8: Among Friends And Neighbors
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It is a circumstance of no little importance that the founder of
American Constitutional Law was in tastes and habit of life a
simple countryman. To the establishment of National Supremacy and
the Sanctity of Contracts Marshall brought the support not only
of his office and his command of the art of judicial reasoning
but also the whole-souled democracy and unpretentiousness of the
fields. And it must be borne in mind that Marshall was on view
before his contemporaries as a private citizen rather more of the
time, perhaps, than as Chief Justice. His official career was, in
truth, a somewhat leisurely one. Until 1827 the term at
Washington rarely lasted over six weeks and subsequently not over
ten weeks. In the course of his thirty-four years on the Bench,
the Court handed down opinions in over 1100 cases, which is
probably about four times the number of opinions now handed down
at a single term; and of this number Marshall spoke for the Court
in about half the cases. Toward the middle of March, he left
Washington for Richmond, and on the 22d of May opened court in
his own circuit. Then, three weeks later, if the docket
permitted, he went on to Raleigh to hold court there for a few
days. The summers he usually spent on the estate which he
inherited from his father at Fauquier, or else he went higher up
into the mountains to escape malaria. But by the 22d of November
at the latest he was back once more in Richmond for court, and at
the end of December for a second brief term he again drove to
Raleigh in his high-wheeled gig. With his return to Washington
early in February he completed the round of his judicial year.
The entire lack of pageantry and circumstance which attended
these journeyings of his is nowhere more gaily revealed than in
the following letter to his wife, which is now published for the
first time through the kindness of Mr. Beveridge:
Rawleigh, Jan'y. 2d, 1803.
My Dearest Polly
You will laugh at my vexation when you hear the various
calamities that have befallen me. In the first place when I came
to review my funds, I had the mortification to discover that I
had lost 15 silver dollars out of my waist coat pocket. They had
worn through the various mendings the pocket had sustained and
sought their liberty in the sands of Carolina.
I determined not to vex myself with what could not be remedied &
ordered Peter to take out my cloaths that I might dress for court
when to my astonishment & grief after fumbling several minutes in
the portmanteau, starting [sic] at vacancy, & sweating most
profusely he turned to me with the doleful tidings that I had no
pair of breeches. You may be sure this piece of intelligence was
not very graciously received; however, after a little scolding, I
determined to make the best of my situation & immediately set out
to get a pair made.
I thought I should be a sans-culotte only one day & that for the
residue of the term I might be well enough dressed for the
appearance on the first day to be forgotten.
But, the greatest of evils, I found, was followed by still
greater. Not a taylor in town could be prevailed on to work for
me: They were all so busy that it was impossible to attend to my
wants however pressing they might be, & I have the extreme
mortification to pass the whole time without that important
article of dress I have mentioned. I have no alleviation for this
misfortune but the hope that I shall be enabled in four or five
days to commence my journey homeward & that I shall have the
pleasure of seeing you & our dear children in eight or nine days
after this reaches you.
In the meantime, I flatter myself that you are well and happy.
Adieu my dearest Polly
I am your own affectionate,
J. Marshall.
Marshall erected his Richmond home, called "Shockoe Hill," in
1793 on a plot of ground which he had purchased four years
earlier. Here, as his eulogist has said, was "the scene of his
real triumphs." At an early date his wife became a nervous
invalid, and his devotion to her brought out all the finest
qualities of his sound and tender nature. "It is," says Mr.
Beveridge, "the most marked characteristic of his entire private
life and is the one thing which differentiates him sharply from
the most eminent men of that heroic but socially free-and-easy
period." From his association with his wife Marshall derived,
moreover, an opinion of the sex "as the friends, the companions,
and the equals of man" which may be said to have furnished one of
his few points of sympathetic contact with American political
radicalism in his later years. The satirist of woman, says Story,
"found no sympathy in his bosom," and "he was still farther above
the commonplace flatteries by which frivolity seeks to administer
aliment to personal vanity, or vice to make its approaches for
baser purposes. He spoke to the sex when present, as he spoke of
them when absent, in language of just appeal to their
understandings, their tastes, and their duties."
Marshall's relations with his neighbors were the happiest
possible. Every week, when his judicial duties permitted or the
more "laborious relaxation" of directing his farm did not call
him away, he attended the meetings of the Barbecue Club in a fine
grove just outside the city, to indulge in his favorite diversion
of quoits. The Club consisted of thirty of the most prominent men
of Richmond, judges, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, and merchants.
To quoits was added the inducement of an excellent repast of
which roast pig was the piece de resistance. Then followed a
dessert of fruit and melons, while throughout a generous stock of
porter, toddy, and of punch "from which water was carefully
excluded," was always available to relieve thirst. An
entertaining account of a meeting of the Club at which Marshall
and his friend Wickham were the caterers has been thus preserved
for us:
"At the table Marshall announced that at the last meeting two
members had introduced politics, a forbidden subject, and had
been fined a basket of champagne, and that this was now produced,
as a warning to evil-doers; as the club seldom drank this
article, they had no champagne glasses, and must drink it in
tumblers. Those who played quoits retired after a while for a
game. Most of the members had smooth, highly polished brass
quoits. But Marshall's were large, rough, heavy, and of iron,
such as few of the members could throw well from hub to hub.
Marshall himself threw them with great success and accuracy, and
often 'rang the meg.' On this occasion Marshall and the Rev. Mr.
Blair led the two parties of players. Marshall played first, and
rang the meg. Parson Blair did the same, and his quoit came down
plumply on top of Marshall's. There was uproarious applause,
which drew out all the others from the dinner; and then came an
animated controversy as to what should be the effect of this
exploit. They all returned to the table, had another bottle of
champagne, and listened to arguments, one from Marshall, pro se,
and one from Wickham for Parson Blair. [Marshall's] argument is a
humorous companion piece to any one of his elaborate judicial
opinions. He began by formulating the question, "Who is winner
when the adversary quoits are on the meg at the same time?" He
then stated the facts, and remarked that the question was one of
the true construction and applications of the rules of the game.
The first one ringing the meg has the advantage. No other can
succeed who does not begin by displacing this first one. The
parson, he willingly allowed, deserves to rise higher and higher
in everybody's esteem; but then he mustn't do it by getting on
another's back in this fashion. That is more like leapfrog than
quoits. Then, again, the legal maxim, Cujus est solum, ejus est
usque ad coelum—his own right as first occupant extends to the
vault of heaven; no opponent can gain any advantage by squatting
on his back. He must either bring a writ of ejectment, or drive
him out vi et armis. And then, after further argument of the same
sort, he asked judgment, and sat down amidst great applause. Mr.
Wickham then rose, and made an argument of a similar pattern. No
rule, he said, requires an impossibility. Mr. Marshall's quoit is
twice as large as any other; and yet it flies from his arm like
the iron ball at the Grecian games from the arm of Ajax. It is
impossible for an ordinary quoit to move it. With much more of
the same sort, he contended that it was a drawn game. After very
animated voting, designed to keep up the uncertainty as long as
possible, it was so decided. Another trial was had, and Marshall
clearly won."1
Years later Chester Harding, who once painted Marshall, visited
the Club. "I watched," says he, "for the coming of the old chief.
He soon approached, with his coat on his arm and his hat in his
hand, which he was using as a fan. He walked directly up to a
large bowl of mint julep which had been prepared, and drank off a
tumblerful, smacking his lips, and then turned to the company
with a cheerful 'How are you, gentlemen?' He was looked upon as
the best pitcher of the party and could throw heavier quoits than
any other member of the club. The game began with great
animation. There were several ties; and before long I saw the
great Chief Justice of the United States down on his knees
measuring the contested distance with a straw, with as much
earnestness as if it had been a point of law; and if he proved to
be in the right, the woods would ring with his triumphant
shout."2 What Wellesley remarked of the younger Pitt may be
repeated of Marshall, that "unconscious of his superiority," he
"plunged heedlessly into the mirth of the hour" and was endowed
with "a gay heart and social spirit beyond any man of his time."
As a hero of anecdotes Marshall almost rivals Lincoln. Many of
the tales preserved are doubtless apocryphal, but this
qualification hardly lessens their value as contemporary
impressions of his character and habits. They show for what sort
of anecdotes his familiarly known personality had an affinity.
The Chief Justice's entire freedom from ostentation and the
gentleness with which he could rebuke it in others is illustrated
in a story often told. Going early to the market one morning he
came upon a youth who was fuming and swearing because he could
get no one to carry his turkey home for him. Marshall proffered
his services. Arriving at the house the young man asked, "What
shall I pay you?" "Oh, nothing," was the reply; "it was on my
way, and no trouble." As Marshall walked away, the young man
inquired of a bystander," Who is that polite old man that brought
home my turkey for me?" "That," was the answer, "is Judge
Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States."
Of the same general character is an anecdote which has to do with
a much earlier period when Marshall was still a practicing
attorney. An old farmer who was involved in a lawsuit came to
Richmond to attend its trial." Who is the best lawyer in
Richmond?" he asked of his host, the innkeeper of the Eagle
tavern. The latter pointed to a tall, ungainly, bareheaded man
who had just passed, eating cherries from his hat and exchanging
jests with other loiterers like himself." That is he," said the
innkeeper; "John Marshall is his name." But the old countryman,
who had a hundred dollars in his pocket, proposed to spend it on
something more showy and employed a solemn, black-coated, and
much powdered bigwig. The latter turned out in due course to be a
splendid illustration of the proverb that "fine feathers do not
make fine birds." This the crestfallen rustic soon discovered.
Meantime he had listened with amazement and growing admiration to
an argument by Marshall in a cause which came on before his own.
He now went up to Marshall and, explaining his difficulty,
offered him the five dollars which the exactions of the first
attorney still left him, and besought his aid. With a humorous
remark about the power of a black coat and powdered wig Marshall
goodnaturedly accepted the retainer.
The religious bent of the Chief Justice's mind is illustrated in
another story, which tells of his arriving toward the close of
day at an inn in one of the counties of Virginia, and falling in
with some young men who presently began ardently to debate the
question of the truth or falsity of the Christian religion. From
six until eleven o'clock the young theologians argued keenly and
ably on both sides of the question. Finally one of the bolder
spirits exclaimed that it was impossible to overcome prejudices
of long standing and, turning to the silent visitor, asked:
"Well, my old gentleman, what do you think of these things?" To
their amazement the "old gentleman" replied for an hour in an
eloquent and convincing defense of the Christian religion, in
which he answered in order every objection the young men had
uttered. So impressive was the simplicity and loftiness of his
discourse that the erstwhile critics were completely silenced.
In truth, Marshall's was a reverent mind, and it sprang
instinctively to the defense of ideas and institutions whose
value had been tested. Unfortunately, in his "Life of Washington"
Marshall seems to have given this propensity a somewhat undue
scope. There were external difficulties in dealing with such a
subject apart from those inherent in a great biography, and
Marshall's volumes proved to be a general disappointment. Still
hard pressed for funds wherewith to meet his Fairfax investment,
he undertook this work shortly after he became Chief Justice, at
the urgent solicitation of Judge Bushrod Washington, the literary
executor of his famous uncle Marshall had hoped to make this
incursion into the field of letters a very remunerative one, for
he and Washington had counted on some thirty thousand subscribers
for the work. The publishers however, succeeded in obtaining only
about a quarter of that number, owing partly at least to the fact
that Jefferson had no sooner learned of the enterprise than his
jealous mind conceived the idea that the biography must be
intended for partisan purposes. He accordingly gave the alarm to
the Republican press and forbade the Federal postmasters to take
orders for the book. At the same time he asked his friend Joel
Barlow, then residing in Paris, to prepare a counterblast, for
which he declared himself to be "rich in materials." The author
of the "Columbiad," however, declined this hazardous commission,
possibly because he was unwilling to stand sponsor for the
malicious recitals that afterwards saw light in the pages of the
"Anas."
But apart from this external opposition to the biography,
Marshall found a source of even keener disappointment in the
literary defects due to the haste with which he had done his
work. The first three volumes had appeared in 1804, the fourth in
1805, and the fifth, which is much the best, in 1807. Republican
critics dwelt with no light hand upon the deficiencies of these
volumes, and Marshall himself sadly owned that the "inelegancies"
in the first were astonishingly numerous. But the shortcomings of
the work as a satisfactory biography are more notable than its
lapses in diction. By a design apparently meant to rival the
improvisations of "Tristram Shandy", the birth of the hero is
postponed for an entire volume, in which the author traces the
settlement of the country. At the opening of the second volume
"the birth of young Mr. Washington" is gravely announced, to be
followed by an account of the Father of his Country so devoid of
intimate touches that it might easily have been written by one
who had never seen George Washington.
Nevertheless, these pages of Marshall's do not lack acute
historical judgments. He points out, for instance, that, if the
Revolution had ended before the Articles of Confederation were
adopted, permanent disunion might have ensued and that, faulty as
it was, the Confederation "preserved the idea, of Union until the
good sense of the Nation adopted a more efficient system." Again,
in his account of the events leading up to the Convention of
1787, Marshall rightly emphasizes facts which subsequent writers
have generally passed by with hardly any mention, so that
students may read this work with profit even today. But the chief
importance of these volumes lay, after all, in the additional
power which the author himself derived from the labor of their
preparation. In so extensive an undertaking Marshall received
valuable training for his later task of laying the foundations of
Constitutional Law in America. One of his chief assets on the
bench, as we have already seen, was his complete confidence in
his own knowledge of the intentions of the Constitution—a
confidence which was grounded in the consciousness that he had
written the history of the Constitution's framing.
Most of Marshall's correspondence, which is not voluminous, deals
with politics or legal matters. But there are letters in which
the personal side of the Chief Justice is revealed. He gives his
friend Story a touching account of the loss of two of his
children. He praises old friends and laments his inability to
make new ones. He commends Jane Austen, whose novels he has just
finished reading. "Her flights," he remarks, "are not lofty, she
does not soar on eagle's wings, but she is pleasing, interesting,
equable, and yet amusing." He laments that he "can no longer
debate and yet cannot apply his mind to anything else." One
recalls Darwin's similar lament that his scientific work had
deprived him of all liking for poetry.
The following letter, which Marshall wrote the year before his
death to his grandson, a lad of fourteen or fifteen, is
interesting for its views on a variety of subjects and is
especially pleasing for its characteristic freedom from
condescension:
"I had yesterday the pleasure of receiving your letter of the
29th of November, and am quite pleased with the course of study
you are pursuing. Proficiency in Greek and Latin is indispensable
to an accomplished scholar, and may be of great real advantage in
our progress through human life. Cicero deserves to be studied
still more for his talents than for the improvement in language
to be derived from reading him. He was unquestionably, with the
single exception of Demosthenes, the greatest orator among the
ancients. He was too a profound Philosopher. His 'de ofiiciis' is
among the most valuable treatises I have ever seen in the Latin
language.
"History is among the most essential departments of knowledge;
and, to an American, the histories of England and of the United
States are most instructive. Every man ought to be intimately
acquainted with the history of his own country. Those of England
and of the United States are so closely connected that the former
seems to be introductory to the latter. They form one whole.
Hume, as far as he goes, to the revolution of 1688, is generally
thought the best Historian of England. Others have continued his
narrative to a late period, and it will be necessary to read them
also.
"There is no exercise of the mind from which more valuable
improvement is to be drawn than from composition. In every
situation of life the result of early practice will be valuable.
Both in speaking and writing, the early habit of arranging our
thoughts with regularity, so as to point them to the object to be
proved, will be of great advantage. In both, clearness and
precision are most essential qualities. The man who by seeking
embellishment hazards confusion, is greatly mistaken in what
constitutes good writing. The meaning ought never to be mistaken.
Indeed the readers should never be obliged to search for it. The
writer should always express himself so clearly as to make it
impossible to misunderstand him. He should be comprehended
without an effort.
"The first step towards writing and speaking clearly is to think
clearly. Let the subject be perfectly understood, and a man will
soon find words to convey his meaning to others. Blair, whose
lectures are greatly and justly admired, advises a practice well
worthy of being observed. It is to take a page of some approved
writer and read it over repeatedly until the matter, not the
words, be fully impressed on the mind. Then write, in your own
language, the same matter. A comparison of the one with the other
will enable you to remark and correct your own defects. This
course may be pursued after having made some progress in
composition. In the commencement, the student ought carefully to
reperuse what he has written, correct, in the first instance,
every error of orthography and grammar. A mistake in either is
unpardonable. Afterwards revise and improve the language.
"I am pleased with both your pieces of composition. The subjects
are well chosen and of the deepest interest. Happiness is pursued
by all, though too many mistake the road by which the greatest
good is to be successfully followed. Its abode is not always in
the palace or the cottage. Its residence is the human heart, and
its inseparable companion is a quiet conscience. Of this,
Religion is the surest and safest foundation. The individual who
turns his thoughts frequently to an omnipotent omniscient and all
perfect being, who feels his dependence on, and his infinite
obligations to that being will avoid that course of life which
must harrow up the conscience."
Marshall was usually most scrupulous to steer clear of partisan
politics both in his letters and in his conversation, so that on
one occasion he was much aroused by a newspaper article which had
represented him "as using language which could be uttered only by
an angry party man." But on political issues of a broader nature
he expressed himself freely in the strict privacy of
correspondence at least, and sometimes identified himself with
public movements, especially in his home State. For instance, he
favored the gradual abolition of slavery by private emancipation
rather than by governmental action. In 1823 he became first
president of the Richmond branch of the Colonization Society;
five years later he presided over a convention to promote
internal improvements in Virginia; and in 1829 he took a
prominent part in the deliberations of the State Constitutional
Convention.
In the broader matters of national concern his political creed
was in thorough agreement with his constitutional doctrine.
Nullification he denounced as "wicked folly," and he warmly
applauded Jackson's proclamation of warning to South Carolina.
But Marshall regarded with dismay Jackson's aggrandizement of the
executive branch, and the one adverse criticism he has left of
the Constitution is of the method provided for the election of
the President. In this connection he wrote in 1830: "My own
private mind has been slowly and reluctantly advancing to the
belief that the present mode of choosing the Chief Magistrate
threatens the most serious danger to the public happiness. The
passions of men are influenced to so fearful an extent, large
masses are so embittered against each other, that I dread the
consequences.... Age is, perhaps, unreasonably timid. Certain
it is that I now dread consequences that I once thought
imaginary. I feel disposed to take refuge under some less
turbulent and less dangerous mode of choosing the Chief
Magistrate." Then follows the suggestion that the people of the
United States elect a body of persons equal in number to
one-third of the Senate and that the President be chosen from
among this body by lot. Marshall's suggestion seems absurd enough
today, but it should be remembered that his fears of national
disorder as a result of strong party feeling at the time of
presidential elections were thoroughly realized in 1860 when
Lincoln's election led to secession and civil war, and that
sixteen years later, in the Hayes-Tilden contest, a second
dangerous crisis was narrowly averted.
In the campaign of 1832 Marshall espoused privately the cause of
Clay and the United States Bank, and could not see why Virginia
should not be of the same opinion. Writing to Story in the midst
of the campaign he said: "We are up to the chin in politics.
Virginia was always insane enough to be opposed to the Bank of
the United States, and therefore hurrahs for the veto. But we are
a little doubtful how it may work in Pennsylvania. It is not
difficult to account for the part New York may take. She has
sagacity enough to see her interests in putting down the present
Bank. Her mercantile position gives her a control, a commanding
control, over the currency and the exchanges of the country, if
there be no Bank of the United States. Going for herself she may
approve this policy; but Virginia ought not to drudge for her."
To the end of his days Marshall seems to have refused to
recognize that the South had a sectional interest to protect, or
at least that Virginia's interests were sectional; her attachment
to State Rights he assigned to the baneful influence of
Jeffersonianism.
The year 1831 dealt Marshall two severe blows. In that year his
robust constitution manifested the first signs of impairment, and
he was forced to undergo an operation for stone. In the days
before anaesthetics, such an operation, especially in the case of
a person of his advanced years, was attended with great peril. He
faced the ordeal with the utmost composure. His physician tells
of visiting Marshall the morning he was to submit to the knife
and of finding him at breakfast:
"He received me with a pleasant smile...and said, 'Well,
Doctor, you find me taking breakfast, and I assure you I have had
a good one. I thought it very probable that this might be my last
chance, and therefore I was determined to enjoy it and eat
heartily.'... He said that he had not the slightest desire to
live, laboring under the sufferings to which he was subjected,
and that he was perfectly ready to take all the chances of an
operation, and he knew there were many against him .... After he
had finished his breakfast, I administered him some medicine; he
then inquired at what hour the operation would be performed. I
mentioned the hour of eleven. He said 'Very well; do you wish me
for any other purpose, or may I lie down and go to sleep?' I was
a good deal surprised at this question, but told him that if he
could sleep it would be very desirable. He immediately placed
himself upon the bed and fell into a profound sleep, and
continued so until I was obliged to rouse him in order to undergo
the operation. He exhibited the same fortitude, scarcely uttering
a murmur throughout the whole procedure which, from the nature of
his complaint, was necessarily tedious."
The death of his wife on Christmas Day of the same year was a
heavy blow. Despite her invalidism, she was a woman of much force
of character and many graces of mind, to which Marshall rendered
touching tribute in a quaint eulogy composed for one of his sons
on the first anniversary of her death:
"Her judgment was so sound and so safe that I have often relied
upon it in situations of some perplexity.... Though serious
as well as gentle in her deportment, she possessed a good deal of
chaste, delicate, and playful wit, and if she permitted herself
to indulge this talent, told her little story with grace, and
could mimic very successfully the peculiarities of the person who
was its subject. She had a fine taste for belle-lettre
reading....
This quality, by improving her talents for conversation,
contributed not inconsiderably to make her a most desirable and
agreeable companion. It beguiled many of those winter evenings
during which her protracted ill health and her feeble nervous
system confined us entirely to each other. I shall never cease to
look back on them with deep interest and regret.... She felt
deeply the distress of others, and indulged the feeling liberally
on objects she believed to be meritorious.... She was a firm
believer in the faith inculcated by the Church in which she was
bred, but her soft and gentle temper was incapable of adopting
the gloomy and austere dogmas which some of its professors have
sought to engraft on it."
Marshall believed women were the intellectual equals of men,
because he was convinced that they possessed in a high degree
"those qualities which make up the sum of human happiness and
transform the domestic fireside into an elysium," and not because
he thought they could compete on even terms in the usual
activities of men.
Despite these "buffetings of fate," the Chief Justice was back in
Washington in attendance upon Court in February, 1832, and daily
walked several miles to and from the Capitol. In the following
January his health appeared to be completely restored. "He
seemed," says Story, with whom he messed, along with Justices
Thompson and Duval, "to revive, and enjoy anew his green old
age." This year Marshall had the gratification of receiving the
tribute of Story's magnificent dedication of his "Commentaries"
to him. With characteristic modesty, the aged Chief Justice
expressed the fear that his admirer had "consulted a partial
friendship farther than your deliberate judgment will approve."
He was especially interested in the copy intended for the
schools, but he felt that "south of the Potomac, where it is most
wanted it will be least used," for, he continued, "it is a
Mohammedan rule never to dispute with the ignorant, and we of the
true faith in the South adjure the contamination of infidel
political works. It would give our orthodox nullifyer a fever to
read the heresies of your Commentaries. A whole school might be
infected by the atmosphere of a single copy should it be placed
on one of the shelves of a bookcase."
Marshall sat on the Bench for the last time in the January term
of 1835. Miss Harriet Martineau, who was in Washington during
that winter, has left a striking picture of the Chief Justice as
he appeared in these last days. "How delighted," she writes, "we
were to see Judge Story bring in the tall, majestic, bright-eyed
old man,—old by chronology, by the lines on his composed face,
and by his services to the republic; but so dignified, so fresh,
so present to the time, that no compassionate consideration for
age dared mix with the contemplation of him."
Marshall was, however, a very sick man, suffering constant pain
from a badly diseased liver. The ailment was greatly aggravated,
moreover, by "severe contusions" which he received while
returning in the stage from Washington to Richmond. In June he
went a second time to Philadelphia for medical assistance, but
his case was soon seen to be hopeless. He awaited death with his
usual serenity, and two days before it came he composed the
modest epitaph which appeared upon his tomb:
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 — .
He died the
evening of July 6,1835, surrounded by three of his sons. The
death of the fourth, from an accident while he was hurrying to
his father's bedside, had been kept from him. He left also a
daughter and numerous grandchildren.
Marshall's will is dated April 9, 1832, and has five codicils of
subsequent dates attached. After certain donations to grandsons
named John and Thomas, the estate, consisting chiefly of his
portion of the Fairfax purchase, was to be divided equally among
his five children. To the daughter and her descendants were also
secured one hundred shares of stock which his wife had held in
the Bank of the United States, but in 1835 these were probably of
little value. His faithful body servant Robin was to be
emancipated and, if he chose, sent to Liberia, in which event he
should receive one hundred dollars. But if he preferred to remain
in the Commonwealth, he should receive but fifty dollars; and if
it turned out to "be impracticable to liberate him consistently
with law and his own inclination," he was to select his master
from among the children, "that he may always be treated as a
faithful meritorious servant."
The Chief Justice's death evoked many eloquent tributes to his
public services and private excellencies, but none more just and
appreciative than that of the officers of court and members of
the bar of his own circuit who knew him most intimately. It reads
as follows:
"John Marshall, late Chief Justice of the United States, having
departed this life since the last Term of the Federal Circuit
Court for this district, the Bench, Bar, and Officers of the
Court, assembled at the present Term, embrace the first
opportunity to express their profound and heartfelt respect for
the memory of the venerable judge, who presided in this Court for
thirty-five years—with such remarkable diligence in office,
that, until he was disabled by the disease which removed him from
life, he was never known to be absent from the bench, during term
time, even for a day,—with such indulgence to counsel and
suitors, that every body's convenience was consulted, but his
own,—with a dignity, sustained without effort, and, apparently,
without care to sustain it, to which all men were solicitous to
pay due respect,—with such profound sagacity, such quick
penetration, such acuteness, clearness, strength, and
comprehension of mind, that in his hand, the most complicated
causes were plain, the weightiest and most difficult, easy and
light,—with such striking impartiality and justice, and a
judgment so sure, as to inspire universal confidence, so that few
appeals were ever taken from his decisions, during his long
administration of justice in the Court, and those only in cases
where he himself expressed doubt,—with such modesty, that he
seemed wholly unconscious of his own gigantic powers,— with such
equanimity, such benignity of temper, such amenity of manners,
that not only none of the judges, who sat with him on the bench,
but no member of the bar, no officer of the court, no juror, no
witness, no suitor, in a single instance, ever found or imagined,
in any thing said or done, or omitted by him, the slightest cause
of offence.
"His private life was worthy of the exalted character he
sustained in public station. The unaffected simplicity of his
manners; the spotless purity of his morals; his social, gentle,
cheerful disposition; his habitual self-denial, and boundless
generosity towards others; the strength and constancy of his
attachments; his kindness to his friends and neighbours; his
exemplary conduct in the relations of son, brother, husband,
father; his numerous charities; his benevolence towards all men,
and his ever active beneficence; these amiable qualities shone so
conspicuously in him, throughout his life, that, highly as he was
respected, he had the rare happiness to be yet more beloved."
There is no more engaging figure in American history, none more
entirely free from disfiguring idiosyncrasy, than the son of
Thomas Marshall.
__________
1 J. B. Thayer, John Marshall (Riverside Biographical Series,
1904), pp. 13436, paraphrasing G. W. Munford, The Two Parsons
(Richmond, 1884), pp. 326-38.
2Thayer, op. cit., pp. 132-33.
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