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honorable diplomacy of Marshall averted such a consequence. His State papers respecting claims of British creditors and neutral rights deservedly rank high. Mr. Adams says: "My new minister, Mr. Marshall, did all to my entire satisfaction."

The presidential election of 1800, conducted with great violence, resulted in the defeat of Mr. Adams; the choice of his successor devolved upon the House of Representatives; it must be made between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Strange! Thomas Jefferson, a Virginian; John Marshall, a Virginian; both reared almost under the shadows of Monticello; both sat for the study of the law under the same revered Chancellor Wythe. Patrick Henry, the early associate and warm friend of Jefferson, was the close friend and admirer of Marshall. Judge Story says of Marshall and Madison:

"It was touching to hear from their lips, in their old age, their earnest testimony to the talents, the virtues, and the services of each other."

son.

Madison, so justly full of love, gratitude and admiration for his preceptor, Jefferson. Washington admired and trusted JefferIn the judgment and patriotism of no one did the "Father of his country" repose higher confidence than in his friend, Mr. Marshall. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, as candidates. against each other for the highest gift in the hands of the American people, could lead their respective followers in the most excited and personal campaign, and yet remain personal friends. The great Puritan President as he lay dying on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, unconscious that the spirit of the great Democrat had a few hours before taken its flight from the heights of Monticello, took consolation in the thought expressed in his last whisper-"Thomas Jefferson still lives." Yet, between Jefferson and Marshall, each so pure in purpose, so useful in service, so genuine in patriotism, there existed the deepest distrust and bitterest personal hostility. In the contest between Jefferson and Burr for the presidency Marshall's strong inclination was to throw the Federalist support to Mr. Burr. Hamilton knew well both contestants. While he differed widely from Mr. Jefferson on most

public questions, he believed him a patriot. Burr he regarded as dangerous to the country's welfare. To Alexander Hamilton his country was dearer than his party. Under his influence the one Federalist vote made Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, not Aaron Burr. Almost sublime this patriotism, yet the earnest solicitation of Hamilton could not move Marshall beyond neutrality; he declined positively to support Mr. Jefferson.

MARSHALL'S JUDICIAL Life.

This same sturdy son of Massachusetts, John Adams, who had moved the adoption of the Declaration of Independence; who, uninfluenced by sectional prejudices, inspired by his love for country, moved the appointment of the Virginian, General Washington, as commander-in-chief of the armies of the colonies, closed his presidential term with affixing his signature to the commission which made John Marshall, the Virginian, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. March 4, 1801, Thomas Jefferson became President of the United States; John Marshall, Chief Justice. Not uninteresting or inappropriate a hasty retrospect of the life of Jefferson. Descended on the mother's side from the cavaliers, he entered the old College of William and Mary, departed its halls an elegant gentleman, an accomplished classical scholar, liberally learned, yet a genuine man of the people. His life a busy one, aroused by the royal infractions of colonial rights, he had been conservatively active in all the early movements in Virginia for resisting such invasions; active in the Legislature, and elsewhere, in bringing about colonial co-operation; member of the Continental Congress, draughter of the Declaration of Independence, and effective with Wythe and Madison in simplifying the laws of Virginia. Under his influence the statutes abolishing entails, promoting common schools, prohibiting the slave trade, and the statute for religious liberty became laws of Virginia. Thrice war Governor of Virginia; a signer of the Treaty of Peace, which acknowledged the independence of the colonies. Further realizing the weakness of the central government under the Colonial Congress and the Articles of Confederation; actively aggressive, and

in close consultation and co-operation with Washington in promoting the union between the colonies which resulted in our present Federal Constitution.

1784. Doctor Franklin and Mr. Adams are in Europe as Plenipotentiaries of Congress. Jefferson becomes the third, to France; Jefferson now 41.

Deep were the impressions made upon him by his ministry to France. Parton says:

"Had Congress sent Jefferson to London instead of to Paris and John Adams to Paris instead of to London, our fellow citizens would have been more or less different in their characters and feelings than they are.”

Jefferson wrote to Wythe from Paris:

"If anybody thinks kings and nobles are good conservators of the public happiness, send him here."

To Madison he writes:

"To have an idea of the curse of existing under a government of force, it must be seen."

Here his views against the protection system became more decided and fixed. His sympathies were strongly with the French people in this revolution. While the French people were struggling to establish a constitution, the American people were voting on the adoption of theirs. While some contended a bill of rights unnecessary to our constitution, Jefferson again from Paris writes: “That a bill of rights was what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular," and that one. ought to be added, providing clearly without the aid of sophism, for freedom of religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unremitting force of the habeas corpus laws, and trials by jury in all matters triable by the law of the land and not by the laws of nations." Washington in harmony with this view, in his first inaugural advises the adoption of the first ten amendments to the Constitution embodying these rights.

At the earnest solicitation of Washington, Jefferson returns from France to become his Secretary of State-Hamilton enters

the Cabinet as Secretary of Treasury. The tendency to concentration begun its struggle with the tendency to diffuse. All members of the Cabinet were friends and supporters of the Constitution-their views widely differed as to the scope of its powers. To the regret of General Washington, Jefferson, after several years of invaluable service in the Cabinet, resigned. Hamilton, against the remonstrance of the President, likewise withdrew-the struggle went on. The nation was divided into two great parties; the one fearing the destruction of the liberties of the people by centralization, the other the fall of the Republic by dissolution. These two great parties had just closed their most excited and violent campaign when John Marshall, the leader of one, became the head of the judicial department, when Thomas Jefferson, founder of democracy, became the head of the executive department. Can we doubt that their divergent views have materially contributed to the existence of the conservative government that is ours-that the conflict of forces produced a better result than had they not met? The nation possesses, under the Constitution, all powers necessary and convenient for the discharge of its functions, yet, the states retain the powers of local self-government. Vigilance and antagonism have prevented radicalism.

Marshall's training for the bar before admission had been limited, but his practice great. He had practiced at the Richmond bar. If time permitted, it would entertain to linger over the personnel of this bar-it must suffice to say, here practiced some of the ablest lawyers who have graced the annals of the American bar. It was said of this bar in an important case by a visiting foreigner, "If any one of them had spoken in Westminster Hall he would have been honored with a peerage." In his practice here, and in the Federal Trial Courts and the Supreme Court of the United States, he had met many of the ablest constitutional lawyers of America. In the courts, in the legislature and other public assemblages he had gone widely and deeply into questions of general law, international law and constitutional law. His natural gifts for the judicial consideration of constitutional and international questions were unsurpassed. The solution of such questions was to be

upon right reason, and not upon precedent. The first written constitution was to be interpreted. A constitution regulating the powers of the nation, the powers of the States under our dual and complex system. The work before Marshall was more difficult than that which confronted Lords Mansfield, Stowell or Nottingham; those great judges had the aid of writings of the continental jurists in similar fields of labor. Marshall was to reach conclusions in matters without precedent at home or abroad. When Marshall ascended the bench, Jay and Elsworth had presided-the court had been in existence eleven years. All decisions of such court and of the Circuit and District Courts of the United States prior to such time are contained in less than 700 pages of Dallas's Reports. Reports of all decisions of all Colonial and State courts published prior to 1801 are contained in less than a dozen volumes of ordinary size. Only six cases involving constitutional questions had then been ruled by the Supreme Court of the United States. Two of these became valueless by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution.

But little had been done by the courts in adapting the common law to our institutions. Questions arising out of the war in Europe: questions arising from the extension of the authority of the United States by treaty over territory not originally within its jurisdiction were comparatively new and required judicial settlement. This marvelous man who seventeen years after being called to the bar is now the Nation's Chief Justice and confronted with profound and difficult questions is equal to the task. Great as he was he was greater for those about him. With him sat Patterson, Bushrod Washington, Story, for twenty-four years, and other jurists of equal eminence. At the altar of the high tribunal over which he presided ministered Webster, William Pinkney, with his profound learning and classical oratory, Emmett, with his saddened life and touching eloquence, Wirt, Dexter, Luther Martin and others of the most illustrious of the American bar. Arguments were patiently heard, yea, demanded by Mr. Marshall, and no one profited by them more. Cases deliberately considered, his opinions not filed until prepared with the greatest of care, models.

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