_Rose-Hill: A Tale of the Old Dominion. By a Virginian. Philadelphia:
Key & Biddle._
This is an unpretending little duodecimo of about two hundred pages.
It embraces some events connected with two (fictitious) families in
the Western section of Virginia during the Revolution. The chief merit
of the work consists in a vein of piety and strict morality pervading
its pages. The story itself is interesting, but not very well put
together, while the _style_ might be amended in many respects. We wish
the book, however, every success.
{181} CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL.
1. _An Eulogy on the Life and Character of John Marshall. Delivered at
the request of the Councils of Philadelphia, on the 24th of September,
1835. By Horace Binney. pp. 55._
2. _A Discourse on the Life, &c. of John Marshall, L.L.D. Pronounced
on the 15th of October, 1835, at the request of the Suffolk Bar
(Boston.) By Joseph Story, L.L.D., and published at their request, pp.
70._
3. _An Oration on the Life and Character of John Marshall, late Chief
Justice of the United States, pronounced before the Citizens of
Alexandria, D. C. August 12, 1835. By Edgar Snowden. Published by
request of the Committee of Arrangements._[1]
[Footnote 1: The late hour at which we have received this pamphlet,
has prevented us from speaking as fully as we intended of its
distinguished merits. It would have given us great pleasure to have
embodied, in the text of this article, portions of Mr. Snowden's
Oration--an Oration justly entitled to companionship with the
Discourse of Judge Story, and the Eulogy of Mr. Binney. We must now,
however, at this late day, confine ourselves to a general expression
of commendation, and a short extract from the conclusion of the
Oration.
"But the 'good' of Marshall is not interred with his bones. It lives
after him, and will live after him in all time to come. The incense of
virtue which he burned upon his country's altar, will continue to rise
to heaven, and diffuse itself throughout the land for all following
generations. When our children shall read the story of his life, they
will find it one which, in its purity and beauty, cannot be surpassed
by the history of any other man of our age. And who can calculate the
extent of the influence of such a character upon the hearts and minds
of this people, and even upon the future destinies of this country, in
regulating the dispositions of those who aspire and those who are
called to the high places of the nation? Who can say that it will not
pervade the moral atmosphere, so as to correct many of those evil
tendencies which we now see constantly developing themselves. We want
such men as Marshall to rise up in our midst, and shed around the
chastened light of their influence. The glare of military fame, and
the glittering trappings of power, dazzle but too often to delude
those who gaze at them with admiration. But upon the mellow radiance
of his virtues we can all look with unclouded eyes--we can all dwell
with unmingled satisfaction."]
A formal criticism upon these discourses, is the least of our
intentions in placing them at the head of this article. Not that they
are either unworthy of criticism, or incapable of abiding its test:
but that, slight and unpretending as they are in their form and guise,
the consideration which their uncommon literary merits would otherwise
ensure them, is in great part lost, in the overshadowing magnitude of
their subject. To be engrossed by beauties or defects (if there are
defects) in the _style_ of a shilling pamphlet, when its theme is "the
Life, Character and Services" of one who blended the benevolence and
purity of Hale, the piercing and comprehensive genius of Mansfield,
and the logical power of Erskine; and who, in the majestic simplicity
of varied yet harmonious greatness, as we verily believe, is next to
Washington; would be to imitate Seneca's grammarian, who in reading
Virgil, thinks only of _longs and shorts_--disregarding all the charms
of incident, and all the glories of imagery. What we have to say of
the discourses, therefore, shall be little more, than that they are
worthy of their authors; who by these productions, if THESE stood
alone, have shown minds proof against the cramping tendencies of a
profession, so much better fitted (according to Mr. Burke) to _quicken
and invigorate_, than to _open and liberalize_ the intellect. All of
them have given narratives, crowded with interesting particulars; and,
what might not have been expected from his less intimate association
with the deceased, Mr. Binney seems to have acquired a larger store of
these, than Judge Story. The latter, however, (what might have been as
little expected from his grave judicial station, so long occupied) has
adorned his pages more highly, with the flowers and graces of style.
But our main design in bringing them before our readers, is to
present, at the smallest possible expense of labor to ourselves, an
outline of _his_ life, and a just view of _his_ character, whose
talents and virtues they have both so successfully commemorated. With
this intent, we purpose making large extracts from the discourses; and
even where we do not literally _quote_, we are willing to be regarded
as merely paraphrasing them,--for by far the most of the incidents we
are about to give, are drawn from no other source. We agree, with Lord
Bacon, that in general, it is "only the meaner sort of books" that
should be thus _hashed_ and read at second-hand; and that "distilled
books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things." But stinted
time and space oblige us here to be content with a _rifacimento_, in
which we trust our readers may still find much of the savor of the
viands whence we make our extracts.
JOHN MARSHALL was born Sept. 24th, 1755, in Fauquier County,
Virginia--a little more than two months after Braddock's defeat; and
was the eldest of fifteen children, of Thomas Marshall, who was a
colonel in the continental line of the Revolutionary Army, remarkable
for courage, and for strength of mind. His courage was signalized at
the Battles of Trenton and Brandywine; his regiment, at the latter,
bearing the brunt of the attacking column led by Cornwallis in person.
Though greatly outnumbered, it "maintained its position without losing
an inch of ground, until both its flanks were turned, its ammunition
nearly expended, and more than half the officers and one third of the
soldiers were killed or wounded. Col. Marshall, whose horse had
received two balls, then retired in good order to resume his position
on the right of his division, but it had already retreated."[2] The
heroism of such a father, could not be lost upon the son.
[Footnote 2: 1. Marshall's Washington, 158.]
The sparsely peopled region in which he lived, co-operating with a
narrow fortune, afforded Col. Marshall but little opportunity for
sending his children to school; and he was compelled to be almost
exclusively himself their teacher. In his eldest son he early
implanted a taste for English literature; "especially for poetry and
history." At the age of twelve, John had _transcribed_ the whole of
Pope's Essay on Man, and some of his Moral Essays; and had _committed
to memory_ many of the most interesting passages of that distinguished
poet.
"The love of poetry, thus awakened in his warm and vigorous mind, soon
exerted a commanding influence over it. He became enamored of the
classical writers of the old English school, of Milton, and
Shakspeare, and Dryden, and Pope; and was instructed by their solid
sense and beautiful imagery. In the enthusiasm of youth, he often
indulged himself in poetical compositions, and freely gave up his
leisure hours to those delicious dreamings with the muses, which (say
what we may) constitute with many the purest source of pleasure in the
gayer scenes of life, and the sweetest consolation in the hours of
adversity.
{182} "One of the best recommendations, indeed, of the early
cultivation of a taste for poetry, and the kindred branches of
literature, is, that it does not expire with youth. It affords to
maturer years a refreshing relaxation from the severe cares of
business, and to old age a quiet and welcome employment, always within
reach, and always bringing with it, if not the charms of novelty, at
least the soothing reminiscences of other days. The votary of the
muses may not always tread upon enchanted ground; but the gentle
influences of fiction and song will steal over his thoughts, and
breathe, as it were, into his soul the fragrance of a second spring of
life.
"Throughout the whole of his life, and down to its very close, Mr.
Marshall continued to cultivate a taste for general literature, and
especially for those departments of it, which had been the favorite
studies of his youth. He was familiar with all its light, as well as
its more recondite, productions. He read with intense interest, as his
leisure would allow, all the higher literature of modern times; and,
especially, the works of the great masters of the art were his
constant delight."--[_Judge Story_.]
The entire compatibility of such a love for elegant literature with
"the severe logic and closeness of thought, which belonged to" Judge
Marshall's character, is well vindicated by Judge Story's
observations, as well as by many illustrious examples. Among them may
be named William Wirt. The flowery complexion of his writings, his
evident delight in works of fancy, and the extraordinary graces of his
oratory, made the multitude believe him to be "of imagination all
compact." But he was in truth far more profoundly versed in the dry,
intricate lore of his profession, and by far more capable of thridding
its nicest subtleties, than thousands, whose whole minds have been
occupied with its "mystic, dark, discordant" tomes. We have been told
by one who knew him intimately, that there were few harder students
than Mr. Wirt: and that our informant had known him repeatedly sit for
six or seven hours at a time, intensely engaged in examining a single
question of law; and this too, at a period of his life when the world
thought him little more than a frothy declaimer, a spouter of poetry,
and an inditer of light newspaper essays. But to return--Judge Story
presents us most pleasing views of Col. Marshall's character, derived
from conversations with his more distinguished son:
"I have often heard the Chief Justice speak of him in terms of the
deepest affection and reverence."... "Indeed, he never named his
father, without dwelling on his character with a fond and winning
enthusiasm. It was a theme, on which he broke out with spontaneous
eloquence; and in the spirit of the most persuasive confidence, he
would delight to expatiate on his virtues and talents. 'My father,' he
would say with kindled feelings and emphasis, 'my father was a far
abler man than any of his sons. To him I owe the solid foundation of
all my own success in life.' Such praise from such lips is
inexpressibly precious. I know not whether it be most honorable to the
parent, or to the child. It warms, while it elevates our admiration of
both."
There is great truth in the remark, that children reared among
numerous brothers and sisters are the more apt, on that account, to
make good men and women. The kindly affections are more exercised;
emulation, tempered by such love as prevents its festering into
malignity, stimulates to greater activity of body and of mind; each
one has less expectation of hereditary fortune--that great palsier of
useful energies; and each comes in for less of that parental fondness,
which, when concentrated upon one, or two, or three children, so often
spoils their characters, and embitters their lives. To the influence
of this truth upon young Marshall's destinies, add the judicious
training and admirable example of an intelligent father, and the
hardy, active life he led, in a wild and mountainous region abounding
in game--and many of the best traits in his character, as well as much
of his subsequent eminence, are at once accounted for.
At fourteen, he was sent to Westmoreland, one hundred miles off, where
for a year he was instructed in Latin by a clergyman named Campbell,
and where James Monroe was one of his fellow students. Returning then
to his father's house, he, for another year, received instruction in
Latin from a Scotch clergyman named Thompson; "and this was the whole
of the classical tuition he ever obtained."[3] By the assistance of
his father, however, and the persevering efforts of his own mind, he
continued to enlarge his knowledge, while he strengthened his body by
"hardy, athletic exercises in the open air. He engaged in field
sports; he wandered in the deep woods; he indulged his solitary
meditations amidst the wildest scenery of nature; he delighted to
brush away the earliest dew of the morning."... "It was to these early
habits in a mountainous region, that he probably owed that robust and
vigorous constitution, which carried him almost to the close of his
life with the freshness and firmness of manhood."[4]
[Footnote 3: Mr. Binney.]
[Footnote 4: Judge Story.]
About his eighteenth year, when he had commenced the study of the Law,
the lowering aspect of affairs between the Colonies and Great Britain
attracted his notice, and he devoted himself chiefly to the acquiring
of military skill, in a volunteer corps of the neighborhood. At length
news came, of the battle of Lexington. A militia company, in which he
held a commission, was ordered to assemble at a place ten miles from
his father's house. Mr. Binney says, "A kinsman and contemporary, who
was an eye witness of this scene, has thus described it to me:--"
"It was in May, 1775. He was then a youth of nineteen. The muster
field was some twenty miles distant from the Court House, and a
section of country peopled by tillers of the earth. Rumors of the
occurrences near Boston, had circulated with the effect of alarm and
agitation, but without the means of ascertaining the truth, for not a
newspaper was printed nearer than Williamsburg, nor was one taken
within the bounds of the militia company, though large. The Captain
had called the company together, and was expected to attend, but did
not. John Marshall had been appointed Lieutenant to it. His father had
formerly commanded it. Soon after Lieutenant Marshall's appearance on
the ground, those who knew him clustered about him to greet him,
others from curiosity and to hear the news.
"He proceeded to inform the company that the Captain would not be
there, and that he had been appointed Lieutenant instead of a
better:--that he had come to meet them as fellow soldiers, who were
likely to be called on to defend their country, and their own rights
and liberties invaded by the British:--that there had been a battle at
Lexington in Massachusetts, between the British and Americans, in
which the Americans were victorious, but that more fighting was
expected:--that soldiers were called for, and that it was time to
brighten their fire arms, and learn to use them in the field;--and
that if they would fall into a single line, he would show them the new
manual exercise, for which purpose he had brought his gun,--bringing
it up to his shoulder. The sergeants put the men in line, and their
fugleman presented himself in front to the right. His figure, says his
venerable kinsman, I have now before me. He was about six feet high,
straight and rather slender, of dark complexion--showing little if any
rosy red, yet good health, the outline of the face nearly a circle,
and within that, eyes dark to blackness, strong and penetrating,
beaming with intelligence and good nature; an upright forehead, rather
low, was terminated in a {183} horizontal line by a mass of
raven-black hair of unusual thickness and strength--the features of
the face were in harmony with this outline, and the temples fully
developed. The result of this combination was interesting and very
agreeable. The body and limbs indicated agility, rather than strength,
in which, however, he was by no means deficient. He wore a purple or
pale-blue hunting-shirt, and trowsers of the same material fringed
with white. A round black hat, mounted with the bucks-tail for a
cockade, crowned the figure and the man.
"He went through the manual exercise by word and motion deliberately
pronounced and performed, in the presence of the company, before he
required the men to imitate him; and then proceeded to exercise them,
with the most perfect temper. Never did man possess a temper more
happy, or if otherwise, more subdued or better disciplined.
"After a few lessons, the company were dismissed, and informed that if
they wished to hear more about the war, and would form a circle around
him, he would tell them what he understood about it. The circle was
formed, and he addressed the company for something like an hour. I
remember, for I was near him, that he spoke at the close of his speech
of the Minute Battalion, about to be raised, and said he was going
into it, and expected to be joined by many of his hearers. He then
challenged an acquaintance to a game of quoits, and they closed the
day with foot races, and other athletic exercises, _at which there was
no betting_. He had walked ten miles to the muster field, and returned
the same distance on foot to his father's house at Oak Hill, where he
arrived a little after sunset."
"This is a portrait," to which, as we can testify with Mr. Binney, "in
simplicity, gaiety of heart, and manliness of spirit," John Marshall
"never lost his resemblance. All who knew him well, will recognize its
truth to nature."
In the summer of 1775, he was appointed a Lieutenant in the "Minute
Battalion;" and having been sent, in the next autumn, to defend the
country around Norfolk against a predatory force under Lord Dunmore,
he, on the 9th of December, had a full and honorable share in the
successful action at the Great Bridge, which resulted in Lord D.'s
defeat, and flight to his ships. In July 1776, being made lieutenant
in the 11th Virginia Regiment in the Continental Service, he marched
to the Middle States, where, in May 1777, he was promoted to a
captaincy. Remaining constantly in service from this time until the
close of 1779, he participated largely and actively in the most trying
difficulties of the darkest period of the Revolution. He was in the
skirmish at Iron Hill, and the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and
Monmouth. "He was one of that body of men, never surpassed in the
history of the world, who, unpaid, unclothed, unfed,--tracked the
snows of Valley Forge with the blood of their footsteps in the
rigorous winter of 1778, and yet turned not their faces from their
country in resentment, or from their enemies in fear."[5] Acting often
as Deputy Judge Advocate, he formed a wide acquaintance and influence
among his brother officers. "I myself," says Judge Story, "have often
heard him spoken of by these veterans in terms of the highest praise.
In an especial manner, the officers of the Virginia Line, (now, 'few
and faint, but fearless still') appeared almost to idolize him."
During this period of his service he became acquainted with Gen.
Washington and Col. Hamilton.
[Footnote 5: Mr. Binney.]
In the winter of 1779, Captain Marshall was sent to Virginia as a
supernumerary, to take the command of such men as the State
Legislature might entrust to him. He used this opportunity, to attend
a course of Law-Lectures, delivered by Mr. (afterwards Chancellor)
Wythe, in William & Mary College; and Mr. (afterwards Bishop)
Madison's Lectures on Natural Philosophy. In the following summer, he
was licensed to practise Law; and in October, rejoined the army. It
was probably on this occasion, that he went on foot from Virginia to
Philadelphia, in order to be inoculated for the small pox; travelling
at the rate of thirty-five miles daily. On his arrival, (as we learn
from one to whom he related the incident,) he was refused admittance
into one of the hotels, on account of his long beard and shabby
clothing. He continued in the army till the end of Arnold's invasion
of Virginia; when, there being still a redundancy of officers in the
Virginia line, he resigned his commission, and devoted himself to his
Law studies. The courts were then silenced in Virginia, by the tumult
of War. As soon as they were opened, after the capture of Cornwallis,
Mr. Marshall commenced practice.
"But a short time elapsed after his appearance at the bar of Virginia,
before he attracted the notice of the public. His placidity,
moderation, and calmness, irresistibly won the esteem of men, and
invited them to intercourse with him;--his benevolent heart, and his
serene and at times joyous temper, made him the cherished companion of
his friends;--his candor and integrity attracted the confidence of the
bar;--and that extraordinary comprehension and grasp of mind, by which
difficulties were seized and overcome without effort or parade,
commanded the attention and respect of the Courts of Justice. This is
the traditionary account of the first professional years of John
Marshall. He accordingly rose rapidly to distinction, and to a
distinction which nobody envied, because he seemed neither to wish it,
nor to be conscious of it himself."[6]
[Footnote 6: Mr. Binney.]
In April 1782, he was chosen a member of the House of Delegates, in
the Virginia Legislature; and in the next autumn, of the Executive
Council. In January 1783, he married Miss Ambler, daughter of
Jacquelin Ambler, then Treasurer of Virginia. To this lady he had
become attached while in the army; and their union of nearly fifty
years, amid the most devoted affection, was broken by her death, about
three years before his own. Having fixed his residence in Richmond, he
resigned his seat in the Council, the more closely to pursue his
profession; but his friends and former constituents in Fauquier,
nevertheless, elected him again to represent them in the Legislature.
In 1787, he was chosen to represent the city of Richmond.
Times of civil trouble had now come, teeming with dangers hardly less
than those which had beset the country ten years before. The
Confederation, by which the States were united, was found too feeble a
bond of union, and a still feebler means of concurrent action. It
could resolve, legislate, and make requisitions upon the States; but
had no power to effectuate its resolutions, laws, or requisitions. It
could contract debts, but not lay taxes of any kind to pay them. It
could declare war, but not raise armies to wage it. It could make
treaties, but not so as to regulate commerce--perhaps the most
frequent and important aim of treaties. Each State had the determining
of its own scale of duties on imports; the power of coining money, and
of emitting paper-money at pleasure: conflicting revenue-laws,
therefore, and a disordered currency, made "confusion worse
confounded." The public debt, incurred by the revolution, was unpaid.
More than three hundred millions of continental paper money were
unredeemed; and {184} having depreciated to the value of one dollar
for every hundred, had ceased to circulate. Public credit was nearly
at an end: private credit, by the frequent violation of contracts, was
at an equally low ebb: the administration of civil justice was
suspended, sometimes by the wilful delinquency of the courts,
sometimes by state-laws, restraining their proceedings. Commerce,
Agriculture, Manufactures--industry of every kind,--were crippled.
"Laws suspending the collection of debts; insolvent laws; instalment
laws; tender laws; and other expedients of a like nature, which, every
reflecting man knew would only aggravate the evils, were familiarly
adopted, or openly and boldly vindicated. Popular leaders, as well as
men of desperate fortunes, availed themselves (as is usual on such
occasions) of this agitating state of things to inflame the public
mind, and to bring into public odium those wiser statesmen, who
labored to support the public faith, and to preserve the inviolability
of private contracts." To strengthen the arm of the general
government, and invest it with larger powers over the commerce, the
money, and the foreign and mutual relations of the States--was
believed by most people to be the only remedy for these intolerable
evils. Mr. Marshall concurred with Gen. Washington, Mr. Madison, and
the majority of their countrymen, in approving of this remedy; and as
a member of the State Legislature, advocated the call of a Convention,
to revise the Articles of Confederation. Whether they should be so
altered, as to increase materially the powers of the Federal
Government--was a question which in most of the State Legislatures
elicited strenuous debates; and no where more, than in the Legislature
of Virginia. The men of this day have little idea, how strong were the
gusts of discussion at that momentous period. "It is scarcely
possible," says Judge Story, "to conceive the zeal, and even
animosity, with which the opposing opinions were maintained." The
dissolution or continuance of the Union, was freely discussed: one
party boldly advocating the former, as necessary to prevent the
destruction of State-sovereignty; the other party pleading for UNION,
as not only the sole cure for the immeasurable ills which were then
afflicting the land, but as indispensable to the preservation of
Liberty itself, in the several States. And _Union_, it was alleged,
could not be preserved but by a more vigorous central government.
Mr. Marshall, not then thirty years old, shared largely in the
discussions which shook both the Legislative hall, and the popular
assemblies, of Virginia, on this great question. Mr. Madison, with
whom he served several years in the House of Delegates, fought "side
by side, and shoulder to shoulder" with him, through the contest: and
"the friendship, thus formed between them, was never extinguished. The
recollection of their co-operation at that period served, when other
measures had widely separated them from each other, still to keep up a
lively sense of each other's merits. Nothing, indeed, could be more
touching to an ingenuous mind, than to hear from their lips, in their
latter years, expressions of mutual respect and confidence; or to
witness their earnest testimony to the talents, the virtues, and the
services of each other."[7]
[Footnote 7: Judge Story.]
It was in these debates, that Mr. Marshall's mind acquired the skill
in political discussion, which afterwards distinguished him, and which
would of itself have made him conspicuous as a parliamentarian, had
not that talent been overshadowed by his renown in a more soberly
illustrious, though less dazzling career. Here, too, it was, that he
conceived that deep dread of disunion, and that profound conviction of
the necessity for closer bonds between the States, which gave the
coloring to the whole texture of his opinions, upon federal politics
in after life.
The Convention was at length called; and its product, the present
Federal Constitution, was submitted for ratification to the States. In
most of them, Conventions were likewise called, to adopt or reject it.
Mr. Marshall, though the people of his county were decidedly opposed
to the new Constitution, and though he avowed on the hustings his
determination to support it, was elected to the Virginia Convention by
a considerable majority. In that body, he took an effective, if not a
leading part. Three able speeches of his, in behalf of the
Constitution, appear in Mr. Robertson's report of the Debates:
Speeches, seconding with "masculine logic, the persuasive talents of
George Nicholas, the animated flow of Governor Randolph, the grave and
sententious sagacity of Pendleton, the consummate skill and various
knowledge of Madison."[8] After an earnest and powerful struggle of 25
days, the Constitution was agreed to, by a majority of but ten
votes--89 to 79. This result is supposed to have been promoted, by the
news, received while the Convention sat, that nine states had come to
a similar decision. The accession of Virginia to that number, already
large enough to give the instrument validity among the adopting
states, ensured its complete success; and was hailed by its friends
with the liveliest joy.
[Footnote 8: Judge Story.]
Judge Story depicts in vivid colors, the happy effects of the
Government thus established, upon our prosperity: and exults over the
falsified apprehensions of those who, clinging "with an insane
attachment" to the former confederation, and "accustomed to have all
their affections concentrated upon the State governments," saw in the
new system "but another name for an overwhelming despotism."
Undoubtedly, the state of things which preceded the change, was as bad
as, with such a people, it could well be. Undoubtedly, the new
government did _very_ much, to retrieve our national credit and honor;
to make us respected abroad, tranquil and prosperous at home. But
still, not _all_ is due to the Government. A people, animated with the
spirit of freedom, enlightened enough to see their interests, and
enterprising enough to pursue them strenuously,--inhabiting, too, a
country not peopled to the extent of a thousandth part of its immense
capabilities--would thrive and grow powerful _in spite_ of what almost
any government could do to impede their onward march. In the body
politic there is, what physicians ascribe to the body natural, a _vis
medicatrix Naturæ_, by which the wounds of War, the desolations of
Pestilence, and all the ills flowing from the blunders of _charlatan_
statesmen, are healed and made amends for. Few are so bigoted as not
to admit, that the self-healing energies of our country have thus at
some times prevailed over the hurtful tendencies of the {185} measures
adopted by her rulers. There is nevertheless a force and beauty in
Judge Story's picture of her happiness, that make it worthy of
insertion:
"We have lived," says he, "to see all their fears and prophecies of
evil scattered to the winds. We have witnessed the solid growth and
prosperity of the whole country, under the auspices of the National
Government, to an extent never even imagined by its warmest friends.
We have seen our agriculture pour forth its various products, created
by a generous, I had almost said, a profuse industry. The miserable
exports, scarcely amounting in the times, of which I have been
speaking, in the aggregate, to the sum of one or two hundred thousand
dollars, now almost reach to forty[9] millions a year in a single
staple. We have seen our commerce, which scarcely crept along our
noiseless docks, and stood motionless and withering, while the breezes
of the ocean moaned through the crevices of our ruined wharves and
deserted warehouses, spread its white canvass in every clime; and,
laden with its rich returns, spring buoyant on the waves of the home
ports; and cloud the very shores with forests of masts, over which the
stars and stripes are gallantly streaming. We have seen our
manufactures, awakening from a deathlike lethargy, crowd every street
of our towns and cities with their busy workmen, and their busier
machinery; and startling the silence of our wide streams, and deep
dells, and sequestered valleys. We have seen our wild waterfalls,
subdued by the power of man, become the mere instruments of his will,
and, under the guidance of mechanical genius, now driving with
unerring certainty the flying shuttle, now weaving the mysterious
threads of the most delicate fabrics, and now pressing the reluctant
metals into form, as if they were but playthings in the hands of
giants. We have seen our rivers bear upon their bright waters the
swelling sails of our coasters, and the sleepless wheels of our
steamboats in endless progress. Nay, the very tides of the ocean, in
their regular ebb and flow in our ports, seem now but heralds to
announce the arrival and departure of our uncounted navigation. We
have seen all these things; and we can scarcely believe, that there
were days and nights, nay, months and years, in which our wisest
patriots and statesmen sat down, in anxious meditation to devise the
measures which should save the country from impending ruin."
[Footnote 9: The exports of cotton alone, in the year ending Sept.
30th, 1834, were $49,448,000--_Reviewer_.]
The Constitution being adopted, Mr. Marshall was prevailed on by his
countrymen, to serve again in the Legislature till 1792; although the
claims of a growing family and a slender fortune had made him wish,
and resolve, to quit public life, and devote himself exclusively to
his profession. He was wanted there by the friends of the new system,
to defend its administration against the incessant attacks made upon
it by a powerful and hostile party. This party consisted of those who
had resisted the change, because they thought the proposed government
too strong. Now that it was adopted, they naturally sought, by
construing the grants of power to it with literal strictness, to
prevent, as far possible, the dangers to Liberty with which they
deemed it pregnant. Their opponents, on the other hand, having long
regarded _weakness in the centre_ as the great subject of just
apprehension, constantly aimed, by an enlarged and liberal (or, as it
has since been called a _latitudinous_) interpretation of those grants
of power, to render them in the highest degree counteractive of the
centrifugal tendency, which they so much dreaded. This controversy
probably raged most hotly in Virginia. It is hard to forbear a smile
at the characteristic fact, that "almost every important measure of
President Washington's administration was discussed in her Legislature
with great freedom, and no small degree of warmth and acrimony."[10]
We applaud and honor the stand which Virginia has always taken, as a
centinel on the watch-tower of popular liberty and state-sovereignty,
to guard against federal usurpation. It is a duty, allotted to the
State Legislatures by the enlightened advocates of the Constitution
who wrote "The Federalist:" a duty which it were well if her sister
states had performed with something like Virginia's fidelity and zeal.
But she has indiscreetly suffered this one subject too much to
monopolize her attention: and we are amongst those who think this a
main reason, why, with a surface and resources the most propitious of
all the states to internal improvement, she lags so far behind the
rest in works of that kind; and why, with a people pre-eminently
_instinct_ with the spirit of liberty, and enjoying unwonted leisure
for acquiring knowledge, she has five times as many ignorant sons and
daughters, as New York or Massachusetts. She ought to have looked well
to her foreign relations, without losing sight of her domestic
interests. We hail, with joy, the change which is now taking place in
this respect. We trust that she and her statesmen, hereafter, when
_all_ attention is claimed for any one point in the vast field of
their duties, will adopt the spirit of the reply which Mr. Pope (not
Homer) puts into Hector's mouth, when he was advised to fix himself as
a guard at one particular gate of Troy:
------"That post shall be my care;
Nor that alone, but _all_ the works of war."
[Footnote 10: Judge Story.]
From 1792 to 1795, Mr. Marshall devoted himself exclusively and
successfully to his profession. Washington's Reports, shew him to have
enjoyed an extensive practice in the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
During this time, also, he did not withdraw himself from politics so
entirely, but that he took a prominent part at public meetings, in
support of Gen. Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality. He advocated
this measure, orally and in writing: and Resolutions approving it,
drawn up by him, were adopted by a meeting of the people of Richmond.
In 1795, when Jay's Treaty was the absorbing theme of bitter
controversy, Mr. Marshall was again elected to the House of Delegates,
"not only without his approbation, but against his known wishes."
Virginia, as usual, was the _Flanders_ of the war. Her popular
meetings, and her Legislature, rung with angry discussions. Even the
name of Washington could not screen the treaty from reprobation. It
was denounced at a meeting in Richmond, at which Chancellor Wythe
presided, as _insulting, injurious, dangerous, and unconstitutional_:
but the same citizens, at a subsequent meeting, were prevailed upon by
a masterly speech of Mr. Marshall, to adopt resolutions of a contrary
tenor, "by a handsome majority."[11] Lest his _popularity_ might
suffer, he was urged by his friends not to engage in any Legislative
debates upon the obnoxious Treaty. He answered, that he would make no
movement to excite such a debate; but if others did so, he would
assert his opinions at every hazard. The opposition party soon
introduced condemnatory resolutions. Among other arguments against the
treaty, it was alleged, that the executive could not,
constitutionally, make a commercial treaty; since it would infringe
the power given to Congress, to _regulate commerce_: and this was
relied upon as a favorite and an unanswerable position. "The speech of
Mr. Marshall on this occasion," says Judge {186} Story, "has always
been represented as one of the noblest efforts of his genius. His vast
powers of reasoning were displayed with the most gratifying success.
He demonstrated, not only from the words of the Constitution and the
_universal practice of nations_,[12] that a commercial treaty was
within the scope of the constitutional powers of the executive; but
that this opinion had been maintained and sanctioned by Mr. Jefferson,
by the Virginia delegation in Congress, and by the leading members of
the Convention on both sides. The argument was decisive. The
constitutional ground was abandoned; and the resolutions of the
assembly were confined to a simple disapprobation of the treaty in
point of expediency.... The fame of this admirable argument spread
through the union. Even with his political enemies, it enhanced the
estimate of his character; and it brought him at once to the notice of
some of the most eminent statesmen, who then graced the councils of
the nation."
[Footnote 11: Judge Story.]
[Footnote 12: We confess a little surprise, at seeing, here, any
deduction of authority to the American Executive "_from the practice
of other nations_." If we mistake not, a certain famous _Protest_ of a
certain President, was censured mainly for deducing power to its
author from that source.--_Reviewer_.]
Being called to Philadelphia in 1796, as counsel in an important case
before the Supreme Court of the United States, he became personally
acquainted with many distinguished members of Congress. He expressed
himself delighted with Messrs. Cabot, Ames, Sedgwick, and Dexter of
Massachusetts, Wadsworth of Connecticut, and King of New York. To
these, his great speech on the treaty could not fail to recommend him:
and (as he says in a letter) "a Virginian, who supported, with any
sort of reputation, the measures of the government, was such a _rara
avis_, that I was received by them all with a degree of kindness,
which I had not anticipated. I was particularly intimate with Mr.
Ames; and could scarcely gain credit with him, when I assured him,
that the appropriations [for the treaty] would be seriously opposed in
Congress." They _were_ opposed; and passed only after a stormy debate
of several weeks: and passed even then, with a declaration of a right,
in Congress, to withhold them if it pleased. President Washington
about this time offered him the post of Attorney General of the United
States; which he declined, as interfering with his lucrative practice.
But he continued in the Virginia Legislature. There, federal politics
occupied the usual share of attention. A resolution being moved,
expressing confidence in the virtue, patriotism, and wisdom of
Washington, a member proposed to strike out the word _wisdom_. "In the
debate," says the Chief Justice himself, "the whole course of the
Administration was reviewed, and the whole talent of each party
brought into action. Will it be believed, that the word was retained
by a very small majority? A very small majority of the Virginia
Legislature, acknowledged the wisdom of General Washington!"
The appointment of Minister to France, as successor to Mr. Monroe, was
offered him by the President, and declined. The French Government,
however, refusing to receive General Pinckney, who was appointed in
his stead, Messrs. Marshall, Pinckney, and Gerry, were sent by
President Adams as envoys extraordinary to that country. The Directory
refused to negotiate. But though the direct object of the embassy was
thus foiled, much was effected in showing France to be in the wrong,
by the official papers which the envoys addressed to her minister of
foreign relations--the since famous Talleyrand: "Models of skilful
reasoning, clear illustration, accurate detail, and urbane and
dignified moderation."[13] "They have always been attributed to Mr.
Marshall. They bear internal marks of it. We have since become
familiar with his simple and masculine style,--his direct, connected,
and demonstrative reasoning--the infrequency of his resort to
illustrations, and the pertinency and truth of the few which he
uses--the absence of all violent assertion--the impersonal form of his
positions, and especially with the candor, as much the character of
the man as of his writings, with which he allows to the opposing
argument its fair strength, without attempting to elude it, or escape
from it, by a subtlety. Every line that he has written, bears the
stamp of sincerity; and if his arguments fail to produce conviction,
they never raise a doubt, nor the shadow of a doubt, that they proceed
from it.
[Footnote 13: Judge Story.]
"The impression made, by the despatches of the American ministers was
immediate and extensive. Mr. Marshall arrived in New York on the 17th
of June, 1798. His entrance into this city on the 19th, had the eclat
of a triumph. The military corps escorted him from Frankford to the
city, where the citizens crowded his lodgings to testify their
veneration and gratitude. Public addresses were made to him, breathing
sentiments of the liveliest affection and respect. A public dinner was
given to him by members of both houses of Congress 'as an evidence of
affection for his person, and of their grateful approbation of the
patriotic firmness with which he sustained the dignity of his country
during his important mission;' and the country at large responded with
one voice to the sentiment pronounced at this celebration, 'Millions
for defence, but not a cent for tribute.'"[14]
[Footnote 14: Mr. Binney.]
Once more, he resumed his practice of the Law, with renewed
determination to leave it no more. He was, however, so urgently
entreated by General Washington (who sent for him to Mount Vernon for
the purpose) to become a candidate for Congress, that he did so; and
was elected, in 1799, after a severe contest. Whilst a candidate,
President Adams offered him a seat upon the Bench of the Supreme
Court; but he declined it. He had not been three weeks in Congress,
when, by a fortune as striking as it was mournful, it became his lot
to announce to the House, the death of Washington. Never could such an
event have been told in language more impressive or more appropriate.
"Mr. Speaker--The melancholy event, which was yesterday announced with
doubt, has been rendered but too certain. Our Washington is no more.
The hero, the patriot, and the sage of America; the man on whom in
times of danger every eye was turned, and all hopes were placed, lives
now, only in his own great actions, and in the hearts of an
affectionate and afflicted people."
Having briefly alluded to the achievements and services of the
deceased, he concluded by offering suitable resolutions, for honoring
"the memory of the {187} man, first in war, first in peace, and first
in the hearts of his countrymen." The resolutions had been drawn by
General Henry Lee, whom a temporary absence hindered from presenting
them. With characteristic modesty, Mr. Marshall, in the account of
this transaction given by him as biographer of Washington, omits all
mention of his own name; saying only, that "_a member_ rose in his
place," &c. That House of Representatives abounded in talents of the
first order for debate: and none were more conspicuous than those of
John Marshall. Indeed, where the law or constitution was to be
discussed, "he was confessedly the first man in the House. When he
discussed them, he exhausted them: nothing more remained to be said;
and the impression of his argument effaced that of every one else."...
"Upon such topics, however dark to others, his mind could by its own
clear light
------'sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day.'"[15]
[Footnote 15: Mr. Binney.]
His speech upon the case of Jonathan Robbins, was a striking example.
This man, a subject of Great Britain, had committed a murder on board
a British frigate, and then fled to the United States. Being demanded
by the British Government, President Adams caused him to be
surrendered, under a clause in Jay's treaty. The act was furiously
assailed by the opposition: and a resolution of censure was introduced
into the House of Representatives by Mr. Livingston. The speech of Mr.
Marshall on this occasion was perhaps one of the most masterly ever
delivered in Congress. "It has all the merits, and nearly all the
weight of a judicial sentence."[16] "It may be said of that speech, as
was said of Lord Mansfield's celebrated Answer to the Prussian
Memorial, it was _Reponse sans replique_--an answer so irresistible,
that it admitted of no reply. It silenced opposition; and settled
then, and forever, the points of national law, upon which the
controversy hinged."[17]
[Footnote 16: Ib.]
[Footnote 17: Judge Story.]
He was not in Congress when the famous _Sedition Law_ passed: but he
had the merit of voting to repeal the most obnoxious section of it; in
opposition to all those, with whom he generally concurred. In May,
1800, he was appointed Secretary of War: but before his entry upon the
duties of that office, a rupture occurring between the President and
Col. Pickering, he was made Secretary of State in lieu of the latter.
It is honorable both to him and his predecessor, that the delicate
position in which they stood towards each other, did not interrupt
their harmony: but they retained, while both lived, a warm and cordial
friendship. Even during the few months that he held this office, Mr.
Marshall evinced great ability, in discussing several important
questions between our country and England. "It is impossible to
imagine a finer spirit, more fearless, more dignified, more
conciliatory, more true to his country, than animates his instructions
to Mr. King,"[18] the American Minister in London. "His despatch of
September 20th, 1800, is a noble specimen of the first order of State
papers, and shows the most finished adaptation of parts for the
station of an American Secretary of State."[19]
[Footnote 18: Mr. Binney.]
[Footnote 19: Ib.]
On the 31st of January, 1801, he was appointed Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States: "not only without his own
solicitation, (for he had in fact recommended another for the office,)
but by the prompt and spontaneous choice of President Adams, upon his
own unassisted judgment. The nomination was unanimously confirmed by
the Senate."[20]
[Footnote 20: Judge Story.]
It is a remarkable, yet not an extraordinary fact, that his induction
into that high office which he so illustriously filled, is precisely
the juncture in his life at which, for the purposes of striking
narrative, his biography ends. That part of his career, the most
signalized by enduring monuments of his intellectual power, and the
most adorned by the winning graces of his daily actions, is precisely
that in which it is hardest to find glaring incidents, that stand
forth boldly on the page, and rivet the reader's mind. "Peace" indeed,
as Milton said to Cromwell,--
"Peace hath her victories
No less renowned than War;"
and few men have achieved more signal ones, than he who may be said to
have built up a national Jurisprudence for the Union, by the strength
of his own genius: but such triumphs ring not in the common ear, and
glitter not in the common eye. Even History often forgets to chronicle
them in her bloodstained page: that page, which is too mere a picture
of crimes and misery--where the peaceful and innocent crowd never
appear, but give place to the profligate votaries of perverted
ambition--and which, like tragedy, is languid and distasteful, unless
enlivened by atrocious deeds, and horrid sufferings.[21] We shall not
attempt, then, to protract our account of the last thirty-five years
of Judge Marshall's life. It was spent in the diligent, and upright,
as well as able discharge of his official duties; sometimes presiding
in the Supreme Court at Washington, sometimes assisting to hold the
_Circuit Federal Courts_, in Virginia, and North Carolina. His
residence was in Richmond, whence it was his frequent custom to walk
out, a distance of three or four miles, to his farm, in the county of
Henrico. He also had a farm in his native county, Fauquier; which he
annually visited, and where he always enjoyed a delightful intercourse
with numerous relations and friends. Twice, in these thirty-five
years, he may be said to have mingled in political life, but not in
party politics.
[Footnote 21: "En effet l'histoire n'est que le tableau des crimes et
des malheurs: la foule des hommes innocents et paisibles disparait
toujours sur ces vastes théâtres: les personnages ne sont que des
ambitieux pervers. Il semble que l'histoire ne plaise que comme la
tragedie, qui languit si elle n'est animée par les passions, les
forfaits, et les grandes infortunes."--_L'Ingenu, Ch. 10_.]
In 1828, he was delegated, with others from the city of Richmond, to a
convention held in Charlottesville, for the purpose of devising a
proper system of internal improvements, for the State; to be
recommended to the Legislature: and he took a becoming part in the
deliberations of that enlightened body.
In 1829, he was chosen to represent the city in the Convention which
met in October of that year, to revise and amend the State
Constitution. Here was exhibited a spectacle, one of the most
affecting in our day, of three men--Madison, Monroe, and
Marshall,--who having assisted in establishing the liberties and
creating the government of their country, and having filled her
highest stations, were now consulting with a later generation, upon
the means of rendering that government {188} purer, more durable, and
more productive of happiness. Mr. Monroe was nominated by Mr. Madison
as President of the Convention; and, having been unanimously chosen,
was conducted by Mr. Madison and Mr. Marshall to the chair. During the
three months of the session, Judge Marshall repeatedly engaged in
debate: displaying still that power of reasoning, with that bland
courtesy of manner, which had always distinguished him. His voice was
now become extremely feeble; so that those who sat far off could not
hear him: no sooner therefore did he rise, than the members would
press towards him, and strain with outstretched necks and eager ears,
to catch his words. The basis of representation, and the structure of
the judiciary, were the subjects upon which he chiefly spoke. The
difficulties of adjusting the former, so as to satisfy both the east
and the west--the irritated feelings which began to appear on both
sides--and the imminent dread which the patriot felt, of a division of
the state--will not soon be forgotten. It was when a _compromise_ of
the difference was proposed, that the Chief Justice displayed his
greatest power. Towards the close of a speech, which was at the time
regarded as an unrivalled specimen of lucid and conclusive reasoning,
he said, he "hailed that auspicious appearance, with all the joy with
which an inhabitant of the polar regions hails the re-appearance of
the sun, after his long absence of six tedious months." It was of a
position maintained by him in this speech, and which, an opposing
orator said, had been _overthrown_ by Mr. ---- of Augusta, that John
Randolph declared, "The argument of the Chief Justice is unshaken, and
unanswerable. It is as strong as the fortress of Gibraltar. Sir, the
fortress of Gibraltar would be as much injured by _battering it with a
pocket pistol_, as that argument has been affected by the abortive and
puny assault of the gentleman from Augusta." The great Roanoke
orator's esteem and admiration for the Chief Justice (although, on
federal politics, they widely differed) amounted almost to idolatry.
An amicable contest between them one day, on the floor of the
Convention, furnished him an occasion for paying to the latter a
tribute as beautiful, as it was simple and just. The Chief Justice,
thinking that some remark of his had been understood by Mr. Randolph
as personally unkind, arose with earnestness to assure him that it was
not so intended. Mr. R. as earnestly strove to quiet Judge M.'s
uneasiness, by assuring him that he had not understood the remark as
offensive. In their eagerness, the one to apologize, and the other to
show that no apology was necessary, they interrupted each other two or
three times: at length Mr. R. effectually silenced his friend, by
saying, "I know the goodness of his heart too well to have supposed it
possible that he could have intended to give me pain. Sir, I believe,
that like 'My Uncle Toby,' _he would not even hurt a fly_."
A visiter in Richmond during the Convention, being at the market one
morning before sunrise, saw the Chief Justice of the United States, in
the blue-mixed woollen stockings and the plain black suit (far from
superfine) which he usually wore, striding along between the rows of
meat and vegetables, catering for his household; and depositing his
purchases in a basket, carried by a servant. But it was his frequent
custom to go on this errand, unattended; and nothing was more usual,
than to see him returning from market at sunrise, with poultry in one
hand, and a basket of vegetables in the other. So beautifully, by a
simplicity which pervaded his words, his actions, his whole life, did
he illustrate the character of a republican citizen and magistrate!
No man more highly relished social, and even convivial enjoyments. He
was a member of the club, which for 48 summers has met once a
fortnight near Richmond, to pitch quoits and mingle in relaxing
conversation: and there was not one more delightedly punctual in his
attendance at these meetings, or who contributed more to their
pleasantness: scarcely one, who excelled him in the manly game, from
which the "Quoit-Club" drew its designation. He would hurl his iron
ring of two pound's weight, with rarely erring aim, fifty-five or
sixty feet; and, at some _chef-d'œuvre_ of skill in himself or his
_partner_, would spring up and clap his hands, with all the
light-hearted enthusiasm of boyhood. Such is the old age, which
follows a temperate, an innocent, and a useful life! We extract from
the American Turf Register of 1829, the following entertaining account
of this Club.
During a recent visit to Richmond, in Virginia, I was invited to a
"Barbecue Club," held under the shade of some fine oaks, near
"Buchanan's Spring," about a mile distant from the town. I there met
with about thirty of the respectable inhabitants of Richmond, with a
few guests. The day was a fine one, and the free and social
intercourse of the members rendered it peculiarly pleasant.
This Club is probably the most ancient one of the sort in the United
States, having existed upwards of forty years. It originated in a
meeting, every other Saturday, from the first of May until the month
of October, of some of the Scotch merchants who were early settlers in
that town. They agreed each to take out some cold meats for their
repast, and to provide a due quantity of drinkables, and enjoy
relaxation in that way after the labors of the week. They occasionally
invited some others of the inhabitants, who finding the time passed
pleasantly, proposed in the year 1788 to form a regular club,
consisting of thirty members, under a written constitution, limiting
their expenses each day by a sort of sumptuary law which prohibited
the use of wine and porter.
The Virginians, you know, have always been great _limitarians_ as to
constitutional matters. Whenever a member died or resigned, (but there
have been very few resignations,) his place was filled by balloting
for a new one, who could not be elected without the concurrence of
two-thirds of the club. It is said that for many years no vacancy
occurred, and a sort of superstitious sentiment was prevalent, that to
become a member of the club, was to insure longevity. The Arch
Destroyer, however, at length appeared in all his strength, and made
such havoc, that only one of the original members (the venerable Chief
Justice of the United States,) is now surviving.
The club consists of judges, lawyers, doctors, and merchants, and the
Governor of the Commonwealth has a general invitation when he enters
into office. What gave additional interest to this body, some years
ago, was the constant attendance (as honorary members) of two
venerable clergymen--one of the Episcopal, and the other of the
Presbyterian church, who joined in the innocent pastime of the day.
They were pious and exemplary men, who discerned no sin in harmless
gaiety. Quoits and backgammon are the only games indulged in, and one
of the clergymen was for many years "cock of the walk" in throwing the
_discus_. They are gone to their account, and have left a chasm that
has not been filled.
Some years ago, an amendment was made to the constitution, which
admits the use of porter. Great opposition was made to this
innovation, and the destruction of the club was predicted as the
consequence. The oppositionists, however, soon became as great
consumers of malt and hops as their associates, and now they even
consent to the introduction of wine at the last meeting of every year,
provided there be "a shot in the locker." The members each advance ten
dollars to the treasurer at the beginning of the season, and every
member is entitled to invite any {189} strangers as guests, on paying
into the general fund one dollar for each; while the caterers of the
day, consisting of two members in rotation, preside, and have the
privilege of bringing each a guest (either citizen or non-resident,)
at free cost. On the day I was present, dinner was ready at half past
three o'clock, and consisted of excellent meats and fish, well
prepared and well served, with the vegetables of the season. Your
veritable gourmand never fails to regale himself on his favorite
_barbecue_--which is a fine fat pig, called "shoot," cooked on the
coals, and highly seasoned with cayenne--a dessert of melons and
fruits follows, and punch, porter and toddy are the table liquors; but
with the fruits comes on the favorite beverage of the Virginians, mint
julep, in place of wine. I never witnessed more festivity and good
humor than prevail at this club. By the constitution, the subject of
politics is forbidden, and each man strives to make the time pleasant
to his companions. The members think they can offer no higher
compliment to a distinguished stranger, than to introduce him to the
club, and all feel it a duty to contribute to his entertainment. It
was refreshing to see such a man as Chief Justice Marshall, laying
aside the reserve of his dignified station, and contending with the
young men at a game of quoits, with all the emulation of a youth.
Many anecdotes are told of occurrences at these meetings. Such is the
partiality for the Chief Justice, that it is said the greatest anxiety
is felt for his success in the game by the bystanders; and on one
occasion an old Scotch gentleman was called on to decide between his
quoit and that of another member, who after seemingly careful
measurement, announced, "Mister _Mareshall_ has it a _leattle_," when
it was visible to all that the contrary was the fact. A French
gentleman (Baron Quenet,) was at one time a guest, when the Governor,
the Chief Justice, and several of the Judges of the High Court of
Appeals, were engaged with others, _with coats off_, in a
well-contested game. He asked, "if it was possible that the
dignitaries of the land could thus intermix with private citizens,"
and when assured of the fact, he observed, with true Gallican
enthusiasm, that "he had never before seen the real beauty of
republicanism."
In Judge Marshall's yearly visits to Fauquier, where the proper
implements of his favorite sport were not to be had, he still
practised it among his rustic friends, with _flat stones_ for quoits.
A casual guest at a _barbecue_ in that county--one of those rural
entertainments so frequent among the country people of Virginia--soon
after his arrival at the spot, saw an old man emerge from a thicket
which bordered the neighboring brook, carrying as large a pile of
these flat stones as he could hold between his right arm and his chin:
he stepped briskly up to the company, and threw down his load among
them, exclaiming, "There! Here are quoits enough for us all!" The
stranger's surprise may be imagined, when he found that this plain and
cheerful old man was the Chief Justice of the United States! Nor was
the _bonhommie_, with which he could descend to the level of common
life, restricted to his intercourse with men and women: he was often a
pleasing companion even to children. One, whose first recollection of
him referred to his triumphal entry (for such it was) into Richmond,
on his return from France, and who, as a printer's boy, afterwards for
several years was carrier of a newspaper to him, describes him as
"remarkably fond of boys' company--always chatty--and always
pleasant." The reminiscent, having been transferred to Washington in
1800, while Mr. M. was Secretary of State, says, "again did the
pleasing office of serving him with the 'Washington Federalist'
devolve on me. He resided in a brick building hardly larger than most
of the kitchens now in use. I found him still the same plain,
unostentatious John Marshall: always accessible, and always with a
smile on his countenance when I handed him the 'Federalist.' His
kindness of manner won my affections; and I became devotedly attached
to him."
Even from this early period the reminiscent may date the commencement
of an intercourse and correspondence with the Chief Justice, which
endured uninterruptedly for many years, until the period of his
lamented death. The unaffected and childlike simplicity of manner,
action, and thought which pervaded, as the sunlight pervades the
atmosphere, every moment of this truly great man's existence, and
which, indeed, formed, in no little degree, the basis of his
greatness, sufficed to render the intercourse of which we speak, an
intercourse of the most kindly, unembarrassed, and intimate nature;
and one which afforded opportunities for a more particular knowledge
of the strictly private and familiar habitudes of the man, than has
fallen to the lot of many who, perhaps, were better entitled to his
confidence. The reminiscent would here acknowledge, not only with
gratitude, but with pride, the innumerable, yet unobtrusive acts of
generous assistance and advice, for which he is indebted to the
friendship of Chief Justice Marshall.
When, to all these engaging traits of character, we add that his
charitable benefactions were as large as his mind, and as
unostentatious as his life; and that in his dealings he was so
scrupulously just, as always to prefer his own loss to the possibility
of his wronging another; it can be no wonder, that despite the
unpopularity of his federo-political opinions, he was the most beloved
and esteemed of all men in Virginia.
The influence of Judge Marshall upon the decisions of the Supreme
Court, in cases requiring a determination of the limits set by the
Constitution to federal power, will be deemed salutary or pernicious,
according as the mind which contemplates it is biassed towards the one
or the other school of opinions on that subject--towards the _strict_,
or towards the _liberal_ (what its opponents term the _licentious_)
construction. Having been profoundly--perhaps exaggeratedly--impressed
with a dread of the evils attending a feeble government for the Union,
he had advocated the new Constitution originally, and maintained the
_liberal_ interpretation of it afterwards, as indispensable to the
integrity and wholesome action of our system. Opinions which he had
thus held for thirteen years, and which had become fixed more and more
deeply in his mind by his numberless able vindications of them, he
could not be expected to throw aside when he ascended the Bench. They
pervaded his decisions there; and such was the influence of his
gigantic intellect, that, although, as Chief Justice, his vote had no
more legal authority than that of any other Judge, and although most
of his associates were deemed, at their appointments, maintainers of
the _strict construction_,--the Supreme Court took its tone from him;
and in almost every instance where the controversy turned upon the
boundaries between _federal_ and _state_ authority, as fixed by the
Constitution, its determination tended to enlarge the former, and to
circumscribe the latter. Never, probably, did any judge, who had six
associates equal to himself in judicial authority, so effectually
stamp their adjudications with the impress of his own mind. This may
be read, in the generous pleasure with which the best and ablest[22]
of those associates dwells upon the {190} inestimable service done to
the country, in establishing a code of Constitutional Law so perfect,
that "His proudest epitaph may be written in a single line--Here lies
the Expounder of the Constitution of the United States." It may be
read in the glowing page, where Mr. Binney, resolving the glory of the
Court in having "explained, defended and enforced the Constitution,"
into the merits of its presiding judge, declares himself "lost in
admiration of the man, and in gratitude to Heaven for his beneficent
life." It may be read in the many volumes of Reports, where,
whensoever a question of constitutional law was to be determined, the
opinion of Judge Marshall is found, almost without exception, to be
the opinion of the Supreme Court.
[Footnote 22: Judge Story.]
We shall make but one more extract from Mr. Binney's admirable Eulogy.
He was endued by nature with a patience that was never
surpassed;--patience to hear that which he knew already, that which he
disapproved, that which questioned himself. When he ceased to hear, it
was not because his patience was exhausted, but because it ceased to
be a virtue.
His carriage in the discharge of his judicial business, was faultless.
Whether the argument was animated or dull, instructive or superficial,
the regard of his expressive eye was an assurance that nothing that
ought to affect the cause, was lost by inattention or indifference;
and the courtesy of his general manner was only so far restrained on
the Bench, as was necessary for the dignity of office, and for the
suppression of familiarity.
His industry and powers of labor, when contemplated in connection with
his social temper, show a facility that does not generally belong to
parts of such strength. There remain behind him nearly thirty volumes
of copiously reasoned decisions, greater in difficulty and labor, than
probably have been made in any other court during the life of a single
judge! yet he participated in them all; and in those of greatest
difficulty, his pen has most frequently drawn up the judgment; and in
the midst of his judicial duties, he composed and published in the
year 1804, a copious biography of Washington, surpassing in
authenticity and minute accuracy, any public history with which we are
acquainted. He found time also to revise it, and to publish a second
edition, separating the History of the American Colonies from the
Biography, and to prepare with his own pen an edition of the latter
for the use of schools. Every part of it is marked with the scrupulous
veracity of a judicial exposition; and it shows moreover, how deeply
the writer was imbued with that spirit which will live after all the
compositions of men shall be forgotten,--the spirit of charity, which
could indite a history of the Revolution and of parties, in which he
was a conspicuous actor, without discoloring his pages with the
slightest infusion of gall. It could not be written with more candor
an hundred years hence. It has not been challenged for the want of it,
but in a single instance, and that has been refuted by himself with
irresistible force of argument, as well as with unexhausted benignity
of temper.
To qualities such as these, he joined an immoveable firmness befitting
the office of presiding judge, in the highest tribunal of the country.
It was not the result of excited feeling, and consequently never rose
or fell with the emotions of the day. It was the constitution of his
nature, and sprung from the composure of a mind undisturbed by doubt,
and of a heart unsusceptible of fear. He thought not of the fleeting
judgments and commentaries of men; and although he was not indifferent
to their approbation, it was not the compass by which he was directed,
nor the haven in which he looked for safety.
His learning was great, and his faculty of applying it of the very
first order.
But it is not by these qualities that he is so much distinguished from
the judges of his time. In learning and industry, in patience,
firmness, and fidelity, he has had his equals. But there is no judge,
living or dead, whose claims are disparaged by assigning the first
place in the department of constitutional law to Chief Justice
Marshall.
For several years past, Judge Marshall had suffered under a most
excruciating malady. A surgical operation by Dr. Physick of
Philadelphia, at length procured him relief; but a hurt received in
travelling, last spring, seems to have caused a return of the former
complaint, with circumstances of aggravated pain and danger. Having
revisited Philadelphia, in the hope of again finding a cure, his
disease there overpowered him; and he died, on the 6th of July, 1835,
in the 80th year of his age, surrounded by three of his children. His
eldest son, Thomas, journeying to attend his death bed, had been
killed by the fall of a chimney in Baltimore, but eight days before.
The love of simplicity and the dislike of ostentation, which had
marked Chief Justice Marshall's life, displayed itself also in his
last days. Apprehensive that his remains might be encumbered with the
vain pomp of a costly monument and a laudatory epitaph, he, only two
days before his death, directed the common grave of himself and his
consort, to be indicated by a plain stone, with this simple and modest
inscription:
"John Marshall, son of Thomas and Mary Marshall, was born on the 24th
of September, 1755, intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler the 3d of
January, 1783, departed this life the ---- day of ---- 18--."
All the just renown with which his great name might have been
emblazoned, simplified into the three circumstances, of _birth_,
_marriage_, and _death_, which would equally suit the grave-stone of
the humblest villager!
We cannot better conclude this article than by copying two
delineations of its subject, sketched by hands which, years before
him, were mouldering in the grave: sketched, it seems to us, with so
much elegance and truth, that any extended account of Judge Marshall
could hardly be deemed complete without them. The first was drawn
thirty years ago: the other, less than twenty.
"The ..... ....... of the United States," says Mr. Wirt, in _The
British Spy_, "is, in his person, tall, meager, emaciated: his muscles
relaxed, and his joints so loosely connected, as not only to
disqualify him, apparently, for any vigorous exertion of body, but to
destroy every thing like harmony in his air and movements. Indeed, in
his whole appearance, and demeanor; dress, attitudes, gesture;
sitting, standing, or walking; he is as far removed from the idolized
graces of Lord Chesterfield, as any other gentleman on earth. His head
and face are small in proportion to his height: his complexion
swarthy; the muscles of his face, being relaxed, make him appear to be
fifty years of age, nor can he be much younger: his countenance has a
faithful expression of great good humor and hilarity; while his black
eyes--that unerring index--possess an irradiating spirit, which
proclaims the imperial powers of the mind that sits enthroned within.
"This extraordinary man, without the aid of fancy, without the
advantages of person, voice, attitude, gesture, or any of the
ornaments of an orator, deserves to be considered as one of the most
eloquent men in the world; if eloquence may be said to consist in the
power of seizing the attention with irresistible force, and never
permitting it to elude the grasp, until the hearer has received the
conviction which the speaker intends.
"His voice is dry and hard; his attitude, in his most effective
orations, was often extremely awkward; while all his gesture proceeded
from his right arm, and consisted merely in a perpendicular swing of
it, from about {191} the elevation of his head, to the bar, behind
which he was accustomed to stand.
"As to fancy, if she hold a seat in his mind at all, his gigantic
genius tramples with disdain, on all her flower-decked plats and
blooming parterres. How then, you will ask, how is it possible, that
such a man can hold the attention of an audience enchained, through a
speech of even ordinary length? I will tell you.
"He possesses one original, and almost supernatural faculty: the
faculty of developing a subject by a single glance of his mind, and
detecting at once, the very point on which every controversy depends.
No matter, what the question: though ten times more knotty than 'the
gnarled oak,' the lightning of heaven is not more rapid or more
resistless, than his astonishing penetration. Nor does the exercise of
it seem to cost him an effort. On the contrary, it is as easy as
vision. I am persuaded, that his eyes do not fly over a landscape and
take in its various objects with more promptitude and facility, than
his mind embraces and analyzes the most complex subject.
"Possessing while at the bar, this intellectual elevation, which
enabled him to look down and comprehend the whole ground at once, he
determined immediately and without difficulty, on which side the
question might be most advantageously approached and assailed. In a
bad cause, his art consisted in laying his premises so remotely from
the point directly in debate, or else in terms so general and so
specious, that the hearer, seeing no consequence which could be drawn
from them, was just as willing to admit them as not; but, his premises
once admitted, the demonstration, however distant, followed as
certainly, as cogently, as inevitably, as any demonstration in Euclid.
"All his eloquence consists in the apparently deep self-conviction,
and emphatic earnestness of his manner; the correspondent simplicity
and energy of his style; the close and logical connexion of his
thoughts; and the easy gradations by which he opens his lights on the
attentive minds of his hearers. The audience are never permitted to
pause for a moment. There is no stopping to weave garlands of flowers,
to hang in festoons, around a favorite argument. On the contrary,
every sentence is progressive; every idea sheds new light on the
subject; the listener is kept perpetually in that sweetly pleasurable
vibration, with which the mind of man always receives new truths; the
dawn advances with easy but unremitting pace; the subject opens
gradually on the view; until, rising, in high relief, in all its
native colors and proportions, the argument is consummated, by the
conviction of the delighted hearer."
The following observations on the intellectual character of Judge
Marshall, are from the pen of FRANCIS W. GILMER--one who, had he not
been prematurely cut off by the hand of death, would have ranked with
the foremost men of his age and country.
"His mind is not very richly stored with knowledge; but it is so
creative, so well organized by nature, or disciplined by early
education, and constant habits of systematic thinking, that he
embraces every subject with the clearness and facility of one prepared
by previous study to comprehend and explain it. So perfect is his
analysis, that he extracts the whole matter, the kernel of inquiry,
unbroken, clean, and entire. In this process, such are the instinctive
neatness and precision of his mind, that no superfluous thought, or
even word, ever presents itself, and still he says every thing that
seems appropriate to the subject. This perfect exemption from needless
incumbrance of matter or ornament, is in some degree the effect of an
aversion to the labor of thinking. So great a mind, perhaps, like
large bodies in the physical world, is with difficulty set in motion.
That this is the case with Mr. Marshall's, is manifest, from his mode
of entering on an argument, both in conversation and in public debate.
It is difficult to rouse his faculties: he begins with reluctance,
hesitation, and vacancy of eye: presently, his articulation becomes
less broken, his eye more fixed, until, finally, his voice is full,
clear, and rapid, his manner bold, and his whole face lighted up, with
the mingled fires of genius and passion: and he pours forth the
unbroken stream of eloquence, in a current deep, majestic, smooth and
strong. He reminds one of some great bird, which flounders and
flounces on the earth for a while, before it acquires _impetus_ to
sustain its soaring flight."