"... had not [Merryman] been a citizen of [Taney's] own State, a neighbor, and a personal friend ..."
Were both citizens of Maryland? Yes. You can argue that Taney had moved to Washington, D.C., when he was nearly 80 years old, but for all reasonable purposes, Taney was a Marylander.
Was Merryman a "personal friend of Taney"? You have provided nothing to refute the claim and I have provided a list of reasons to believe that such was quite likely the case. You took exception to the Time's statement - prove it wrong.
Were Merryman and Taney neighbor's? You have taken the tact to suggest they must have lived near one another at the time of the trial. Taney would be proud of your narrow-minded approach. He was the master of the same when it came to constitutional interpretation. Just as Taney and Merryman can be considered citizens of the same state, they could as easily have been neighbors. There is nothing to preclude Merryman from having owned a home in the city of Baltimore. Many rich southern families maintained residences in the city and in the country. (Consider the historical fiction behind this thread!). You have taken exception to the claim - so disprove it.
Until you can disprove it, I'll go with Rehnquist and his documentation.
Yeah cause Taney, being from Maryland, was SPECIFICALLY ASSIGNED to the circuit court in Baltimore by the president as was traditionally done with justices and their home state circuits.
Was Merryman a "personal friend of Taney"? You have provided nothing to refute the claim
I do not need to as you have provided nothing to substantiate the claim, which rests entirely upon an unspecific and now discredited newspaper editorial. The burden is always on the accuser and thus far you have failed to meet that burden.
and I have provided a list of reasons to believe that such was quite likely the case.
Your "list of reasons" is downright comical. You want us to believe that Merryman and Taney were neighbors and friends because dead people with the same last names as theirs are buried at the same cemetary! Answer me this, capitan. Do you know the names of all the people who are buried around your deceased relatives in a cemetary? Do you run around in social circles with their descendants and call those descendants your "neighbor" since their Great Aunt Thelma is buried 30 feet from yours?
You took exception to the Time's statement - prove it wrong.
Already did. The Times claimed that Taney and Merryman were neighbors, yet Taney lived in Washington and Merryman lived in the rural Baltimore County town of Cockeysville some 20 miles away from the city. As far as I know Taney never lived anywhere near Cockeysville, therefore they could not have been neighbors.
Were Merryman and Taney neighbor's? You have taken the tact to suggest they must have lived near one another at the time of the trial.
No. They didn't live next to each other before the trial either. The 1850 census has Merryman living at the exact same place - Cockeysville - as he did in 1860. In 1840 Merryman was still a child presumably living with his parents, also on Cockeysville. Since at no time in Merryman's life before (or after) the trial did Taney live anywhere near Cockeysville, they simply were not neighbors.
Just as Taney and Merryman can be considered citizens of the same state, they could as easily have been neighbors.
...yet you have produced no evidence even remotely substantiating that they were whereas all known evidence says they lived more than 20 miles away.
There is nothing to preclude Merryman from having owned a home in the city of Baltimore.
Yet you've shown absolutely no evidence that he did, much less that it was on Franklin Street.