or not Taneytown was named for the fifth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

As to the discussion over the historical legacy of Chief Justice Taney, Crablaw is an attorney and I will defer to him on the Dred Scott decision and Chief Justice Taney’s place in judicial history. Although I had to smile at Maryland Conservatarian’s observations… But ultimately, I’ve got just enough horse-sense not to get between the two of them… Although I’ll enjoy watching.

I am quite conflicted on Chief Justice Taney myself. Above and beyond the moral challenges with what the fifth Chief Justice ad lib-ed in the Dred Scott decision, (great example of a violation of Occam’s Razor,) I tend to agree with many scholars that say: “The Dred Scott decision was widely condemned at the time … as an illegitimate use of judicial power.”

Then again, the gentleman was a Federalist for pity sake, what does one expect…?

But ultimately Chief Justice Taney was an extraordinarily complicated and conflicted man. I mean, study this sentence and make some sense out of it: “…who had supported a broad role for the federal government in the area of economic regulation, Taney and the other justices appointed by Jackson more often favored the power of the states…”

And yet he helped start the Panic of 1837 by helping undermining the Second Bank of the United States.

Okay – this all hurts my head, so moving on to something I do understand; Taneytown was named, to the best of my knowledge, after Raphael Taney, who, along with Edward Diggs, “founded” Taneytown on May 2nd, 1754. I am not aware as to whether Raphael Taney was related to Chief Justice Roger Taney?

Most of my notes on Chief justice Taney are self-study and hand written from over 30 years ago, so for a quick and convenient double-check, I used Wikipedia. I might add that I have found mistakes in Wikipedia, but for something like this, I’m betting that it is correct…

Roger Taney was once a nearby Frederick, Maryland resident, but, according to Wikipedia: “Taney began his political career in Maryland in 1799 as a Federalist, elected at age 22 to the House of Delegates. After he was defeated for reelection in 1801 he moved to Frederick, Maryland, where he practiced law until 1823, when he relocated his family and practice to Baltimore… He married Anne Phebe Charlton Key, sister of Francis Scott Key, in 1806.”

Wikipedia calls to our attention, “He was the first Roman Catholic to hold this office. Taney died on the same day that his home state of Maryland abolished slavery.”

In consideration of his participation in the “Dred Scott Case,” I like the part where he “died on the same day that his home state of Maryland abolished slavery.”

Again, using Wikipedia for convenience, “Dred Scott v. Sandford,[1] 60 U.S. (19 How.) 393 (1857)[2], known as the "Dred Scott Case" or the "Dred Scott Decision", was a lawsuit decided by the United States Supreme Court in 1857 that ruled that people of African descent, whether or not they were slaves, could never be citizens of the United States, and that Congress had no authority to prohibit slavery in federal territories. The decision for the court was written by Chief Justice Roger Taney.”

As mentioned earlier, Taneytown was “founded” on May 2nd, 1754 by Edward Diggs and Raphael Taney (taalw-nee), who were granted “a patent under the designation of ‘The Resurvey of Brothers Agreement of 7900 acres.” This, according to a history written by Miss Elizabeth Annan, which was published in September 1954 in a “Bulletin of the Historical Society of Carroll County – Special Taneytown Issue,” upon the occasion of the Taneytown bi-centennial.

But land in what we now know as Taneytown today was first obtained on April 14, 1744. I mention this because many folks find it of interest that in 1744, what we now know as Taneytown was in Prince George’s County until Frederick County was formed in 1748. It later became part of Carroll County on January 19th, 1837.

“Lots were laid out and the first deeds registered in 1762…”

I hope this was helpful. In the words of Tupac, “I Ain't Mad at Cha"

Kevin Dayhoff writes from Westminster Maryland USA. E-mail him at: kdayhoff@carr.org http://www.thetentacle.com/ Westminster Eagle Opinion and Winchester Report http://www.thewestminstereagle.com/ www.kevindayhoff.com has moved to http://kevindayhoff.blogspot.com/