ABSTRACT
American statesmanship in the second third of the nineteenth century faced a number of challenges. Roger Taney's thought is contradictory. Conflicts in his statements on public issues do not indicate a weak mind - in part they reflect tensions among the principles informing the American polity, a polity often at theoretical war with itself. Taney was the first legal positivist to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Although his elevation to the high bench in Ø6 did not represent a radical break with the legal conservatism of his predecessor, John Marshall, and the English common law, it did represent a rejection of the philosophical foundation of that conservatism. The four great constitutional issues confronted by the Taney Court were the status of corporations. Taney believed that when corporations were granted privileges and rights by legislatures the grant was for the benefit of the public, not corporation, and, in cases brought under contract clause, he construed their charters accordingly.
