Annapoli: Address
H?ro7 State House
Annapolis, Maryland 214014991
410?841?3700 - 301?858?3700

 

THCMAS V. MIKE MILLER, JR. 80w492~7122 Ext. 2,700
PRESIDENT OF TEL DENATE
27th Legislative Dimitri District Addresses
Prince George} County
P. O. Box 219

8808 Old Branch Avenue
be {Senate of Clinton. Maryland 2073:
301?868?6931
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND 214014991

Calvert County
P. O. Box 364

August 17, 2017 Dunkirk, Maryland 20754
410?257?4400

The Honorable Lawrence Hogan, Jr.
Of?ce of the Governor

State House, State Circle
Annapolis, Maryland 21401

Dear Governor Hogan:

As you know, I Speci?cally requested a public meeting to vote on the proposal regarding the
removal of the statue of Justice Roger Brooke Taney as well as a number of other matters of concern to
the State House Trust. This was certainly a matter of such consequence that the transparency of a public
meeting and public conversation should have occurred. This was not an ordinary matter of business
before the Trust. Any urgency could certainly have been accommodated by an emergency meeting and
does not excuse the hidden nature of the process regarding an important matter before the State House
Trust.

We all know that the in?ammatory and derogatory language and holding of the Dred Scott
decision created great and lasting wounds in our Country and incited rather than avoided a Civil War.
And yet, many do not know that Roger Brooke Taney also served with distinction in many State and
National of?ces. He was born in Calvert County and later moved to Frederick County where he was
elected as a member of the House of Delegates and then the Maryland Senate. Taney was then elected
as Attorney General of the State of Maryland. He served as Acting United States Secretary of War and
also as the Attorney General for the United States where his opinion on South Carolina nulli?cation was
later used by President Lincoln as the basis to declare the secession invalid. He was appointed as
Secretary of the United States Treasury, where he fought as a acksonian Democrat against a central
Bank of America which he believed was beholden to foreign interests and had abused its powers. Taney
was appointed as the ?rsr Catholic Justice and ?rst and only Maryland Chief Justice of the United States
Supreme Court and served from 1836 to 1864 under six Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln. As The
New York Times wrote in his 1864 obituary, ?Had it not been for his unfortunate Dred Scott decision, all
would admit that he had through all those years, nobly sustained his high of?ce.?

Few people are aware of Taney?s prior anti-slavery words and actions and that unlike George
Washington who ?eed his slaves upon his death, Taney freed his slaves early in his life. In 1806, he
married Anne Charlton Key, sister of Francis Scott Key. As described by author Timothy Huebner in
an article in the Journal of American History, at that time ?Taney entered a circle of young, reform-
minded Marylanders who sought to protect free blacks from kidnapping and alleviate the harshness of
slavery. Both Taney and Francis Scott Key joined an anti-kidnapping society and developed reputations
for their willingness to argue cases for the bene?t of slaves and free blacks.? In representing an

abolitionist minister, Taney called slavery ?a blot on our national character? saying that ?every real lover
of freedom con?dently hopes that it will be effectively, though it must be gradually, wiped away.?

As notable as Taneyls complex history, is the history of this very discussion in Maryland which
many appear to have forgotten. When we commissioned the statue to honor Justice Thurgood Marshall,
it was a very public and purpose?il compromise to give balance to the State House grounds recognizing
our State and our Country have a ?awed history. As Delegate Howard Pete Rawlings who helped to
craft the compromise said, ?You want people to be aware of your past and also your future. We needed
Taney to stay where he was to show the dichotomy between Taney and Marshall. With Torrey gone, you
wouldn?t have that.?

A 2007 Washington Post editorial opposed removal of Taney statues at that time saying,
?Memorials are meant to cause reflection and not always celebration or even respect. The Taney statues
should remain but be supplemented with signs explaining the significance of Taney?s contributions to
American law, warts and all. More, rather than less, education about the past is always a good thing.?
Dred Scott?s descendant, Dred Scott Madison ll, told The Washington Post at that time, ?If you more it,
where do you it?s part of American history. You can?t hide it.? continue to agree with both of
these sentiments.

Roger Brooke Taney was not a Confederate of?cer and he remained loyal to the Union until his
death in 1364. Many historians have debated the con?icting anti~slavery words and works of Roger
Brooke Taney, the Frederick County Attorney and the man who authored the Dred Scott decision. As a
student of history, 1 personally believe as the New York Times opined in 1864 that ?That decision itself,
mung as it was, did not spring from a corrupt or malignant heart. it come, we have the charity to believe,
from a sincere desire to compose, rather than exacerbate, sectional discord. But yet it was none the less
an act of supreme folly, and its shadow will ever rest on his memory.?

But regardless of one?s positon on this issue, it is insulting to our citizens for the State House
Trust to vote on such a matter outside of the public eye. At a minimum, debate should have been allowed
and each member of the State House Trust should have been allowed the opportunity to explain our vote,
as it takes place in both the Maryland Senate and the House of Delegates. We should have and continue
to have public conversation about difficult issues facing our country. A full discussion of each of our
reasons for supporting either removal or retention of the statue as well as the complex history of this
man and our State would only have added to the public conversation and understanding. Voting on this
matter by email was just plain wrong.

Sincerely,

 
   

Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr.

cc: The Honorable Boyd Rutherford
The Honorable Michael E. Busch
Mr. Charles Edson, Chair, Maryland Historical Trust