he priesthood. After
ministering to Trinity church in Georgetown for several years, he was
transferred, at the request of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, to
Frederick, where he built St. John's church, a college, an academy, an
orphan asylum, and the first free school in the city. After remaining
there for twenty-three years and establishing a reputation for devotion
to his church and rare executive ability that made him one of the most
useful Jesuits in the country, he was sent back to his old church in
Georgetown and the following year went to the Mexican War as Chaplain in
the regiment commanded by Caleb Cushing. During our occasional
conversations it seemed to afford him more than usual pleasure to
discuss with me the ability of his distinguished military chief. After
the war he was sent to Boston, where he became pastor of St. Mary's
church, and built the Boston College and the Church of the Immaculate
Conception. At the age of ninety, he became blind and retired to the
scene of his early labors in Frederick, where, as the oldest Jesuit in
the world, he died in the fall of 1877. I remember meeting him one day
on the street when he proudly announced that it was his birthday and
that he was sixty-nine years of age. I knew him to be much older, and my
words of astonishment evidently revived his senses for, realizing that
he had reversed his figures, he corrected himself by adding, "I mean
ninety-six." At that time he was quite active, considering his extreme
age, and to the close of his life was much respected and beloved by the
residents of Frederick, irrespective of creed. I attended his funeral
and he was laid to rest in the burying ground of the old Novitiate which
he founded. It was then that I saw for the first time the grave of Chief
Justice Roger B. Taney. The two-story brick house in Frederick in which
he lived is still standing, but it would be regarded with contempt by
any of the present Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.
But how natural, for how changed are the times! In an eloquent address
subsequent to Taney's death, Charles O'Conor concluded with these words:
"May the future historian in writing of Judge Roger B. Taney sorrowfully
add, _Ultimus Romanorum_."

Francis Scott Key, the author of "The Star-Spangled Banner," is also
buried in Frederick soil. For many years his remains reposed in an
unnoticed grave in Mount Olivet Cemetery but, through the efforts of the
citizens of Frederick, an