Volume IV Part 7 (1/2)
We are now to ascend with Marshall the mountain peaks of his career.
Within the decade that followed after the close of our second war with Great Britain, he performed nearly all of that vast and creative labor, the lasting results of which have given him that distinctive t.i.tle, the Great Chief Justice. During that period he did more than any other one man ever has done to vitalize the American Const.i.tution; and, in the performance of that task, his influence over his a.s.sociates was unparalleled.[157]
When Justices Chase and Cus.h.i.+ng died and their successors Gabriel Duval[158] and Joseph Story were appointed, the majority of the Supreme Court, for the first time, became Republican. Yet Marshall continued to dominate it as fully as when its members were of his own political faith and views of government.[159] In the whole history of courts there is no parallel to such supremacy. Not without reason was that tribunal looked upon and called ”Marshall's Court.” It is interesting to search for the sources of his strange power.
These sources are not to be found exclusively in the strength of Marshall's intellect, surpa.s.sing though it was, nor yet in the mere dominance of his will. Joseph Story was not greatly inferior to Marshall in mind and far above him in accomplishments, while William Johnson, the first Justice of the Supreme Court appointed by Jefferson, was as determined as Marshall and was ”strongly imbued with the principles of southern democracy, bold, independent, eccentric, and sometimes harsh.”[160] Nor did learning give Marshall his commanding influence.
John Jay and Oliver Ellsworth were his superiors in that respect; while Story so infinitely surpa.s.sed him in erudition that, between the two men, there is nothing but contrast. Indeed, Marshall had no ”learning”
at all in the academic sense;[161] we must seek elsewhere for an explanation of his peculiar influence.
This explanation is, in great part, furnished by Marshall's personality.
The manner of man he was, of course, is best revealed by the well-authenticated accounts of his daily life. He spent most of his time at Richmond, for the Supreme Court sat in Was.h.i.+ngton only a few weeks each year. He held circuit court at Raleigh as well as at the Virginia Capital, but the sessions seldom occupied more than a fortnight each. In Richmond, then, his characteristics were best known; and so striking were they that time has but little dimmed the memory of them.
Marshall, the Chief Justice, continued to neglect his dress and personal appearance as much as he did when, as a lawyer, his shabby attire so often ”brought a blush” to the cheeks of his wife,[162] and his manners were as ”lax and lounging” as when Jefferson called them proofs of a ”profound hypocrisy.”[163] Although no man in America was less democratic in his ideas of government, none was more democratic in his contact with other people. To this easy bonhomie was added a sense of humor, always quick to appreciate an amusing situation.
When in Richmond, Marshall often did his own marketing and carried home the purchases he made. The tall, ungainly, negligently clad Chief Justice, ambling along the street, his arms laden with purchases, was a familiar sight.[164] He never would hurry, and habitually lingered at the market-place, chatting with everybody, learning the gossip of the town, listening to the political talk that in Richmond never ceased, and no doubt thus catching at first hand the drift of public sentiment.[165]
The humblest and poorest man in Virginia was not more unpretentious than John Marshall.
No wag was more eager for a joke. One day, as he loitered on the outskirts of the market, a newcomer in Richmond, who had never seen Marshall, offered him a small coin to carry home for him a turkey just purchased. Marshall accepted, and, with the bird under his arm, trudged behind his employer. The incident sent the city into gales of laughter, and was so in keeping with Marshall's ways that it has been retold from one generation to another, and is to-day almost as much alive as ever.[166] At another time the Chief Justice was taken for the butcher.
He called on a relative's wife who had never met him, and who had not been told of his plain dress and rustic manners. Her husband wished to sell a calf and she expected the butcher to call to make the trade. She saw Marshall approaching, and judging by his appearance that he was the butcher, she directed the servant to tell him to go to the stable where the animal was awaiting inspection.[167]
It was Marshall's custom to go early every morning to a farm which he owned four miles from Richmond. For the exercise he usually walked, but, when he wished to take something heavy, he would ride. A stranger coming upon him on the road would have thought him one of the poorer small planters of the vicinity. He was extremely fond of children and, if he met one trudging along the road, he would take the child up on the horse and carry it to its destination. Often he was seen riding into Richmond from his farm, with one child before and another behind him.[168]
Bishop Meade met Marshall on one of these morning trips, carrying on horseback a bag of clover seed.[169] On another, he was seen holding on the pommel a jug of whiskey which he was taking out to his farmhands.
The cork had come out and he was using his thumb as a stopper.[170] He was keenly interested in farming, and in 1811 was elected President of the Richmond Society for Promotion of Agriculture.[171]
The distance from Richmond to Raleigh was, by road, more than one hundred and seventy miles. Except when he went by stage,[172] as he seldom did, it must have taken a week to make this journey. He traveled in a primitive vehicle called a stick gig, drawn by one horse which he drove himself, seldom taking a servant with him.[173] Making his slow way through the immense stretches of tar pines and sandy fields, the Chief Justice doubtless thought out the solution of the problems before him and the plain, clear, large statements of his conclusions which, from the bench later, announced not only the law of particular cases, but fundamental policies of the Nation. His surroundings at every stage of the trip encouraged just such reflection--the vast stillness, the deep forests, the long hours, broken only by some accident to gig or harness, or interrupted for a short time to feed and rest his horse, and to eat his simple meal.
During these trips, Marshall would become so abstracted that, apparently, he would forget where he was driving. Once, when near the plantation of Nathaniel Macon in North Carolina, he drove over a sapling which became wedged between a wheel and the shaft. One of Macon's slaves, working in an adjacent field, saw the predicament, hurried to his a.s.sistance, held down the sapling with one hand, and with the other backed the horse until the gig was free. Marshall tossed the negro a piece of money and asked him who was his owner. ”Ma.r.s.e Nat. Macon,” said the slave. ”He is an old friend,” said Marshall; ”tell him how you have helped me,” giving his name. When the negro told his master, Macon said: ”That was the great Chief Justice Marshall, the biggest lawyer in the United States.” The slave grinned and answered: ”Ma.r.s.e Nat., he may be de bigges' lawyer in de United States, but he ain't got sense enough to back a gig off a saplin'.”[174]
At night he would stop at some log tavern on the route, eat with the family and other guests, if any were present, and sit before the fireplace after the meal, talking with all and listening to all like the simple and humble countryman he appeared to be. Since the minor part of his time was spent in court, and most of it about Richmond, or on the road to and from Raleigh, or journeying to his Fauquier County plantation and the beloved mountains of his youth where he spent the hottest part of each year, it is doubtful whether any other judge ever maintained such intimate contact with people in the ordinary walks of life as did John Marshall.
The Chief Justice always arrived at Raleigh stained and battered from travel.[175] The town had a population of from three hundred to five hundred.[176] He was wont to stop at a tavern kept by a man named Cooke and noted for its want of comfort; but, although the inn got worse year after year, he still frequented it. Early one morning an acquaintance saw the Chief Justice go to the woodpile, gather an armful of wood and return with it to the house. When they met later in the day, the occurrence was recalled. ”Yes,” said Marshall, ”I suppose it is not convenient for Mr. Cooke to keep a servant, so I make up my own fires.”[177]
The Chief Justice occupied a small room in which were the following articles: ”A bed, ... two split-bottom chairs, a pine table covered with grease and ink, a cracked pitcher and broken bowl.” The host ate with his guests and used his fingers instead of fork or knife.[178] When court adjourned for the day, Marshall would play quoits in the street before the tavern ”with the public street characters of Raleigh,” who were lovers of the game.[179]
He was immensely popular in Raleigh, his familiar manners and the justice of his decisions appealing with equal force to the bar and people alike. Writing at the time of the hearing of the Granville case,[180] John Haywood, then State Treasurer of North Carolina, testifies: ”Judge Marshall ... is greatly respected here, as well on account of his talents and uprightness as for that sociability and ease of manner which render all happy and pleased when in his company.”[181]
In spite of his sociability, which tempted him, while in Richmond, to visit taverns and the law offices of his friends, Marshall spent most of the day in his house or in the big yard adjoining it, for Mrs.
Marshall's affliction increased with time, and the Chief Justice, whose affection for his wife grew as her illness advanced, kept near her as much as possible. In Marshall's grounds and near his house were several great oak and elm trees, beneath which was a spring; to this spot he would take the papers in cases he had to decide and, sitting on a rustic bench under the shade, would write many of those great opinions that have immortalized his name.[182]
Mrs. Marshall's malady was largely a disease of the nervous system and, at times, it seemingly affected her mind. It was a common thing for the Chief Justice to get up at any hour of the night and, without putting on his shoes lest his footfalls might further excite his wife, steal downstairs and drive away for blocks some wandering animal--a cow, a pig, a horse--whose sounds had annoyed her.[183] Even upon entering his house during the daytime, Marshall would take off his shoes and put on soft slippers in the hall.[184]
She was, of course, unequal to the management of the household. When the domestic arrangements needed overhauling, Marshall would induce her to take a long drive with her sister, Mrs. Edward Carrington, or her daughter, Mrs. Jacquelin B. Harvie, over the still and shaded roads of Richmond. The carriage out of sight, he would throw off his coat and vest, roll up his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves, twist a bandanna handkerchief about his head, and gathering the servants, lead as well as direct them in dusting the walls and furniture, scrubbing the floors and setting the house in order.[185]
Numerous incidents of this kind are well authenticated. To this day Marshall's unselfish devotion to his infirm and distracted wife is recalled in Richmond. But n.o.body ever heard the slightest word of complaint from him; nor did any act or expression of countenance so much as indicate impatience.
In his letters Marshall never fails to admonish his wife, who seldom if ever wrote to him, to care for her health. ”Yesterday I received Jacquelin's letter of the 12^{th} informing me that your health was at present much the same as when I left Richmond,” writes Marshall.[186]
”John [Marshall's son] pa.s.sed through this city a day or two past, & although I did not see him I had the pleasure of hearing from Mr.
Was.h.i.+ngton who saw him ... that you were as well as usual.”[187] In another letter Marshall says: ”Do my dearest Polly let me hear from you through someone of those who will be willing to write for you.”[188]