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Barren's Wharf 11
long. The room was described by the New York Tribune as "a potato hole
of a place ... a queer room of small dimensions and shaped overhead like
a quarter section of a pumpkin shell."30 Others viewed it more kindly. A
visitor in the late 1820s was "impressed by the Court's simplicity." The
justices sat at a long table and the lawyers sat on cushioned chairs;
spectators were given comfortable sofas. Opposite the justices was a rep-
lica of the Goddess of Justice.31
To argue the case, the State of Maryland sent one of its own legal
giants, Roger Brooke Taney. Taney would soon become attorney general*
under President Andrew Jackson and would eventually succeed Marshall
as chief justice. In 1857 Taney would write the shattering Dred Scott
decision, which triggered the Civil War (see Chapter 2). But in 1833 Roger
Taney was in Annapolis as Maryland's attorney general. One of his assist-
ants, John Scott, had been primarily responsible for arguing the case at
the trial court, with Taney making an occasional appearance. However,
Taney did not miss the chance to travel to Washington to argue for states'
rights versus the Fifth Amendment and, in particular, for Baltimore's
right not to be obliged to pay Barren any damages.
Taney and Mayer sat facing the seven justices, with Chief Justice
Marshall in the middle; one ancient Federalist surrounded by Republi-
cans. Marshall, now 75, was frail and greying, his body still weak from
a bladder operation the year before. The golden age of the Marshall Court
was ending. The chief justice had suffered two major defeats. The more
severe blow was an emotional one—the death of his wife, Polly, on Decem-
ber 26, 1831.32 The second defeat had come in 1832, when President
Andrew Jackson refused to enforce Marshall's decision in Worcester v.
Georgia.33 In that case the Court had ruled that Georgia had no legislative
authority over Cherokee Nation lands and ordered the release of a mis-
sionary prosecuted under an unconstitutional Georgia statute which for-
bade white people from being on Indian lands. On hearing Marshall's
opinion, President Andrew Jackson is reported to have said, "John Mar-
shall made his decision, now let him enforce it." Whether the story is
apocryphal or not, Jackson never moved to enforce the court order, and
Georgia did not release missionary Worcester, though he was later par-
doned by the governor.
Attorney Mayer, speaking for dock owner Barron, was the first to
address the Court. He never got to talk about the wharf and the silt. He
was immediately directed by the justices to confine "the argument to the
question whether, under the amendment to the constitution the court had
jurisdiction of the case." According to the court reporter, Mayer argued
that the city's "exercise of authority was repugnant to the Constitution
*In the time that elapsed between the argument ofBarron and the decision, Taney was elevated
from attorney general of Maryland to attorney general of the United States.
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