from 1806 to 1851 125

Pinkey, Taney, Winder, Wirt, and a few others
were the leaders of this early bar, but the pace
all strove to follow in their court work was that
which these men set.

It seems accurate to say that the Court of Ap-
peals bar was then a special bar. No lawyer
who wished to attend and argue a case was
excluded, of course, but only a limited group
made a business of attending, and they commonly
argued cases there for other lawyers who had
tried them below. It was not then the general
practice of lawyers in the various trial jurisdic-
tions to follow their cases to the Court of Ap-
peals ; and those who did attend ordinarily stayed
for the entire term, much as the circuit-riding
judges and lawyers in England had done for cen-
turies. The sessions were assemblages of bench and
bar alike. And, said Wirt,⁴⁴ "It is a pleasant bar,
too—as merry dogs as you would wish 'to see
of a summer's day. And Annapolis is a beautiful
place." When Taney was appointed Attorney
General of the United States, in 1831, he was
attending the June term of the Court of Appeals,
and *he wrote to the Secretary of State from An-
napolis, on June 24, 1831:

I accept the appointment, and pray you to convey to the
President my respectful acknowledgments for this distinguished
mark of his confidence. The Court of Appeals of this State is
now in session, and I cannot leave it before the end of the Terra
without doing injustice to several persons who rely on me to
argue their cases. Under such circumstances, I hope that my
presence at Washington can be dispensed with until I have
fulfilled my engagements here; and as soon as I have done so, I

44. Kennedy, II, 250.