Volume I Part 28 (1/2)

[637] Madison to Jefferson, July 3,1784; _Writings_: Hunt, ii, 62.

[638] Madison to Was.h.i.+ngton, Dec. 14,1787; _ib._, v, 69-70.

[639] Was.h.i.+ngton to Madison, Jan. 10, 1788; _Writings_: Ford, xi, 208.

[640] Was.h.i.+ngton to Lafayette, April 28, 1788; _ib._, 254. Was.h.i.+ngton wrote bitterly of State antagonism. ”One State pa.s.ses a prohibitory law respecting some article, another State opens wide the avenue for its admission. One a.s.sembly makes a system, another a.s.sembly unmakes it.”

(_Ib._)

[641] Hening, xi, 299-306. This statement of Marshall's was grossly incorrect. This session of the Legislature pa.s.sed several laws of the very greatest public consequence, such as the act to authorize Congress to pa.s.s retaliatory trade laws against Great Britain (_ib._, 313); an immigration and citizens.h.i.+p act (_ib._, 322-24); an act prohibiting British refugees from coming to Virginia; and a quarantine act (_ib._, 29-31). It was this session that pa.s.sed the famous act to authorize Virginia's delegates in Congress to convey to the United States the Northwest Territory (_ib._, 326-28).

This remarkable oversight of Marshall is hard to account for. An explanation is that this was the year of his marriage; and the year also in which he became a resident of Richmond, started in the practice of the law there, and set up his own home. In addition to these absorbing things, his duty as a member of the Council of State took his attention.

Also, of course, it was the year when peace with Great Britain was declared. Still, these things do not excuse Marshall's strange misstatement. Perhaps he underestimated the importance of the work done at this particular session.

[642] Hening, xi, 387-88. This bill became a law at the spring session of the following year. The impracticable part enforcing attendance of members was dropped. The bill as pa.s.sed imposes a penalty of fifty pounds on any sheriff or other officer for failure to return certificates of elections; a forfeit of two hundred pounds upon any sheriff interfering in any election or showing any partiality toward candidates.

[643] Marshall to Powell, Dec. 9, 1783; _Branch Historical Papers_, i, 130-31.

[644] An act allowing one half of the taxes to be paid in tobacco, hemp, flour, or deerskins, and suspending distress for taxes until January, 1784. (Hening, xi, 289.) The scarcity of specie was so great and the people so poor that the collection of taxes was extremely difficult. In 1782 the partial payment of taxes in commutables--tobacco, hemp, flour, or deerskins--was introduced. This occasioned such loss to the treasury that in May, 1783, the Commutable Acts were repealed; but within five months the Legislature reversed itself again and pa.s.sed the Commutable Bill which so disgusted Marshall.

[645] Marshall to Monroe, Dec. 12, 1783; MS., Draper Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society; also printed in _Amer. Hist. Rev._, iii, 673. This letter is not addressed, but it has been a.s.sumed that it was written to Thomas Jefferson. This is incorrect; it was written to James Monroe.

[646] Journal, H.D. (Oct. Sess., 1782), 27. It is almost certain that his father and Jacquelin Ambler were pus.h.i.+ng him. The Speaker and other prominent members of the House had been colleagues of Thomas Marshall in the House of Burgesses and Ambler was popular with everybody. Still, Marshall's personality must have had much to do with this notable advancement. His members.h.i.+p in the Council cannot be overestimated in considering his great conflict with the Virginia political ”machine”

after he became Chief Justice. See volume III of this work.

[647] Journal of the Council of State, Nov. 20, 1782; MS., Va. St. Lib.

[648] Pendleton to Madison, Nov. 25, 1782; quoted in Rives, i, 182.

[649] Const.i.tution of Virginia, 1776.

[650] Dodd, in _Amer. Hist. Rev._, xii, 776.

[651] Marshall partic.i.p.ated in the appointment of General George Rogers Clark to the office of Surveyor of Officers' and Soldiers' lands.

(Journal, Ex. Council, 1784, 57: MS., Va. St. Lib.)

[652] _Ib._

[653] Binney, in Dillon, iii, 291-92. This story is repeated in almost all of the sketches of Marshall's life.

[654] Marshall to Monroe, April 17, 1784; MS., N.Y. Pub. Lib.

[655] His father, now in Kentucky, could no longer personally aid his son in his old home. Thus Marshall himself had to attend to his own political affairs.

[656] Marshall did not try for the Legislature again until 1787 when he sought and secured election from Henrico. (See _infra._)

[657] Journal, H.D. (Spring Sess., 1784), 5. A Robert Marshall was also a member of the House during 1784 as one of the representatives for Isle of Wight County. He was not related in any way to John Marshall.

[658] _Ib._

[659] _Ib._