Volume II Part 22 (1/2)

”Nor does the exercise of it seem to cost him an effort. On the contrary, it is as easy as vision. I am persuaded that his eye does not fly over a landscape and take in its various objects with more prompt.i.tude and facility, than his mind embraces and a.n.a.lyses the most complex subject.

”Possessing while at the bar this intellectual elevation, which enabled him to look down and comprehend the whole ground at once, he determined immediately and without difficulty, on which side the question might be most advantageously approached and a.s.sailed.

”In a bad cause his art consisted in laying his premises so remotely from the point directly in debate, or else in terms so general and so s.p.a.cious, that the hearer, seeing no consequence which could be drawn from them, was just as willing to admit them as not; but his premises once admitted, the demonstration, however distant, followed as certainly, as cogently, as inevitably, as any demonstration in Euclid.”[508]

Marshall's supremacy, now unchallenged, at the Virginia bar was noted by foreign observers. La Rochefoucauld testifies to this in his exhaustive volumes of travel:--

”Mr. J. Marshall, conspicuously eminent as a professor of the law, is beyond all doubt one of those who rank highest in the public opinion at Richmond. He is what is termed a federalist, and perhaps somewhat warm in support of his opinions, but never exceeding the bounds of propriety, which a man of his goodness and prudence and knowledge is incapable of transgressing.

”He may be considered as a distinguished character in the United States.

His political enemies allow him to possess great talents but accuse him of ambition. I know not whether the charge be well or ill grounded, or whether that ambition might ever be able to impel him to a dereliction of his principles--a conduct of which I am inclined to disbelieve the possibility on his part.

”He has already refused several employments under the general government, preferring the income derived from his professional labours (which is more than sufficient for his moderate system of economy), together with a life of tranquil ease in the midst of his family and in his native town.

”Even by his friends he is taxed with some little propensity to indolence; but even if this reproach were well founded, he nevertheless displays great superiority in his profession when he applies his mind to business.”[509]

When Jefferson foresaw Marshall's permanent transfer to public life he advised James Monroe to practice law in Richmond because ”the business is very profitable;[510] ... and an opening of great importance must be made by the retirement of Marshall.”[511]

Marshall's solid and brilliant performance in the British Debts case before the Supreme Court at Philadelphia did much more than advance him in his profession. It also focused upon him the keen scrutiny of the politicians and statesmen who at that time were in attendance upon Congress in the Quaker City. Particularly did the strength and personality of the Virginia advocate impress the Federalist leaders.

These vigilant men had learned of Marshall's daring champions.h.i.+p of the Jay Treaty in hostile Virginia. And although in the case of Ware _vs._ Hylton, Marshall was doing his utmost as a lawyer before the Supreme Court to defeat the collection of the British debts, yet his courageous advocacy of the Jay Treaty outweighed, in their judgment, his professional labors in behalf of the clients who had employed him.

The Federalist leaders were in sore need of Southern support; and when Marshall was in Philadelphia on the British Debts case, they were prompt and unsparing in their efforts to bind this strong and able man to them by personal ties. Marshall himself unwittingly testifies to this. ”I then [during this professional visit to Philadelphia] became acquainted,” he relates, ”with Mr. Cabot, Mr. Ames, Mr. Dexter, and Mr.

Sedgwick of Ma.s.sachusetts, Mr. Wadsworth of Connecticut, and Mr. King of New York. I was delighted with these gentlemen. The particular subject (the British Treaty) which introduced me to their notice was at that time so interesting, and a Virginian who supported, with any sort of reputation, the measures of the government, was such a _rara avis_, that I was received by them all with a degree of kindness which I had not antic.i.p.ated. I was particularly intimate with Mr. Ames, and could scarcely gain credit with him when I a.s.sured him that the appropriations [to effectuate the treaty] would be seriously opposed in Congress.”[512]

As we shall presently see, Marshall became a.s.sociated with Robert Morris in the one great business undertaking of the former's life. Early in this transaction when, for Marshall, the skies were still clear of financial clouds, he appears to have made a small purchase of bank stock and ventured modestly into the commercial field. ”I have received your letter of 18 ulto,” Morris writes Marshall, ”& am negotiating for Bank Stock to answer your demand.”[513]

And again: ”I did not succeed in the purchase of the Bank Stock mentioned in my letter of the 3^d Ulto to you and as M^r Richard tells me in his letter of the 4 Inst that you want the money for the Stock, you may if you please draw upon me for $7000 giving me as much time in the sight as you can, and I will most certainly pay your drafts as they become due. The Brokers shall fix the price of the Stock at the market price at the time I pay the money & I will then state the Am^t including Dividends & remit you the Balance but if you prefer having the Stock I will buy it on receiving your Answer to this, cost what it may.”[514]

Soon afterward, Morris sent Marshall the promised shares of stock, apparently to enable him to return shares to some person in Richmond from whom he had borrowed them.

”You will receive herewith enclosed the Certificates for four shares of Bank Stock of the United States placed in your name to enable you to return the four shares to the Gentlemen of whom you borrowed them, this I thought better than remitting the money lest some difficulty should arise about price of shares. Two other shares in the name of M^r Geo Pickett is also enclosed herewith and I will go on buying and remitting others untill the number of Ten are completed for him which shall be done before the time limited in your letter of the 12^h Ins^t The dividends shall also be remitted speedily.”[515]

Again Was.h.i.+ngton desired Marshall to fill an important public office, this time a place on the joint commission, provided for in the Jay Treaty, to settle the British claims. These, as we have seen, had been for many years a source of grave trouble between the two countries.

Their satisfactory adjustment would mean, not only the final settlement of this serious controversy, but the removal of an ever-present cause of war.[516] But since Marshall had refused appointment to three offices tendered him by Was.h.i.+ngton, the President did not now communicate with him directly, but inquired of Charles Lee, Attorney-General of Virginia, whether Marshall might be prevailed upon to accept this weighty and delicate business.

”I have very little doubt,” replied Lee, ”that Mr. John Marshall would not act as a Commissioner under the Treaty with Great Britain, for deciding on the claims of creditors. I have been long acquainted with his private affairs, and I think it almost impossible for him to undertake that office. If he would, I know not any objection that subsists against him.

”First, he is not a debtor.[517] Secondly, he cannot be benefitted or injured by any decision of the Commissioners. Thirdly, his being employed as counsel, in suits of that kind, furnishes no reasonable objection; nor do I know of any opinions that he has published, or professes, that might, with a view of impartiality, make him liable to be objected to.

”Mr. Marshall is at the head of his profession in Virginia, enjoying every convenience and comfort; in the midst of his friends and the relations of his wife at Richmond; in a practice of his profession that annually produces about five thousand dollars on an average; with a young and increasing family; and under a degree of necessity to continue his profession, for the purpose of complying with contracts not yet performed.”[518]

The ”contracts” which Marshall had to fulfill concerned the one important financial adventure of his life. It was this, and not, as some suppose, the condition of his invalid wife, to which Marshall vaguely referred in his letter to Was.h.i.+ngton declining appointment as Attorney-General and as Minister to France.

The two decades following the establishment of the National Government under the Const.i.tution were years of enormous land speculation. Hardly a prominent man of the period failed to secure large tracts of real estate, which could be had at absurdly low prices, and to hold the lands for the natural advance which increasing population would bring. The greatest of these investors was Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, the second richest man of the time,[519] and the leading business man of the country.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

John Marshall had long been the attorney in Virginia for Robert Morris, who frequently visited that State, sometimes taking his family with him.

In all probability, it was upon some such journey that James M.

Marshall, the brother of John Marshall, met and became engaged to Hester Morris, daughter of the great speculator, whom he married on April 19, 1795.[520] James M. Marshall--nine years younger than his brother--possessed ability almost equal to John Marshall and wider and more varied accomplishments.[521]