THE LIFE OF JOHN MARSHALL
Standard Library Edition
IN FOUR VOLUMES
VOLUME II
THE LIFE OF JOHN MARSHALL
BY ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
VOLUME II
POLITICIAN, DIPLOMATIST STATESMAN
1789-1801
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
CONTENTS
I. INFLUENCE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON AMERICA 1
The effort of the French King to injure Great Britain by assisting the revolt of the colonists hastens the upheaval in France--The French Revolution and American Government under the Constitution begins at the same time--The vital influence of the French convulsion on Americans--Impossible to understand American history without considering this fact--All Americans, at first, favor the French upheaval which they think a reform movement--Marshall's statement--American newspapers--Gouverneur Morris's description of the French people--Lafayette's infatuated reports--Marshall gets black and one-sided accounts through personal channels--The effect upon him--The fall of the Bastille--Lafayette sends Washington the key of the prison-- The reign of blood in Paris applauded in America--American conservatives begin to doubt the wisdom of the French Revolution--Burke writes his "Reflections"--Paine answers with his "Rights of Man"--The younger Adams replies in the "Publicola" essays--He connects Jefferson with Paine's doctrines--"Publicola" is viciously assailed in the press-- Jefferson writes Paine--The insurrection of the blacks in St. Domingo--Marshall's account--Jefferson writes his daughter: "I wish we could distribute the white exiles among the Indians"--Marshall's statement of effect of the French Revolution in America--Jefferson writes to Short: "I would rather see half the earth desolated"--Louis XVI guillotined--Genêt arrives in America--The people greet him frantically--His outrageous conduct--The Republican newspapers suppress the news of or defend the atrocities of the revolutionists--The people of Philadelphia guillotine Louis XVI in effigy--Marie Antoinette is beheaded--American rejoicing at her execution--Absurd exaggeration by both radicals and conservatives in America--The French expel Lafayette--Washington sends Marshall's brother to secure his release from the Allies--He fails--Effect upon Marshall--Ridiculous conduct of the people in America--All titles are denounced: "Honorable," "Reverend," even "Sir" or "Mr." considered "aristocratic"--The "democratic societies" appear--Washington denounces them--Their activities--Marshall's account of their decline--The influence on America of the French Revolution summarized--Marshall and Jefferson.
II. A VIRGINIA NATIONALIST 45
The National Government under the Constitution begins--Popular antagonism to it is widespread--Virginia leads this general hostility--Madison has fears--Jefferson returns from France-- He is neutral at first--Madison is humiliatingly defeated for Senator of the United States because of his Nationalism--The Legislature of Virginia passes ominous Anti-Nationalist resolutions--The Republicans attack everything done or omitted by Washington's Administration--Virginia leads the opposition--Washington appoints Marshall to be United States District Attorney--Marshall declines the office--He seeks and secures election to the Legislature--Is given his old committees in the House of Delegates--Is active in the general business of the House--The amendments to the Constitution laid before the House of Delegates--They are intended only to quiet opposition to the National Government--Hamilton presents his financial plan--"The First Report on the Public Credit"--It is furiously assailed--Hamilton and Jefferson make the famous Assumption-Capitol "deal"--Jefferson's letters--The Virginia Legislature strikes Assumption--Virginia writes the Magna Charta of State Rights--Marshall desperately resists these Anti-Nationalist resolutions and is badly beaten--Jefferson finally agrees to the attitude of Virginia--He therefore opposes the act to charter the Bank of the United States--He and Hamilton give contrary opinions--The contest over "implied powers" begins--Political parties appear, divided by Nationalism and localism--Political parties not contemplated by the Constitution--The word "party" a term of reproach to our early statesmen.
III. LEADING THE VIRGINIA FEDERALISTS 77
Marshall, in Richmond, is aggressive for the unpopular measures of Washington's Administration--danger of such conduct in Virginia--Jefferson takes Madison on their celebrated northern tour--Madison is completely changed--Jefferson fears Marshall-- Wishes to get rid of him: "Make Marshall a judge"--Jefferson's unwarranted suspicions--He savagely assails the Administration of which he is a member--He comes to blows with Hamilton--The Republican Party grows--The causes for its increased strength-- Pennsylvania resists the tax on whiskey--The Whiskey Rebellion-- Washington denounces and Jefferson defends it--Militia ordered to suppress it--Marshall, as brigadier-general of militia, prepares to take the field--War breaks out between England and France--Washington proclaims American Neutrality--Outburst of popular wrath against him--Jefferson resigns from the Cabinet--Marshall supports Washington--At the head of the military forces he suppresses the riot at Smithfield and takes a French privateer--The Republicans in Richmond attack Marshall savagely--Marshall answers his assailants--They make insinuations against his character: the Fairfax purchase, the story of Marshall's heavy drinking--The Republicans win on their opposition to Neutrality--Great Britain becomes more hostile than ever--Washington resolves to try for a treaty in order to prevent war--Jay negotiates the famous compact bearing his name--Terrific popular resentment follows: Washington abused, Hamilton stoned, Jay burned in effigy, many of Washington's friends desert him--Toast drank in Virginia "to the speedy death of General Washington"--Jefferson assails the treaty--Hamilton writes "Camillus"--Marshall stands by Washington--Jefferson names him as the leading Federalist in Virginia.
IV. WASHINGTON'S DEFENDER 122
Marshall becomes the chief defender of Washington in Virginia--The President urges him to accept the office of Attorney-General--He declines--Washington depends upon Marshall's judgment in Virginia politics--Vicious opposition to the Jay Treaty in Virginia--John Thompson's brilliant speech expresses popular sentiment--He couples the Jay Treaty with Neutrality: "a sullen neutrality between freemen and despots"--The Federalists elect Marshall to the Legislature--Washington is anxious over its proceedings-- Carrington makes absurdly optimistic forecast--The Republicans in the Legislature attack the Jay Treaty--Marshall defends it with great adroitness--Must the new House of Representatives be consulted about treaties?--Carrington writes Washington that Marshall's argument was a demonstration--Randolph reports to Jefferson that Marshall's speech was tricky and ineffectual-- Marshall defeated--Amazing attack on Washington and stout defense of him led by Marshall--Washington's friends beaten-- Legislature refuses to vote that Washington has "wisdom"-- Jefferson denounces Marshall: "His lax, lounging manners and profound hypocrisy"--Washington recalls Monroe from France and tenders the French mission to Marshall, who declines--The Fauchet dispatch is intercepted and Randolph is disgraced-- Washington forces him to resign as Secretary of State--The President considers Marshall for the head of his Cabinet-- The opposition to the Jay Treaty grows in intensity--Marshall arranges a public meeting in Richmond--The debate lasts all day--The reports as to the effect of his speeches contradictory--Marshall describes situation--The Republicans make charges and Marshall makes counter-charges--The national Federalist leaders depend on Marshall--They commission him to sound Henry on the Presidency as the successor of Washington-- Washington's second Administration closes--He is savagely abused by the Republicans--The fight in the Legislature over the address to him--Marshall leads the Administration forces and is beaten--The House of Delegates refuse to vote that Washington is wise, brave, or even patriotic--Washington goes out of the Presidency amid storms of popular hatred--The "Aurora's" denunciation of him--His own description of the abuse: "indecent terms that could scarcely be applied to a Nero, a defaulter, or a common pickpocket"--Jefferson is now the popular hero--All this makes a deep and permanent impression on Marshall.
V. THE MAN AND THE LAWYER 166
An old planter refuses to employ Marshall as his lawyer because of his shabby and unimpressive appearance--He changes his mind after hearing Marshall address the court--Marshall is conscious of his superiority over other men--Wirt describes Marshall's physical appearance--He practices law as steadily as his political activities permit--He builds a fine house adjacent to those of his powerful brothers-in-law--Richmond becomes a flourishing town--Marshall is childishly negligent of his personal concerns: the Beaumarchais mortgage; but he is extreme in his solicitude for the welfare of his relatives: the letter on the love-affair of his sister; and he is very careful of the business entrusted to him by others--He is an enthusiastic Free Mason and becomes Grand Master of that order in Virginia--He has peculiar methods at the bar: cites few authorities, always closes in argument, and is notably honest with the court: "The law is correctly stated by opposing counsel"--Gustavus Schmidt describes Marshall--He is employed in the historic case of Ware vs. Hylton--His argument in the lower court so satisfactory to his clients that they select him to conduct their case in the Supreme Court of the United States--Marshall makes a tremendous and lasting impression by his effort in Philadelphia--Rufus King pays him high tribute--After twenty-four years William Wirt remembers Marshall's address and describes it--Wirt advises his son-in-law to imitate Marshall--Francis Walker Gilmer writes, from personal observation, a brilliant and accurate analysis of Marshall as lawyer and orator--The Federalist leaders at the Capital court Marshall--He has business dealings with Robert Morris--The Marshall syndicate purchases the Fairfax estate-- Marshall's brother marries Hester Morris--The old financier makes desperate efforts to raise money for the Fairfax purchase--Marshall compromises with the Legislature of Virginia--His brother finally negotiates a loan in Antwerp on Morris's real estate and pays half of the contract price-- Robert Morris becomes bankrupt and the burden of the Fairfax debt falls on Marshall--He is in desperate financial embarrassment--President Adams asks him to go to France as a member of the mission to that country--The offer a "God-send" to Marshall, who accepts it in order to save the Fairfax estate.