Roger B. Taney

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After gaining admission to the state bar, Taney established a successful legal practice in Frederick, Maryland. At his father's urging, he ran for the Maryland House of Delegates as a member of the Federalist Party. With the help of his father, Taney won election to the House of Delegates, but he lost his campaign for a second term. Taney remained a prominent member of the Federalist Party for several years until he broke with the party due to his support of the War of 1812. In 1816, He won election to a five-year term in the Maryland State Senate. In 1823, Taney moved his legal practice to Baltimore, where he gained widespread notoriety as an effective litigator. In 1826, Taney and Daniel Webster represented merchant Solomon Etting in a case that appeared before the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1827, Taney was appointed as the Attorney General of Maryland. Taney supported Andrew Jackson in the 1824 presidential election and the 1828 presidential election. He joined Jackson's Democratic Party and served as a leader of Jackson's 1828 campaign in Maryland.

Taney is said to have considered slavery, at least philosophically, "an evil," but felt that slavery was a problem to be resolved gradually, and chiefly by the states in which it existed. He is reported to have emancipated the slaves he had inherited in 1818, before he arrived at the Supreme Court, but after entering public office. It is reported by Catholic historians that he provided monthly pensions to the older former slaves who were unable to work. However, manumission papers are dated as late as 1826 for a woman named Clarissa, who he released only as he was nearing 50, and well established. Although he was a staunch nationalist and blamed abolitionists for ripping apart the country, in 1819, he defended an abolitionist Methodist minister Jacob Gruber who had been arrested for his criticism of slavery. Gruber was charged with attempting to stir up "acts of mutiny and rebellion". Taney claimed that the prosecution lacked a case against Gruber and argued that, lacking evidence of criminal intent, Gruber's freedom of conscience and freedom of speech needed to be protected. Taney delivered "an impassioned defense of Gruber" and, in his opening argument, Taney condemned slavery as "a blot on our national character". After listening to the defense, the jury acquitted Gruber.

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