John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, was born in
Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 24th of September 1755. He was the
son of Colonel Thomas Marshall, a planter of a moderate fortune, who
afterwards served with distinction in the American army, during the
war of the Revolution; and he was the eldest of 15 children. Colonel
Marshall had removed with his family to a place called ‘The Hollow’ in
the mountains east of the Blue Ridge, and, from the want of schools in
that neighborhood, became of necessity the first instructor of his
son. Being a man of vigorous intellect, though of a comparatively
limited education, he succeeded in efficiently training the opening
faculties of the latter, and imbuing him with a taste for literature.
At the age of 14, young Marshall was placed under the charge of a Mr.
Campbell, a respectable clergyman, at the distance of 100 miles from
home, and remained with him a year; and he then pursued his classical
studies for another year, under the direction of a Scottish gentleman
who resided in his father’s family, and had lately become the pastor
of the parish to which he belonged. This was all the formal
instruction which he received at this period of his life, as he was
never at any college. On the breaking out of the revolutionary war,
Mr. Marshall embraced with ardor the cause of his country, and was
engaged in the action at the Great Bridge, where Lord Dunmore was
defeated by the provincial militia. He was appointed a lieutenant in
the continental army in July 1776, and promoted to the rank of a
captain in May 1777. He was present at the battles of Brandywine,
Germantown, and Monmouth, and continued to serve with distinction
until the time of enlistment of the troops with which he served had
expired, when he returned to Virginia. An interval of 9 or 10 months
was now occupied by him in prosecuting the study of the law, which he
had already previously entered upon. Having been admitted to the bar,
he again joined the army in October 1780, and served under the orders
of Baron Steuben, in the defense of Virginia from the invasion of a
British force commanded by General Arnold. But before the renewed
invasion of the State in the following year, there being more officers
than was required by the Virginia line, he resigned his commission;
and, on the reöpening of the courts of law after the surrender of Lord
Cornwallis, he commenced the practice of his profession, in which he
rose rapidly to distinction. In the course of the year 1782, Mr.
Marshall was chosen first a member of the Legislature, and then of the
Executive Council. On his resignation of the last-mentioned office in
1784, he was, though residing at the time in Richmond, elected a
member of the Legislature from his native county of Fauquier; and in
1787, he represented the county of Henrico in the same body. We next
find him, as one of the delegates to the convention of Virginia which
met in June 1788 for the ratification of the constitution of the
United States, ably defending against its adversaries the provisions
of this instrument,――especially those relating to the powers of
taxation, over the militia, and of the judiciary, granted by it to the
general government. He was elected a member of the Legislature from
the city of Richmond in 1789, 1790 and 1791. He declined a reëlection
in 1792, and from this period until 1795, was occupied uninterruptedly
in the practice of his profession. His friends were, however,
unwilling in a season of great political excitement,――it was just
after the conclusion of ‘Jay’s treaty,’――that he should remain
abstracted from any participation in public affairs; and they,
accordingly, elected him once more to the Legislature; where, if he
did not succeed in preventing the adoption of resolutions approving of
the votes of the senators from Virginia, against the ratification of
the treaty, on the ground of its inexpediency,――to him at least it was
in a great measure owing that they did not touch the constitutional
objection, and that they disclaimed all intention to censure the
motives of the President of the United States (General Washington) in
ratifying it. The extraordinary ability displayed at this time by Mr.
Marshall obtained for him a conspicuous position in every part of the
country, and he came to be regarded as a proper person to fill the
highest political offices. Accordingly, he was offered successively
the appointments of attorney-general of the United States, and
minister to France, (on the recall of Mr. Monroe, in 1796,) both of
which he declined. He continued in the Legislature of Virginia, where,
however, he participated in the discussions only on important
questions of general policy, his attention being for the most part
given to his professional business, which had now become very
extensive and lucrative. On his refusal to accept of the embassy to
France, General Pinckney was appointed in his stead. But the French
government (the Directory) having refused to receive the latter, Mr.
Adams, who was then the president, deemed it proper to make a last
effort to preserve peace with France, by sending a special mission to
that country. For this purpose, Mr. Marshall, in conjunction with
General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry, was selected; and in the then existing
critical posture of our foreign relations, he did not feel himself at
liberty, as before, to decline the appointment tendered to him. The
mission was unsuccessful, the American envoys not having been even
received as such. Their letters, addressed to Talleyrand, the French
minister of foreign affairs, are attributed to the pen of Mr.
Marshall, and have been applauded as admirable specimens of diplomacy.
In the summer of 1798, Mr. Marshall returned to the United States; in
1799, at the urgent request of General Washington, he became a
candidate and was elected to Congress; and in 1800, he was appointed
secretary of war, and then secretary of state. During the short period
that he was in Congress, it is needless to say that he ranked among
the ablest of that body, and on all constitutional questions above
every other member. ‘When he discussed them,’ remarks Mr. Binney, in
his Eulogy of Mr. Marshall, ‘he exhausted them; nothing more remained
to be said, and the impression of his argument effaced that of every
one else.’ The speech which he delivered on the surrender of the
person of Jonathan Robbins, on the requisition of the British minister
in this country, under a clause of the treaty with Great Britain, upon
a charge of murder committed on board a British frigate,――which speech
is believed to be the only one that he ever revised,――is thus
characterized by the same gentleman: ‘It has all the merits, and
nearly all the weight, of a judicial sentence. It is throughout
inspired by the purest reason, and the most copious and accurate
learning. It separates the executive from the judicial power by a line
so distinct, and a discrimination so wise, that all can perceive and
approve it. It demonstrated that the surrender was an act of political
power which belonged to the executive; and by excluding all such power
from the grant of the constitution to the judiciary, it prepared a
pillow of repose for that department, where the success of the
opposite argument would have planted thorns.’ It may be mentioned
that, during his term of service in Congress, he voted for the repeal
of the obnoxious section of the act commonly known by the name of the
‘Sedition Law,’ and evinced his superiority to mere considerations of
party, by thus voting in opposition to all the members with whose
political opinions his own generally corresponded. On the 31st of
January 1800, Mr. Marshall became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, an office which he filled with the highest honor
to himself, and with the greatest advantage to his country, for
upwards of 36 years. ‘The decision of the Supreme Court of the United
States,’ we again quote the words of Mr. Binney, ‘have raised the
renown of the country, not less than they have confirmed the
constitution. In all parts of the world, its judgments are spoken of
with respect. Its adjudications of prize law are a code for all future
time. Upon commercial law it has brought us nearly to one system,
befitting the probity and interest of a great commercial nation. Over
its whole path, learning and intelligence and integrity have shed
their combined lustre.’ Judge Marshall was a member of the convention
which met in the year 1829, for revising the constitution of Virginia.
He spoke with much power on both of the great questions which divided
and agitated the parties composing that body, namely, the basis of
representation and the tenure of judicial office; and while he
contributed, by the sound sense and moderation of his views in
reference to the former, to produce a compromise between the extreme
opinions entertained concerning it, he was in no ordinary degree
instrumental in causing the tenure of good behavior, for the judges of
the Superior Courts, to be adopted in the proposed constitution,
guarded ‘by a clause against the construction which had in one
instance prevailed, that the repeal of the law establishing the court,
and by a mere majority, should dissolve the tenure, and discharge the
judge upon the world.’ Having been for some months in feeble health,
he visited Philadelphia that he might have the benefit of the most
skillful medical aid, and died in that city, on the 6th of July 1835.
Judge Marshall published his ‘Life of Washington’ in 1805, in 5
volumes. It was greatly improved and compressed into 2 volumes, in a
second edition which appeared in 1832. The first volume of the
original work was published in a separate form in 1824, under the
title of ‘The History of the American Colonies.’