American Furniture, Folk & Decorative Arts

Taney held many political and legal positions: Maryland State Legislator, 1799-1800; Maryland Senator,1816-1821; Attorney General of Maryland, 1827; Attorney General of the United States, 1831-1833; Secretary of the Treasury, 1833-1834; and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1836- 1864. He is infamously associated with the 1857 Dred Scott decision, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (7–2) that a slave who had resided in a free state or territory was not entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had declared free all territories west of Missouri and north of latitude 36°30', was unconstitutional.