"If he had never done anything else that was high, heroic and important, his noble vindication of the writ of habeas corpus and the dignity and authority of his office against a rash minister of State, who, in the pride of a fancied executive power, came near to the commission of a great crime, will command the admiration and gratitude of every lover of constitutional liberty so long as our institutions shall endure." The crime referred to was the intended imprisonment of the Chief Justice. Oh, I'd say Dred Scott would be up at the top of Taney's accomplishments. After all, he had such respect for states rights and the Bill of Rights that he found that a class of people have no citizenship and no rights under any circumstances and regardless of what state laws may say. < / sarcasm >
It seems to me that Taney's integrety and love for the Constitution was highly selective.
The south's intention was not a peaceful separation but the establishment of a government with sufficient military strength to repudiate debts and to claim western lands for the expansion of slavery that they could not get through the electoral process. Hey, Marcus Aurelius Dixieneticus.
Are you going to let Ditto off scot free? Ain't he lyin' too?
Walt