John Marshall - Softcover

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CONTENTS CHAP. I. Hm LIFE BEFORE BECOMING C m JUS TICE HIB PERSONA C L E ARA ERISTIC . S 11. ARGUMENTS A ND SPEECHES L IFE OF WASHINGTO R N E LATION W S I TH JEFFER SON . . . . . III. THE BEGINNING O S F THE CHIEF JUSTICES CAREER AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL LAW MARBURY V. MADISON IV. B ARSHALLS CONSTITUTIONAL O PINIONS . V. THE W ORKING OF OUR SYSTEM OF CONSTI TUTIONAL LAW . VI. LETTERS O F MARSHALL . e . VIL MARSHALL AS A CITIZEN AND A NEIGHBOR VIII. HIS LAST DAYS . . . l7i. e portrait is from a miniature by St. JIdnzin. JOHN RIARSHALL CHAPTER I HIS LIFE BEFORE BEC031ING CHIEF JUS TICE HIS PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS IN beginning his Life of Washington, chief Justice Marshall states that Washington was born in 1732, near the banks of the Potomac, in TVestmoreland County Virginia mentions his employment by Lord Fairfax, the proprietor of the Northern Neck, as surveyor of his estates in the western part of that region and adds tl ati, n the perforil ance of these duties, he ac quired that iiifornlation respecting vacant lairtls, and formed those opinions concerning their fotore value, which afterwards contributed greatly to the increase of his private fortune. Thomas Marshall, the father of the Chief Justiee, two years older than TVashington, was also born in TVestmoreland County, was a schoolmate of Washington, served with him both as surveyor of the Fairfax estates, and soon aftenvards, as an officer in the Freneh and Indian wars and he, too, as time passed, found like advantage from his experience as a surveyor. In 1753, Thomas Marshall wvas made agent of Lord Fairfax in the management of his estates. In the next year, he married Mary Isham Keith, daughter of a Scotch , clergyman, whose wife was a deseendrtnt of William Randolph, of Turkey Island, the ancestor of the famous Virginia family of that name. Their son, John Marshall, the oldest of fifteen children, wvas born on Sey- - 4 7-tember 24, 1755, in what was afterwards 1 Fauquier County, at a little settlement then known as Germantom, - now Midland, on the Southern Railroad, s few miles south of Manassas. That was the year of Brruldoeks defeat, and Tlloinas 31arshnl1, like Washington, was in tlie service, as an officer. BEFORE BECOMING CHIEF JUSTICE 3 In Marshalls early childhood, his fathers LouZhold, situated in a frontier county, hust have been agitated with the dreadful rumors, anxieties, and terrors of the troubles with the French and Indians. So late, he tells us in the Life of TVashington, as the year 1756, tlie Blue Ridge was the northwestern frontier and Virginia found immense difficulty in completing a single regiment to protect the inhabitants from the horrors of the scalping-lmife, and the still greater horrors of being led into captivity by savages who added terrors to death by the manner of inflicting it. It was not until two years later that the capture of Fort Duquesne relieved Virginia from the frightful ravages that laid waste the region just west of the Blue Ridge. TVlien John Blarshall was ten years old or more, his father left the level country aid poor soil of eastern Fnuquicr, for the higher and more fertile region in the western part of the county, just under the Blue Ridge...