I'll type this REAL SLOW, because you have a serious comprehension problem. The outstanding and UNSUBSTANTIATED allegation is that Chief Justice Taney and one John Merryman were close, personal friends. To substantiate this claim, all one has to do is provide documentation of written letters from one to the other expressing such sentiments. Not as convincing would be DOCUUMENTED evidence of their meeting together on any kind of a regular basis.
When was Merryman in the Maryland State Agricultural Society, and more importantly, how does this translate into a close, personal friendship with the Chief Justice?
As far as status is concerned, Robert E. Lee was a general. T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson was a general. That's status.
So far, all you have is ONE specious article, as credible as anything by-lined by Jason Blair, that CLAIMS some relationship existed. You have not provided any proof of letters or other correspondence between the gentlemen. You have not provided documented proof of their living near each other, much less in the same county. I'll concede that both lived in the same state, but that does not equate to close, personal friendship. You have not provided proof that the gentlemen attended the same societal functions, or in any way associated with each other.
Yet, based on ONE dubious, unsubstantiated article, you persist in the delusion that it must be true. Based on that criteria, Abraham Lincoln was a flaming fag.
You are exaggerating. Rehnquist quoted the Times as writing "friends and neighbors." It is a very reasonable assumption that they ran in the same "social circles."