faculties of the youthful mind and how new energies are evolved by repeated action; or, perhaps, with patriotic emotion, he was reflecting upon the future destinies of his country, and on the rising generation, upon whom these future destinies must devolve; or, most probably, with a sentiment of moral and religious feeling, he was collecting an argument which, characteristic of himself, no art would 'be able to elude, and no force to resist.' Our traveler remained a spectator, and took no part in what was said. "At last one of the young men, remarking that it was impossible to combat with long and established prejudices, wheeled around, and, with some familiarity, exclaimed, "Well, my old gentleman, what do you think of these things?" If, said the traveler, a streak of vivid lightning had at the moment crossed the room, their amazement could not have been greater than it was with what followed. The most eloquent and unanswerable appeal that he ever heard or read was made for nearly an hour by the old gentleman. So perfect was his recollection that every argument urged against the Christian religion was met in the order in which it was advanced. Hume's sophistry on the subject of miracles was, if possible, more perfectly answered than it had already been done by Campbell. And in the whole lecture there was so much simplicity and energy, pathos and sublimity, that not another word was uttered. An attempt to describe it, said the traveler, would be an attempt to paint the sunbeams. It was now a matter of curiosity and inquiry who the old gentleman was. The traveler concluded it was a preacher from whom the pulpit eloquence was heard. But no; it was the Chief Justice of the United States." Judge Marshall was followed by Roger Brooke Taney, of Maryland. He was nominated by President Jackson, and confirmed by the Senate in 1836. He died October 12, 1864. His decision in the Dred Scott fugitive case may be ranked as one of the factors which brought about the Civil War. The case was substantially this: A negro slave, with a wife and two children, sued his master for freedom under the plea that, having been taken North into free States a number of times, they were therefore entitled to freedom. The decision covers many pages, but the nation summed it up in these words: "The black man possesses no rights which the white man is bound to respect." Since Moses established a judiciary no decision ever made such a disturbance. In the memory of most people Taney's singularly pure life goes for nothing beside the infamy of this decision. It outraged the conscience of mankind. Taney claimed that he did not make the law, he simply gave its interpretation. The decision was approved by the majority of the court, but he alone was made to suffer the obloquy which followed. This decision proved sufficient to bring down the wrath of a just God on a nation so lost to human justice. The South suffered for the sin of slavery, the North for conniving thereto.