144 court of appeals of maryland

Reverdy Johnson once, in a conversation with
Judge Buchanan and Judge Chambers, com-
plained of being worn down by hard work, Mc-
Mahon asked, "Why don't you go on the bench?"
"This," says Judge Mason, "instantly fired Judge
Chambers, who was very quick in temper as well
as in retort, and who fully appreciated the re-
mark as a fling at the court, and he began a sharp
reply, but before he had uttered the first sen-
tence McMahon had glided into the adjoining
room." Once, indeed, when the judges were slow
in filing opinions, and gave many decisions of im-
portance without opinions, McMahon told them
to their faces that they were very lazy,²⁶ but this
is perhaps to be taken as a mark of McMahon's
easy friendship with the judges rather than of
boldness on his part, for, with all his strength, he
was an extraordinarily timid man in some respects.
Out of a strange timidity he shrank from accept-
ing the positions of Attorney General of the
United States and Senator, even when his friends
expressed something like disgust at his action.²⁷

Judge Mason tells another relevant story which
may justify its length.

About the same time, perhaps the following June term, a
plain, honest, unsophisticated old German from Washington
County named Doub was in Annapolis anxiously awaiting the
final disposition of an important case which he then had pend-
ing before the court. McMahon was the counsel against him.²⁸
Doub did not confine his importunities for an early hearing to

26. Mason, Life of McMahon, 113.

27. Ibid, chaps. IX and X.

28. Doub v. Barnes, 4 Gill, 1, heard at the June term 1846. Doub
was not released from litigation with that case. See Thomas v.
Mason, 8 Gill 1; Dodge v. Doub, 8 Gill 18; Thomas v. Doub,
1 Md. 252.