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JOHN MARSHALL.

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OF

F this great jurist, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, the merest reference in this work must suffice, for what student of American history is not familiar with his life and fame?

Tradition tells that his remote ancestors came over to England with William the Conqueror, William le Mareschal, from whom the family claim descent, held a command in the Army of Invasion. From him descended John Marshall, nephew of the great Earl of Pembroke, who was Mareschal of England after the death of King John.

John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, was born near Germantown, Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 24th of September, 1755. In 1765, when he was ten years of age, his father removed to a farm on Goose Creek, where he resided until 1773 when his father purchased the Oakhill estate, situated at the base of Little Cobbler Mountain, in Fauquier county, and built a substantial house, which is still in an excellent state of preservation, though the estate has passed from the possession of the family. For more than one hundred years Oakhill was the homestead of the Marshalls, and it was there that the celebrated jurist grew up to manhood. It was afterward given to him by his father. The magnificent estate contained a thousand acres, and the dwelling was erected more than one hundred and thirty years ago, or rather a part of it, by Colonel Marshall, the father of the jurist.

John Marshall's father was a man of some wealth until impoverished by the war of the Revolution. His children. were well instructed at the country schools and by private tutors, one of whom was the Reverend James Thompson, who came from Scotland about the year 1767. He soon married and established a school which was attended by the children of Colonel Marshall, but they are indebted for their well-cultivated minds and their proficiency in history, poetry, science and philosophy, to the personal instruction of their father. Books were placed in their hands, and each was critically examined, commended and encouraged; instead of the usual silly sports and pastimes of children, they were taught to discuss themes of importance. Here at Oakhill, John Marshall's mind was disciplined by his father's sound judgment, impartial justice, broad statesmanship, unflinching integrity, indomitable courage and ardent patriotism, laying the foundation for that judicial wisdom that made him illustrious in after years.

Doing his share of the routine work at the farm and confined to the private school-room by his studies, the future great lawyer was perfectly unconscious of his superiority, and when called into active public life, his modesty and supreme diffidence was a detriment to his advancement at first. The Revolution called him out, and when he met the brightest men of his day, his own powers were exhibited, but his modesty characterized him all through life; but others could see that of which he was perfectly unconscious, and he was put forward.

He was early chosen a lieutenant of a company of "Minute Men," and his first experience in action was at the battle of Great Bridge, the success of which was largely due to his gallantry and courage in command. In July, 1776, he received the appointment of first lieutenant in a company of the Eleventh Virginia, and in the following May was promoted to a captaincy. He was present

at the battles of the Brandywine, September 11, 1777; Germantown, October 4, 1777; Monmouth, June 28, 1778, and went through the horrors of Valley Forge.

The next year he retired from the army to attend a course of lectures on law and philosophy at William and Mary College, and in the summer of 1780, was licensed to practice, success marking his efforts from the beginning. In 1782 he was elected a member of the Legislature from Fauquier county, and was appointed to the Council of State. While practicing law in Yorktown he married Miss Mary Willis Ambler, daughter of the State Treasurer, on the 3d of January, 1783.

John Esten Cooke, in his "Early Days of John Marshall," says: "At the period of this first engagement, he was an ardent young lover of nineteen, she a fair maiden of fourteen. An attachment was formed at first sight. The young Marshall endeared himself to the whole family, notwithstanding his slouched hat, negligent and awkward dress, by his amiable manners, fine talents, and especially his love for poetry, which he read to them with deep pathos. In proof of the ardor of his character and the tenderness of his attachment, he often said that he looked with astonishment on the present race of lovers,' so totally unlike what he had been himself."

His unalterable and persistent love for the Union is best expressed in his own words, yet they are so simple that they do not seem to have emanated from the lips of a great lawyer. Their very simplicity is the test of the honesty and sincerity of the mind that gave them utterance: "I had grown up at a time when the love of the Union and the resistance to the claims of Great Britain were the inseparable inmates of the same bosom; when patriotism and a strong fellow-feeling with our suffering fellow citizens of Boston were identical; when the maxim-'United we stand; divided we fall'-was the

maxim of every orthodox American. I had imbibed these sentiments so thoroughly that they constituted a part of my being. I carried them with me into the army, where I found myself associated with brave men from different states, who were risking life and everything valuable, in a common cause, believed by all to be the most precious, and where I habitually considered America as my country, and Congress as my Government."

Marshall sat in the Convention of Virginia, which met at Richmond, to act upon the question of the adoption of the Federal Constitution. His speeches are of record, as are those of the other great men who assembled there, but Judge Story says: "The printed volume affords but a very feeble and faint sketch of the actual debates on that occasion, or the vigor with which every attack was urged, and every onset repelled, against the Constitution. To Henry's earnest expostulations, pleading, as he thought, for the first principles of liberty, Marshall answered: 'I concur with him in the propriety of the observance of such maxims. They are necessary in any government, but more essential to a Democracy than to any other. What are the favorite maxims of Democracy? A strict observance of justice and public faith, and a steady adherence to virtue. These, sir, are the principles of a good government. No mischief, no misfortune ought to deter us from a strict observance of justice and public faith. Would to Heaven that these principles had been observed under the present Government! Had this been the case, the friends of liberty would not be so willing now to part with it.'"

Mr. Marshall was sent to France as one of the Commissioners, as stated in the language of the nomination, to "dissipate umbrages; to remove prejudices; to rectify errors, and adjust all differences by a Treaty between the two countries." The treatment the Commis

sioners of the United States received at the hands of the

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