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John Marshall (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was the Chief Justice of the United States (1801 - 1835) whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law while promoting nationalism and making the Supreme Court of the United States a center of power with the capability of overruling Congress. Previously, Marshall had been a leader of the Federalist Party in Virginia and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1799 to 1800. He was Secretary of State under President John Adams from 1800 to 1801. The longest serving Chief
Justice of the United States, Marshall dominated the Court for over
three decades and played a significant role in the development of the
American legal system. Most notably, he reinforced the principle that
federal courts are obligated to exercise judicial review, by disregarding purported laws if they violate the Constitution.
Thus, Marshall cemented the position of the American judiciary as an
independent and influential branch of government. Furthermore, the
Marshall Court made several important decisions relating to federalism,
affecting the balance of power between the federal government and the
states during the early years of the republic. In particular, he
repeatedly confirmed the supremacy of federal law over state law, and
supported an expansive reading of the enumerated powers. Some
of his decisions were unpopular. Nevertheless, Marshall built up the
third branch of the federal government, and augmented federal power in
the name of the Constitution, and the rule of law. Marshall, along with Daniel Webster (who
argued some of the cases), was the leading Federalist of the day,
pursuing Federalist Party approaches to build a stronger federal
government over the opposition of the Jeffersonian Republicans, who
wanted stronger state governments. John Marshall was born in a log cabin close to Germantown, a rural community on the Virginia frontier, in what is now Fauquier County near Midland, Virginia, on September 24, 1755, to Thomas Marshall and Mary Isham Keith, the granddaughter of Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe. The
oldest of fifteen, John had eight sisters and six brothers. Also,
several cousins were raised with the family. He was also relative of Thomas Jefferson, both of them being descendants of Virginia colonist William Randolph, though Marshall and Jefferson would oppose each other on many political issues. From
a young age, he was noted for his good humor and black eyes, which were
"strong and penetrating, beaming with intelligence and good nature". Thomas Marshall was employed by Lord Fairfax.
Known as "the Proprietor", Fairfax provided Thomas Marshall with a
substantial income as his lordship’s agent in Fauquier County.
Marshall’s task was to survey the tract, assist in finding people to
settle and collect rents. In
the early 1760s, the Marshall family left Germantown and moved some
thirty miles to Leeds Manor (so named by Lord Fairfax) on the eastern
slope of the Blue Ridge.
On the banks of Goose Creek, Thomas Marshall built a simple wooden
cabin there, much like the one abandoned in Germantown with two rooms
on the first floor and a two - room loft above. Thomas Marshall was not
yet well established, so he leased it from Colonel Richard Henry Lee.
The Marshalls called their new home "the Hollow", and the ten years
they resided there were John Marshall's formative years. In 1773, the
Marshall family moved once again. Thomas Marshall, by then a man of
more substantial means, purchased a 1,700 - acre (6.9 km2)
estate adjacent to North Cobbler Mountain, approximately ten miles
northwest of the Hollow. The new farm was located adjacent to the main
stage road (now U.S. 17) between Salem (the modern day village of Marshall, Virginia) and Delaplane, Virginia.
When John was seventeen, Thomas Marshall built "Oak Hill" there, a
seven - room frame home with four rooms on the first floor and three
above. Although modest in comparison to the estates of George Washington, James Madison, and Thomas Jefferson, it
was a substantial home for the period. John Marshall became the owner
of Oak Hill in 1785 when his father moved to Kentucky. Although John
Marshall lived his later life in Richmond, Virginia, and Washington D.C., he kept his Fauquier County property, making improvements and using it as a retreat until his death. Marshall's
early education was superintended by his father who gave him an early
taste for history and poetry. Thomas Marshall's employer, Lord Fairfax,
allowed access to his home at Greenway Court,
which was an exceptional center of learning and culture. Marshall took
advantage of the resources at Greenway Court and borrowed freely from
the extensive collection of classical and contemporary literature.
There were no schools in the region at the time, so home schooling was
pursued. Although books were a rarity for most in the territory, Thomas
Marshall's library was exceptional. His collection of literature, some
of which was borrowed from Lord Fairfax, was relatively substantial and
included works by the ancient Roman historian Livy, the ancient Roman poet Horace, and the English writers Alexander Pope, John Dryden, John Milton, and William Shakespeare.
All of the Marshall children were accomplished, literate, and
self - educated under their parents' supervision. At the age of twelve
John had transcribed Alexander Pope's An Essay on Man and some of his Moral Essays. There
being no formal school in Fauqueir County at the time, John was sent,
at age fourteen, about one hundred miles from home to an academy in
Washington parish. Among his classmates was James Monroe,
the future president. John remained at the academy one year, after
which he was brought home. Afterward, Thomas Marshall arranged for a
minister to be sent who could double as a teacher for the local
children. The Reverend James Thomson, a recently ordained deacon from Glasgow, Scotland,
resided with the Marshall family and tutored the children in Latin in
return for his room and board. When Thomson left at the end of the
year, John had begun reading and transcribing Horace and Livy. The Marshalls had long before decided that John was to be a lawyer. William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England had been published in America and Thomas Marshall bought a copy for his own
use and for John to read and study. After John returned home from
Campbell's academy he continued his studies with no other aid than his
dictionary. John's father superintended the English part of his
education. Marshall wrote of his father, "... and to his care I am
indebted for anything valuable which I may have acquired in my youth.
He was my only intelligent companion; and was both a watchful parent
and an affectionate friend". Marshall served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and was friends with George Washington. He served first as a Lieutenant in the Culpeper Minutemen from
1775 to 1776, and went on to serve as a Lieutenant and then a Captain
in the Eleventh Virginia Continental Regiment from 1776 to 1780. During his time in the army, he enjoyed running races with the other soldiers and was nicknamed "Silverheels" for the white heels his mother had sewn into his stockings. Marshall endured the brutal winter conditions at Valley Forge (1777 – 1778). After his time in the Army, he read law under the famous Chancellor George Wythe in Williamsburg, Virginia, at the College of William and Mary, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was admitted to the Bar in 1780. He was in private practice in Fauquier County, Virginia, before entering politics. In 1782, Marshall won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, in which he served until 1789 and again from 1795 to 1796. The Virginia General Assembly elected
him to serve on the Council of State later in the same year. In 1785,
Marshall took up the additional office of Recorder of the Richmond City Hustings Court. In 1788, Marshall was selected as a delegate to the Virginia convention responsible for ratifying or rejecting the United States Constitution, which had been proposed by the Philadelphia Convention a year earlier. Together with James Madison and Edmund Randolph, Marshall led the fight for ratification. He was especially active in
defense of Article III, which provides for the Federal judiciary. His
most prominent opponent at the ratification convention was Anti-Federalist leader Patrick Henry. Ultimately, the convention approved the Constitution by a vote of 89 - 79. Marshall identified with the new Federalist Party (which supported a strong national government and commercial interests), and opposed Jefferson's Democratic - Republican Party (which advocated states' rights and idealized the yeoman farmer and the French Revolution). Meanwhile, Marshall's private law practice continued to flourish. He successfully represented the heirs of Lord Fairfax in Hite v. Fairfax (1786), an important Virginia Supreme Court case involving a large tract of land in the Northern Neck of Virginia. In 1796, he appeared before the United States Supreme Court in another important case, Ware v. Hylton, a
case involving the validity of a Virginia law providing for the
confiscation of debts owed to British subjects. Marshall argued that
the law was a legitimate exercise of the state's power; however, the
Supreme Court ruled against him, holding that the Treaty of Paris in combination with the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution required the collection of such debts. Henry Flanders in his biography of Marshall remarked that Marshall's argument in Ware v. Hylton "elicited
great admiration at the time of its delivery, and enlarged the circle
of his reputation." Flanders also wrote that the reader "cannot fail to
be impressed with the vigor, rigorous analysis, and close reasoning
that mark every sentence of it." In 1795, Marshall declined Washington's offer of Attorney General of the United States and, in 1796, declined to serve as minister to France. In 1797, he accepted when President John Adams appointed
him to a three - member commission to represent the United States in
France. (The other members of this commission were Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Elbridge Gerry.)
However, when the envoys arrived, the French refused to conduct
diplomatic negotiations unless the United States paid enormous bribes.
This diplomatic scandal became known as the XYZ Affair, inflaming anti - French opinion in the United States. Hostility increased even further when the Directoire expelled
Marshall and Pinckney from France. Marshall's handling of the affair,
as well as public resentment toward the French, made him popular with
the American public when he returned to the United States. In 1798, Marshall declined a Supreme Court appointment, recommending Bushrod Washington, who would later become one of Marshall's staunchest allies on the Court. In 1799, Marshall reluctantly ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. Although his congressional district (which included the city of Richmond) favored the Democratic - Republican Party, Marshall won the race, in part due to his conduct during the XYZ Affair and in part due to the support of Patrick Henry.
His most notable speech was related to the case of Thomas Nash (alias
Jonathan Robbins), whom the government had extradited to Great Britain
on charges of murder. Marshall defended the government's actions,
arguing that nothing in the Constitution prevents the United States
from extraditing one of its citizens. On May 7, 1799, President Adams nominated Congressman Marshall as Secretary of War. However, on May 12, Adams withdrew the nomination, instead naming him Secretary of State, as a replacement for Timothy Pickering. Confirmed by the United States Senate on May 13, Marshall took office on June 6, 1800. As Secretary of State, Marshall directed the negotiation of the Convention of 1800, which ended the Quasi - War with France and brought peace to the new nation. Marshall served as Chief Justice during all or part of the administrations of six Presidents: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. He remained a stalwart advocate of Federalism and a nemesis of the Jeffersonian school of government throughout its heyday. He participated in over 1000 decisions, writing 519 of the opinions himself. He
helped to establish the Supreme Court as the final authority on the
meaning of the Constitution in cases and controversies that must be
decided by the federal courts. His impact on constitutional law is without peer, and his imprint on the Court's jurisprudence remains indelible.
Marshall was thrust into the office of Chief Justice in the wake of the presidential election of 1800.
With the Federalists soundly defeated and about to lose both the
executive and legislative branches to Jefferson and the
Democratic - Republicans, President Adams and the lame duck Congress passed what came to be known as the Midnight Judges Act,
which made sweeping changes to the federal judiciary, including a
reduction in the number of Justices from six to five so as to deny
Jefferson an appointment until two vacancies occurred. As the incumbent Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth was in poor health, Adams first offered the seat to ex-Chief Justice John Jay, who declined on the grounds that the Court lacked "energy, weight, and dignity." Jay's
letter arrived on January 20, 1801, and as there was precious little
time left, Adams nominated Marshall, who was with him at the time and
able to accept immediately. The Senate at first delayed, hoping that
Adams would make a different choice, such as promoting Justice William Paterson of New Jersey. According to New Jersey Senator Jonathan Dayton,
the Senate finally relented "lest another not so qualified, and more
disgusting to the Bench, should be substituted, and because it appeared
that this gentleman [Marshall] was not privy to his own nomination". Marshall
was confirmed by the Senate on January 27, 1801, and received his
commission on January 31, 1801. While Marshall officially took office
on February 4, at the request of the President he continued to serve as
Secretary of State until Adams' term expired on March 4. President
John Adams offered this appraisal of Marshall's impact: "My gift of
John Marshall to the people of the United States was the proudest act
of my life."
Soon
after becoming Chief Justice, Marshall changed the manner in which the
Supreme Court announced its decisions. Previously, each Justice would
author a separate opinion (known as a seriatim opinion) as is still done in the 20th and 21st centuries in such jurisdictions as the United Kingdom and Australia.
Under Marshall, however, the Supreme Court adopted the practice of
handing down a single opinion of the Court, allowing it to present a
clear rule. As Marshall was almost always the author of this opinion, he essentially became the Court's sole mouthpiece in important cases. Marshall's
forceful personality allowed him to steer his fellow Justices; only
once did he find himself on the losing side in a constitutional case. In that case (Ogden v. Saunders in 1827), Marshall set forth his general principles of constitutional interpretation: Marshall
was in the dissenting minority only eight times throughout his tenure
at the Court, partly because of his influence over the associate justices. As Oliver Wolcott observed
when both he and Marshall served in the Adams administration, Marshall
had the knack of "putting his own ideas into the minds of others,
unconsciously to them". However, he regularly curbed his own viewpoints, preferring to arrive at decisions by consensus. He adjusted his role to accommodate other members of the court as they developed. Marshall
had charm, humor, a quick intelligence, and the ability to bring men
together. His sincerity and presence commanded attention. His opinions
were workmanlike but not especially eloquent or subtle. His influence
on learned men of the law came from the charismatic force of his
personality, and his ability to seize upon the key elements of a case
and make highly persuasive arguments. Together with his vision of the
future greatness of the nation, these qualities are apparent in his
historic decisions and gave him the sobriquet, The Great Chief Justice. Marshall
ran a congenial court; there was seldom any bickering. The Court met in
Washington only two months a year, from the first Monday in February
through the second or third week in March. Six months of the year the
justices were doing circuit duty in
the various states. Marshall was therefore based in Richmond, his
hometown, for most of the year. When the Court was in session in
Washington, the justices boarded together in the same rooming house,
avoided outside socializing, and discussed each case intently among
themselves. Decisions were quickly made usually in a matter of days.
Marshall wrote nearly half the decisions during his 33 years in office.
Lawyers appearing before the court, including the most brilliant in the
United States, typically gave oral arguments and
often did not present written briefs. The justices did not have clerks,
so they listened closely to the oral arguments, and decided among
themselves what the decision should be. The court issued only one
decision; the occasional dissenter usually did not issue a separate
opinion. While
Marshall was very good at listening to the oral briefs, and convincing
the other justices of his interpretation of the law, he was not widely
read in the law, and seldom cited precedents. After the Court came to a
decision, he would usually write it up himself. Often he asked Justice Story,
a renowned legal scholar, to do the chores of locating the precedents,
saying, "There, Story; that is the law of this case; now go and find
the authorities." The three previous chief justices (John Jay, John Rutledge, and Oliver Ellsworth)
had left little permanent mark beyond setting up the forms of office.
The Supreme Court, like many state supreme courts, was a minor organ of
government. In his 34 - year tenure, Marshall gave it the energy, weight,
and dignity of a third co-equal branch. With his associate justices,
especially Joseph Story, William Johnson, and Bushrod Washington, Marshall's Court brought to life the constitutional standards of the new nation. Marshall
used Federalist approaches to build a strong federal government over
the opposition of the Jeffersonian Democrats, who wanted stronger state
governments. His
influential rulings reshaped American government, making the Supreme
Court the final arbiter of constitutional interpretation. The Marshall
Court struck down an act of Congress in only one case (Marbury v. Madison in
1803) but that established the Court as a center of power that could
overrule the Congress, the president, the states, and all lower courts
if that is what a fair reading of the Constitution requires. He also
defended the legal rights of corporations by tying them to the
individual rights of the stockholders, thereby ensuring that
corporations have the same level of protection for their property as
individuals had, and shielding corporations against intrusive state
governments. Marbury v. Madison (1803) was the first important case before Marshall's Court. In that case, the Supreme Court invalidated a provision of the Judiciary Act of 1789 on the grounds that it violated the Constitution by attempting to expand the original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. Marbury was
the first and only case in which the Marshall Court ruled an act of
Congress unconstitutional, and thereby reinforced the doctrine of judicial review.
Thus, although the Court indicated that the Jefferson administration
was violating another law, the Court said it could not do anything
about it due to its own lack of jurisdiction. President Thomas Jefferson took the position that the Court could not give him a mandamus (i.e. an order) even if the Court had jurisdiction: More
generally, Jefferson lamented that allowing the Constitution to mean
whatever the Court says it means would make the Constitution "a mere
thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and
shape into any form they please." Because Marbury v. Madison decided
that a jurisdictional statute passed by Congress was unconstitutional,
that was technically a victory for the Jefferson administration (so it
could not easily complain). Ironically what was unconstitutional was
Congress' granting a certain power to the Supreme Court itself. The
case allowed Marshall to proclaim the doctrine of judicial review,
which reserves to the Supreme Court final authority to judge whether or
not actions of the president or of the congress are within the powers
granted to them by the Constitution. The Constitution itself is the
supreme law, and when the Court believes that a specific law or action
is in violation of it, the Court must uphold the Constitution and set
aside that other law or action, assuming that a party has standing to properly invoke the Court's jurisdiction. Chief Justice Marshall famously put the matter this way: The Constitution does not explicitly give judicial review to
the Court, and Jefferson was very angry with Marshall's position, for
he wanted the President to decide whether his acts were constitutional
or not. Historians mostly agree that the framers of the Constitution
did plan for the Supreme Court to have some sort of judicial review;
what Marshall did was make operational their goals. Judicial review was not new and Marshall himself mentioned it in the Virginia
ratifying convention of 1788. Marshall's opinion expressed and fixed in
the American tradition and legal system a more basic theory — government
under law. That is, judicial review means a government in which no
person (not even the President) and no institution (not even Congress
or the Supreme Court itself), nor even a majority of voters, may freely
work their will in violation of the written Constitution. Marshall
himself never declared another law of Congress or act of a president
unconstitutional.
The Burr trial (1807) was presided over by Marshall together with Judge Cyrus Griffin. This was the great state trial of former Vice President Aaron Burr, who was charged with treason and high misdemeanor.
Prior to the trial, President Jefferson condemned Burr and strongly
supported conviction. Marshall, however, narrowly construed the
definition of treason provided in Article III of the Constitution; he
noted that the prosecution had failed to prove that Burr had committed
an "overt act,"
as the Constitution required. As a result, the jury acquitted the
defendant, leading to increased animosity between the President and the
Chief Justice. Fletcher v. Peck (1810)
was the first case in which the Supreme Court ruled a state law
unconstitutional, though the Court had long before voided a state law
as conflicting with the combination of the Constitution together with a
treaty (Marshall had represented the losing side in that 1796 case). In Fletcher,
the Georgia legislature had approved a land grant, known as the Yazoo
Land Act of 1795. It was then revealed that the land grant had been
approved in return for bribes, and therefore voters rejected most of
the incumbents; the next legislature repealed the law and voided all
subsequent transactions (even honest ones) that resulted from the Yazoo land scandal.
The Marshall Court held that the state legislature's repeal of the
law was void because the sale was a binding contract, which according
to Article I, Section 10, Clause I (the Contract Clause)
of the Constitution, cannot be invalidated. Marshall emphasized that
the rescinding act would seize property from individuals who had
honestly acquired it, and transfer that property to the public without
any compensation. He then expanded upon his own famous statement
in Marbury about the province of the judiciary: Based on this separation of powers principle, Marshall
questioned whether the rescinding act would be valid even if Georgia
were a completely sovereign state independent of the federal
Constitution. Ultimately, though, Marshall grounded the Court's opinion
in the restrictions imposed by the federal Constitution. As in Marbury, this decision of the Court in Fletcher was unanimous.
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
was one of several decisions during the 1810s and 1820s, involving the
balance of power between the federal government and the states, where
he repeatedly affirmed federal supremacy. He established in McCulloch that states could not tax federal institutions, and upheld congressional authority to create the Second Bank of the United States, even though the authority to do this was not expressly stated in the Constitution. As
the young nation was endangered by regional and local interests that
often threatened to fracture its hard - fought unity, Marshall
repeatedly interpreted the Constitution broadly so that the Federal
Government had
the power to become a respected and creative force guiding and
encouraging the nation's growth. Thus, for all practical purposes, the Constitution in
its most important aspects today is the Constitution as John Marshall
interpreted it. As Chief Justice, he embodied the judiciary of the
government as fully as the President of the United States stood for the power of the Executive Branch. McCulloch v. Maryland was Marshall's second greatest single judicial performance. While it was consistent with Marbury v. Madison, it cut the other way by affirming the constitutionality of a federal
statute, while preventing states from passing laws that violate federal
law. The opinion includes the famous statement, "We must never forget
that it is a constitution we are expounding." Marshall laid down the
basic theory of implied powers under a written Constitution; intended,
as he said "to endure for ages to come, and, consequently, to be
adapted to the various crises of human affairs ...." Marshall envisaged
a federal government which, although governed by timeless principles,
possessed the powers "on which the welfare of a nation essentially
depends." It would be free in its choice of means, and open to change
and growth. The
Court held that the bank was authorized by the clause of the
Constitution that says Congress can implement its powers by making laws
that are "necessary and proper", which Marshall said does not refer to one single way that Congress is allowed to act, but rather refers to various possible
acts that implement all constitutionally established powers. Marshall
famously provided the following time - honored interpretation of this
clause in the Constitution: According to the New York Times, "Marshall did not intend his words as license for Congress to do whatever it wishes." Instead,
Marshall and the Court deemed the bank necessary and proper because it
furthered various legitimate ends that are listed in the Constitution, such as regulating interstate commerce. Cohens v. Virginia (1821) displayed Marshall's nationalism as he enforced the supremacy of federal law over state law, under the Supremacy Clause of
the Constitution. In this case, he established that the Federal
judiciary could hear appeals from decisions of state courts in criminal
cases as well as the civil cases over which the court had asserted
jurisdiction in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816). Justices Bushrod Washington and Joseph Story proved to be his strongest allies in these cases. Like Marbury, this Cohens case
was largely about the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The State of
Virginia claimed that the Court had no jurisdiction to hear appeals
from a state court in a case between a state and its own citizens, even
if the case involved interpretation of a federal statute. Marshall
wrote that his court did have appellate jurisdiction, but then went on to affirm the decision of the Virginia Supreme Court on the merits. Marshall wrote: In Marshall's day, the Court had not yet been given the discretion whether or not to take cases. Scholars such as Edward Hartnett contend that the Court's discretionary certiorari practice undercuts the rationale that Chief Justice Marshall gave in the Cohens case for reviewing the validity of state law, which was that the Court had no choice in the matter. The decision in Cohens demonstrated
that the federal judiciary can act directly on private parties and
state officials, and has the power to declare and impose on the states
the Constitution and federal laws, but Marshall stressed that federal
laws have limits. For example, he said, "Congress has a right to punish
murder in a fort, or other place within its exclusive jurisdiction; but
no general right to punish murder committed within any of the States." In this case, the Court affirmed that the Virginia Supreme Court correctly interpreted a federal statute that had established a lottery in Washington D.C. Like the Jefferson administration in Marbury, the State of Virginia technically won this case even though the case set a precedent consolidating the power of the Court. Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
overturned a monopoly granted by the New York state legislature to
certain steamships operating between New York and New Jersey. Daniel Webster argued that the Constitution, by empowering Congress to regulate interstate commerce, implied that states do not have any concurrent power to regulate interstate commerce. Chief Justice Marshall avoided that issue about the exclusivity of the federal commerce power because
that issue was not necessary to decide the case. Instead, Marshall
relied on an actual, existing federal statute for licensing ships, and
he held that that federal law was a legitimate exercise of the
congressional power to regulate interstate commerce, so the federal law
superseded the state law granting the monopoly. Webster was at that time a member of Congress, but nevertheless pressed his constitutional views on behalf of clients. After
he won this case, he bragged that Marshall absorbed his arguments "as a
baby takes in his mother's milk", even though Marshall had actually dismissed Webster's main argument. In
the course of his opinion in this case, Marshall began the careful work
of determining what the phrase "commerce... among the several states"
means in the Constitution. He stressed that one must look at whether
the commerce in question has wide ranging effects, suggesting that
commerce which does "affect other states" may be interstate commerce,
even if it does not cross state lines. Of course, the steamboats in
this case did cross a state line, but Marshall suggested that his
opinion had a broader scope than that. Indeed, Marshall's opinion in Gibbons would be cited by the Supreme Court much later when it upheld aspects of the New Deal in cases like Wickard v. Filburn in 1942. But, the opinion in Gibbons can also be read more narrowly. After all, Marshall also wrote: The immediate impact of the historic decision in Gibbons was to end many state granted monopolies. That in turn lowered prices and promoted free enterprise. Marshall wrote several other important Supreme Court opinions, including the following. In Dartmouth College v. Woodward, 17 U.S. 518 (1819),
the legal structure of modern corporations began to develop, when the
Court held that private corporate charters are protected from state
interference by the Contract Clause of the Constitution. In Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 U.S. 543 (1823),
the Court held that private American citizens could not purchase tribal
lands directly from Native Americans (then called "Indians"). Instead,
only the government could do so, and then private citizens could
purchase from the government. In Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832),
a Georgia criminal statute, which prohibited non-Indians from being
present on Indian lands without a license from the state, was held
unconstitutional, because the federal government has exclusive
authority in such matters. It is often said that, in response to the
decision, President Andrew Jackson,
said something to the effect of: "John Marshall has made his decision;
now let him enforce it!" More reputable sources recognize this as a
false quotation. In fact, the ruling in Worcester ordered nothing more than that Worcester be freed; Georgia complied after several months. In Barron v. Baltimore, 32 U.S. 243 (1833),
the Court held that the Bill of Rights was intended to apply only
against the federal government, and therefore does not apply against
the states. The Court has subsequently held that the holding in Barron was altered by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Marshall greatly admired George Washington, and between 1805 and 1807 published an influential five - volume biography. Marshall's Life of Washington was
based on records and papers provided to him by the late president's
family. The first volume was reissued in 1824 separately as A History of the American Colonies. The work reflected Marshall's Federalist principles. His revised and condensed two - volume Life of Washington was published in 1832. Historians
have often praised its accuracy and well - reasoned judgments, while
noting his frequent paraphrases of published sources such as William
Gordon's 1801 history of the Revolution and the British Annual Register. After
completing the revision to his biography of Washington, Marshall
prepared an abridgment. In 1833 he wrote, "I have at length completed
an abridgment of the Life of Washington for the use of schools. I have
endeavored to compress it as much as possible. . . . After striking out
every thing which in my judgment could be properly excluded the volume
will contain at least 400 pages." The Abridgment was not published until 1838, three years after Marshall died. Marshall loved his home, built in 1790, in Richmond, Virginia, and spent as much time there as possible in quiet contentment. While in Richmond he attended St. John's Church in Church Hill until 1814 when he led the movement to hire Robert Mills as architect of Monumental Church,
which commemorated the death of 72 people in a theatre fire. The
Marshall family occupied pew No. 23 at Monumental Church and
entertained the Marquis de Lafayette there during his visit to Richmond in 1824. Marshall was not religious and never joined any church; he did not believe Christ was divine. For
approximately three months each year; however, he would be away in
Washington for the Court's annual term; he would also be away for
several weeks to serve on the circuit court in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1823, he became first president of the Richmond branch of the American Colonization Society, which was dedicated to resettling freed American slaves in Liberia, on the West coast of Africa. In 1828, he presided over a convention to promote internal improvements in Virginia. In
1829, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, where
he was again joined by fellow American statesman and loyal Virginians, James Madison and James Monroe,
although all were quite old by that time. Marshall mainly spoke at this
convention to promote the necessity of an independent judiciary. On
December 25, 1831, Mary, his beloved wife of some 49 years, died. Most
who knew Marshall agreed that after Mary's death, he was never quite
the same. His health, which had not been good for several years,
rapidly declined in 1835, and in June he journeyed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for medical attendance. There he died on July 6, at the age of 79, having served as Chief Justice for over 34 years. Two
days before his death, he enjoined his friends to place only a plain
slab over his and his wife's graves, and he wrote the simple
inscription himself. His body, which was taken to Richmond, lies in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in a well kept grave. JOHN MARSHALL Marshall was the second to last surviving Founding Father, the last being James Madison. Some of the papers of John Marshall are held by the Special Collections Research Center at the College of William & Mary. Marshall's home in Richmond, Virginia, has been preserved by APVA Preservation Virginia. It is considered to be an important landmark and museum, essential to an understanding of the Chief Justice's life and work. The United States Bar Association commissioned sculptor William Wetmore Story to execute the statue of Marshall that now stands inside the Supreme Court on the ground floor. Another
casting of the statue is located at Constitution Ave. and 4th Street in
Washington D.C. and a third on the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum
of Art. Story's father Joseph Story had served as an Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court with Marshall. The statue was originally dedicated in 1884. An
engraved portrait of Marshall appears on U.S. paper money on the series
1890 and 1891 treasury notes. These rare notes are in great demand by
note collectors today. Also, in 1914, an engraved portrait of Marshall
was used as the central vignette on series 1914 $500 federal reserve
notes. These notes are also quite scarce. (William McKinley replaced
Marshall on the $500 bill in 1928.) Example of both notes are available
for viewing on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco website. On September 24, 1955, the United States Postal Service issued the 40¢ Liberty Issue postage stamp honoring Marshall with a 40 cent stamp. Having
grown from a Reformed Church academy, Marshall College, named upon the
death of Chief Justice John Marshall, officially opened in 1836 with a
well - established reputation. After a merger with Franklin College in
1853, the school was renamed Franklin and Marshall College. The college went on to become one of the nation's foremost liberal arts colleges. Four law schools and one University today bear his name: The Marshall - Wythe School of Law (now William and Mary Law School at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia; The Cleveland - Marshall College of Law in Cleveland, Ohio; John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia; and, The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. The University that bears his name is Marshall University in Huntington West Virginia. Marshall County, Illinois, Marshall County, Indiana, Marshall County, Kentucky, and Marshall County, West Virginia, are also named in his honor. A number of high schools around the nation have also been named for him. John Marshall's birthplace in Fauquier County is a park, the John Marshall Birthplace Park, and a marker can be seen on Route 28 noting this place and event. Marshall, Michigan was named in his honor five years before Marshall's death. It was the first of dozens of communities and counties named for him. John Marshall was an active Freemason and served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Marshall was a descendant of the Randolph family of Virginia, including William Randolph I and Thomas Randolph (of Tuckahoe). Other prominent family connections include: |