Volume II Part 15 (1/2)
CHAPTER IV
WAs.h.i.+NGTON'S DEFENDER
His [Marshall's] lax, lounging manners have made him popular.
(Jefferson.)
Having a high opinion of General Marshall's honor, prudence, and judgment, consult him. (Was.h.i.+ngton.)
The man [Was.h.i.+ngton] who is the source of all the misfortunes of our country is no longer possessed of the power to multiply evils on the United States. (The _Aurora_ on Was.h.i.+ngton's retirement from the Presidency.)
Jefferson properly named Marshall as the first of Was.h.i.+ngton's friends in Virginia. For, by now, he had become the leader of the Virginia Federalists. His lucid common sense, his level poise, his steady courage, his rock-like reliability--these qualities, together with his almost uncanny influence over his const.i.tuents, had made him chief in the Virginia Federalist councils.
So high had Marshall risen in Was.h.i.+ngton's esteem and confidence that the President urged him to become a member of the Cabinet.
”The office of Attorney Gen^l. of the United States has become vacant by the death of Will Bradford, Esq.[351] I take the earliest opportunity of asking if you will accept the appointment? The salary annexed thereto, and the prospects of lucrative practice in this city [Philadelphia]--the present seat of the Gen^l. Government, must be as well known to you, perhaps better, than they are to me, and therefore I shall say nothing concerning them.
”If your answer is in the affirmative, it will readily occur to you that no unnecessary time should be lost in repairing to this place. If, on the contrary, it should be the negative (which would give me concern) it might be as well to say nothing of this offer. But in either case, I pray you to give me an answer as promptly as you can.”[352]
Marshall decided instantly; he could not possibly afford to accept a place yielding only fifteen hundred dollars annually, the salary of the Attorney-General at that period,[353] and the duties of which permitted little time for private practice which was then allowable.[354] So Marshall, in a ”few minutes” declined Was.h.i.+ngton's offer in a letter which is a model of good taste.
”I had the honor of receiving a few minutes past your letter of the 26th inst.
”While the business I have undertaken to complete in Richmond,[355]
forbids me to change my situation tho for one infinitely more eligible, permit me Sir to express my sincere acknowledgments for the offer your letter contains & the real pride & gratification I feel at the favorable opinion it indicates.
”I respect too highly the offices of the present government of the United States to permit it to be suspected that I have declined one of them.”[356]
When he refused the office of Attorney-General, Was.h.i.+ngton, sorely perplexed, wrote Marshall's brother-in-law,[357] Edward Carrington, United States Marshal and Collector of Internal Revenue for the District of Virginia,[358] a letter, ”the _whole_” of which ”is perfectly confidential, written, perhaps, with more candor than prudence,”
concerning Innes or Henry for the place; but, says the President, ”having a high opinion of General[359] Marshall's honor, prudence, and judgment,” Carrington must consult him.[360]
The hara.s.sed President had now come to lean heavily on Marshall in Virginia affairs; indeed, it may be said that he was Was.h.i.+ngton's political agent at the State Capital. Carrington's answer is typical of his reports to the President: ”The inquiry [concerning the selection of an Attorney-General] which you have been pleased to submit to Gen^l.
Marshall and myself demands & receives our most serious attention--On his [Marshall's] aid I rely for giving you accurate information.”[361]
[Ill.u.s.tration: _John Marshall_ _From a painting by Rembrandt Peale_]
Later Carrington advises Was.h.i.+ngton that Marshall ”wishes an opportunity of conversing with Col. Innes before he decides.”[362] Innes was absent at Williamsburg; and although the matter was urgent, Marshall and Carrington did not write Innes, because, to do so, would involve a decisive offer from Was.h.i.+ngton which ”Gen^l. Marshall does not think advisable.”[363]
When Was.h.i.+ngton's second letter, suggesting Patrick Henry, was received by Carrington, he ”immediately consulted Gen^l. Marshall thereon”; and was guided by his opinion. Marshall thought that Was.h.i.+ngton's letter should be forwarded to Henry because ”his nonacceptance, from domestic considerations, may be calculated on”; the offer ”must tend to soften”
Henry ”if he has any asperities”; and the whole affair would make Henry ”active on the side of Government & order.”[364]
Marshall argued that, if Henry should accept, his friends.h.i.+p for the Administration could be counted on. But Marshall's strongest reason for trying to induce Henry to become a member of the Cabinet was, says Carrington, that ”we are fully persuaded that a more deadly blow could not be given to the Faction [Republican party] in Virginia, & perhaps elsewhere, than that Gentleman's acceptance of the”
Attorney-Generals.h.i.+p. ”So much have the opposers of the Government held him [Henry] up as their oracle, even since he has ceased to respond to them, that any event demonstrating his active support to Government, could not but give the [Republican] party a severe shock.”[365]
A week later Carrington reports that Henry's ”conduct & sentiments generally both as to government & yourself [Was.h.i.+ngton] are such as we [Marshall and Carrington] calculated on ... which a.s.sure us of his discountenancing calumny of every description & disorder,”[366] meaning that Henry was hostile to the Republicans.
In the rancorous a.s.saults upon the Jay Treaty in Virginia, Marshall, of course, promptly took his position by Was.h.i.+ngton's side, and stoutly defended the President and even the hated compact itself. Little cared Marshall for the effect of his stand upon his popularity. Not at all did he fear or hesitate to take that stand. And high courage was required to resist the almost universal denunciation of the treaty in Virginia. Nor was this confined to the ma.s.ses of the people; it was expressed also by most of the leading men in the various communities. At every meeting of protest, well-drawn and apparently convincing resolutions were adopted, and able, albeit extravagant, speeches were made against the treaty and the Administration.
Typical of these was the address of John Thompson at Petersburg, August 1, 1795.[367] With whom, asked Thompson, was the treaty made? With the British King ”who had sworn eternal enmity to republics”; that hateful monarch who was trying ”to stifle the liberty of France” and ”to starve thirty millions of men” by ”intercepting the correspondence and plundering the commerce of neutral nations,” especially that of the United States. The British, declared Thompson, sought ”the destruction of our rising commerce; the annihilation of our growing navigation,” and were pursuing that object ”with all the ... oppression which rapacity can practice.”