Letter from Roger B. Taney to Edward Lloyd (Draft)

Maryland Attorney General Roger Brooke Taney writes to attorney Edward Lloyd and discusses his office should be impartial as well as the selection of his deputies. The Attorney General's office, as Taney argues, "is too intimately connected with the administration of justice... and nothing should be done that would be calculated to shake the confidence of the public in its strict impartiality." This perspective also informs Taney's process for selecting individuals to work in his office. "I ought not to allow party considerations to sway me in the discharge of my official duties" and, as Taney explains, "the most important part of my duty is the proper selection of my deputies." Transcript included.