Thomas Francis Marshall, the famous Kentucky orator and advocate, was
born at Frankfort, Kentucky, June 7, 1801. He was the son of Dr. Louis
Marshall, a brother of the great chief justice, and sometime president
of Washington College (Washington and Lee University). "Tom" Marshall,
to give him the name by which he was known throughout the South and
West, was educated by private tutors, studied law under John J.
Crittenden, and began the practice at Versailles, Kentucky. From 1832 to
1836 he was a member of the Kentucky legislature, and his speeches in
that body, as well as in other places, brought him a great reputation as
a brilliant and witty orator. The habit of drink was fastening itself
upon him, however, and this retarded his progress in the world. Marshall
was elected to Congress from the old Ashland district in 1840, and in
that body he always bitterly opposed most measures proposed by Henry
Clay, whom he afterwards eloquently eulogized. In 1841 his distinguished
friend, Richard H. Menefee, the Kentucky orator, died, and Marshall
delivered his celebrated eulogy upon him. This address, given before the
Law Society of Transylvania University, was the greatest effort of his
life. It has been pronounced the finest speech of its character yet
made in America. Marshall served in the Mexican War with no great degree
of gallantry; and in 1850 he opposed the third Kentucky Constitution,
then in the making, through a paper which he edited and called the _Old
Guard_. "Tom" Marshall joined many temperance societies, and delivered
many temperance speeches, but he always violated his pledge and returned
to the old paths of drink. He was the great wit of his day and
generation in Kentucky, if not, indeed, in the whole country. His
stories are related to-day by persons who think them of recent origin.
Marshall was counsel in many noted trials in the South and West, and his
arguments to the jury were logical and eloquent. His speech in the
famous Matt. Ward trial is, perhaps, his master effort before a jury. In
1856 Marshall removed to Chicago, but he shortly afterwards returned to
Kentucky. In 1858-1859 he delivered lectures upon historical subjects in
various cities of the United States. The Civil War failed to interest
him at all, but he was broken in health at the time, and preparing
himself for the long journey which was fast pressing upon him. "Tom"
Marshall died near Versailles, Kentucky, September 22, 1864. To-day he
sleeps amid a clump of trees in a Blue Grass meadow near the little town
of his triumphs and of his failures--Versailles.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. _Speeches and Writings of Thomas F. Marshall_,
edited by W. L. Barre (Cincinnati, 1858); _Thomas F. Marshall_, by
Charles Fennell (_The Green Bag_, Boston, July, 1907).