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MARSHALL, JOHN (1755–1835)
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See also:MARSHALL, See also: The commission failed, but the course pursued by Marshall was approved in See also:America, and with the resentment See also:felt because of the way in which the commission had been treated in France, made him, on his return, exceedingly popular. To this popularity, as well as to the See also:earnest advocacy of See also:Patrick See also: The change was admirably adapted to strengthen the See also:power and dignity of the court. The chief-justice embodied the See also:majesty of the judicial department of the government almost as fully as the president stood for the power of the executive. That this change was acquiesced in by his associates without diminishing their See also:goodwill towards their new chief is testimony to the per-suasive force of Marshall's See also:personality; for his associates were not men of mediocre ability. After the advent of Mr Justice See also:Joseph See also:Story the practice was abandoned. Marshall, however, still delivered the See also:opinion in the great See also:majority of cases, and in practically all cases of any importance involving the See also:interpretation of the Constitution. During the course of his judicial See also:life his associates were as a See also:rule men of learning and ability. During most of the time the majority were the appointees of
for his lodging and See also:maintenance. In France marechal See also:des logis is the title of See also:superior non-commissioned See also:officers in the See also:cavalry. Similarly at the See also: Thus the task of expounding the constitution during the most See also:critical period of its See also:history was his, and it was given to him to preside over the Supreme Court when it was called upon to decide four cases of vital importance: Marbury v. Madison, M'Culloch v. See also:Maryland, Cohens v. Virginia and See also:Gibbons v. See also:Ogden. In each of these cases it is Marshall who writes the opinion of the court; in each the continued existence of the See also:peculiar Federal See also:system established by the Constitution depended on the See also:action of the court, and in each the court adopted a principle which is now generally perceived to be essential to the preservation of the United States as a federal state. In Marbury v. Madison, which was decided two years after his elevation to the bench, he decided that it was the See also:duty of the court to disregard any act of Congress, and, therefore, a fortiori any act of a legislature of one of the states, which the court thought contrary to the Federal Constitution. In Cohens v. Virginia, in spite of the contention of See also:Jefferson and the then prevalent school of See also:political thought that it was contrary to the Constitution for a See also:person to bring one of the states of the United States, though only as an appellee, into a court of justice, he held that Congress could lawfully pass an act which permitted a person who was convicted in a state court, to See also:appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, if he alleged that the state act under which he was convicted conflicted with the Federal Constitution or with an act of Congress. In M'Culloch v. Maryland, though admitting that the Federal government is one of delegated See also:powers and cannot exercise any power not expressly given in the Constitution, he laid down the rule that Congress in the exercise of a delegated power has a wide See also:latitude in the choice of means, not being confined in its choice of means to those which must be used if the power is to be exercised at all. Lastly, in Gibbons v. Ogden, he held that when the power to regulate interstate and See also:foreign See also:commerce was conferred by the Constitution on the Federal government, the word " commerce " included not only the See also:exchange of commodities, but the means by which interstate and foreign intercourse was carried on, and therefore that Congress had the power to license vessels to carry goods and passengers between the states, and an act of one of the states making a regulation which interfered with such regulation of Congress was, o tanto, of no effect. It will be seen that in the first two cases re r established the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution. The decision in M'Culloch v. Maryland, by leaving Congress unhampered in the choice of means to execute its delegated powers, made it possible for the Federal government to accomplish the ends of its existence. " Let the end be legitimate," said Marshall in the course of its opinion, " let it be within the See also:scope of the Constitution, and all means which are appropriate, which are plainly adapted to that end, which are not prohibited, but consist with the See also:letter and spirit of the Constitution, are constitutional." If the decision in M'Culloch v. Maryland gave vigour to all Federal power, the decision in Gibbons v. Ogden, by giving the Federal government See also:control over the means by which interstate and foreign commerce is carried on, preserved the material prosperity of the country. The decision recognizes what the framers of the Constitution recognized, namely that the United States is an economic See also:union, and that business which is national should be under national, not state, control. Though for the reasons stated, the four cases mentioned are the most important of his decisions, the value of his See also:work as an expounder of the Constitution of the United States is not to be measured by these cases alone. In all he decided See also:forty-four cases involving constitutional questions. Nearly every important part of the Constitution of the United States as it existed before the amendments which were adopted after the See also:Civil War, is treated in one or more of them. The Constitution in its most important aspects is the Constitution as he interpreted it. He did not work out completely the position of the states in the Federal system, but he did grasp and establish the position of the Federal legislature and the Federal judiciary. To appreciate his work, however, it is necessary to see that it was the work not of a statesman but of a See also:judge. Had Marshall been merely a far-seeing statesman, while most of his important cases would have been decided as he decided them, his life-work would have been a failure. It was not only necessarythat he should decide great constitutional questions properly, but also that the See also:people of the United States should be convinced of the corre4ness of his interpretation of the Constitution. His opinions, therefore, had to carry to those who studied them a conviction that the constitution as written had been interpreted according to its evident meaning. They fulfilled this See also:prime requisite. Their chief characteristic is the cumulative force of the See also:argument. The ground for the premiss is carefully prepared, the premiss itself is clearly stated; nearly every possible objection is examined and answered; and then comes the conclusion. There is little or no repetition, but there is a See also:wealth of See also:illustration, a completeness of See also:analysis, that convinces the reader, not only that the subject has been adequately treated, but that it has been exhausted. His See also:style, reflecting his See also:character, suits perfectly the subject See also:matter. See also:Simple in the best sense of the word, his intellectual processes were so clear that he never doubted the correctness of the conclusion to which they led him. Apparently from his own point of view, he merely indicated the question at issue, and the inexorable rules of See also:logic did the See also:rest. Thus his opinions are simple, clear, dignified. Intensely interesting, the See also:interest is in the argument, not in its expression. He had, in a wonderful degree, the power of phrase. He expressed important principles of See also:law in See also:language which tersely yet clearly conveyed his exact meaning. Not only is the Constitution interpreted largely as he taught the people of the United States to interpret it, but when they wish to See also:express important constitutional principles which he enunciated they use his exact words. Again, his opinions show that he adhered closely to the words of the Constitution; indeed no one who has attempted to expound that instrument has confined himself more strictly to an examination of the See also:text. In the proper, though not in the See also:historical, sense he was the strictest of strict constructionalists, and as a result his opinions are practically devoid of theories of government, See also:sovereignty and the rights of See also:man. A single illustration of his avoidance of all theory and his adhers ence to the words of the Constitution will suffice. In the case of the United States v. See also:Fisher the constitutional question involved was the power of Congress to give to the United States a preference over all other creditors in the See also:distribution of the See also:assets of a bankrupt. Such an act can be upheld on the ground that all governments have necessarily the right to give themselves priority. Not so Marshall. To him the act must be supported,. if supported at all, not on any theory of the innate nature of the government, national or otherwise, but as a reasonable means of carrying out one of the express powers conferred by the Constitution on the Federal government. Thus, he upholds the act in question because of the power expressly conferred on the Federal government to pay the debts of the union, and as a necessary consequence of this power the right to make remittances by bills or otherwise and to take precautions which will render the transactions safe.
It is important to emphasize the fact that Marshall adhered in his opinions to the Constitution as written, not only because it is a fact which must be recognized if we are to understand the correct value of his work in the See also: The argument which he advances lacks the clearness and finality for which most of his opinions are celebrated. It is not certain with whom he thought the' contract was made: with the corporation created by the charter, with the trustees of the corporation, or with those who had contributed See also:money to its See also:objects. Of the wonderful persuasive force of Marshall's personality there is abundant See also:evidence. His See also:influence over his associates, already referred to, is but one example though a most impressive one. From the moment he delivered the opinion in Marbury v. Madison the legal profession knew that he was a great judge. Each See also:year added to his reputation and made for a better appreciation of his intellectual and moral qualities. The bar of the Supreme Court during his chief-justiceship was the most brilliant which the United States has ever known. Leaders, not only of legal, but political thought were among its members; one, See also:Webster, was a man of See also:genius and commanding position. To a very great degree Marshall impressed on the members of this bar and on the profession generally his own ideas of the correct interpretation of the Constitution and his own love for the union. He did this, not merely by his arguments but by the influence which was his by right of his strong, sweet nature. Statesmen and politicians, great and small, were at this time, almost without exception, members of the bar. To influence the political thought of the bar was to a great extent to influence the political thought of the people.
In 1782 he married Mary See also:Willis Ambler, the daughter of the then treasurer of Virginia. They had ten See also:children, six of whom See also:grew to full See also:age. For the greater part of the forty-eight years of their married life Mrs Marshall suffered in-tensely from a See also:nervous affliction. Her See also:condition called out the love and sympathy of her See also:husband's deep and affectionate nature. Judge Story tells us: " That which, in a just sense, was his highest See also:glory, was the. purity, affectionateness, liberality and devotedness of his domestic life." For the first See also:thirty years of his chief-justiceship his life was a singularly happy one. He never had to remain in Washington for more than three months. During the rest of the year, with the exception of a visit to See also:Raleigh, which his duties as See also:circuit judge required him to make, and a visit to his old See also:home in Fauquier county, he lived in Richmond. His house on Shockhoe See also: His See also:health, which had not been good, now rapidly declined and in June he returned to See also:Philadelphia for medical attendance. There he died on the 6th of July. His See also:body, which was taken to Richmond, lies in Shockhoe Hill See also:Cemetery under a See also:plain See also:marble slab, on which is a simple inscription written by himself. In addition to his decisions MarshallNvrote a famous See also:biography of See also:George Washing-ton (5 vols., 1804—1807; and ed., 2 vols., 1832), which though prepared hastily contains much material of value. The See also:principal See also:sources of See also:information are: an See also:essay by James B. See also:Thayer (See also:Boston and New See also:York, 1904); Great American Lawyers (Philadelphia, 1908), ii. 313-408, an essay by Wm. See also:Draper See also:Lewis; and See also:Allan B. Magruder, John Marshall (Boston, 1885), in the " American Statesmen See also:Series." The addresses delivered on Marshall Day, the 4th of See also:February 1901, are collected by John F. See also:Dillon (See also:Chicago, 1903). In the " Appendix " to Dillon's collection will be found the " Discourse " by Joseph Story and the " Eulogy " by See also:Horace See also:Binney, both delivered soon after Marshall's See also:death. For a study of Marshall's decisions, the Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall, edited by Joseph P. Collon, Jr. (New York and See also:London, 1905), is of value. (W. D. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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