Everything about John Marshall totally explained
John Marshall (
September 24,
1755 –
July 6,
1835) was an
American statesman and jurist who shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power. Marshall was
Chief Justice of the United States, serving from
February 4,
1801 until his death in 1835. He served in the
United States House of Representatives from
March 4,
1799 to
June 7,
1800, and, under President
John Adams, was
Secretary of State from
June 6,
1800 to
March 4,
1801. Marshall was a native of the Commonwealth of
Virginia and a leader of the
Federalist Party.
The longest serving Chief Justice in
Supreme Court history, Marshall dominated the Court for over three decades (a term outliving his own Federalist Party) and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. Most notably, he established that the courts are entitled to exercise
judicial review, the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. Thus, Marshall has been credited with cementing the position of the judiciary as an independent and influential branch of government. Furthermore, Marshall made several important decisions relating to
Federalism, shaping the balance of power between the federal government and the states during the early years of the republic. In particular, he repeatedly confirmed the supremacy of federal law over state law, and supported an expansive reading of the
enumerated powers.
Early years
John Marshall was born in a log cabin near
Germantown, a rural community on the
Virginia frontier, in what is now
Fauquier County near
Midland, Virginia to Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith (cousin of
Thomas Jefferson); his family, like many of his class in the Virginia of his time period, owned slaves. John was the oldest of fifteen children (seven boys and eight girls), all of whom survived into adulthood, and many of whom were remarkably significant in the development of the republic. Marshall was of
English and
Scottish descent.
As a young man, he studied the
classics and English literature, eventually working with a private tutor from
Scotland. He also worked for the Reverend James Thompson. At the age of fourteen, he was sent to a classical academy in
Westmoreland County for additional instruction.
James Monroe, who would later become the fifth President of the United States, studied alongside Marshall. After a year, he returned home to resume studies with the Reverend Thompson.
As the
American Revolutionary War began in 1775, Marshall joined the
Culpeper Minutemen and was appointed as a lieutenant. He fought at the
Battle of Great Bridge, where the minutemen defeated British troops under
Lord Dunmore, permanently ending British control of Virginia. In 1776, Marshall's company was attached to the
Eleventh Virginia Continental Regiment. He participated in many battles, including
Brandywine,
Germantown,
Monmouth,
Stony Point and
Paulus Hook. In the winter of 1777–1778, he was at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, with
General George Washington's troops. During his military service, he became personally acquainted with Washington.
Having reached the rank of captain, Marshall returned to Virginia in 1779. He studied law privately, attending lectures conducted by
George Wythe at the
College of William and Mary. He was admitted to the bar in 1780, but returned to the army when British troops invaded Virginia later in the same year. He served under the
Baron von Steuben until 1781, when he resigned his army commission in order to begin private law practice. Soon, Marshall gained a reputation as a leading lawyer. He married seventeen-year-old Mary Willis Ambler in 1783; the couple would have ten children, of whom six would survive into adulthood. With his new wife, the young lawyer settled in
Richmond, the state capital.
State political career
In 1782, Marshall entered politics, winning a seat in the
Virginia House of Delegates, in which he served until 1789, and again from 1795–1796. The
Virginia General Assembly elected him to serve on the Council of State later in the same year. In 1785, Marshall took up the additional office of Recorder of the Richmond City
Hustings Court.
In 1788, Marshall was selected as a delegate to the
Virginia convention responsible for ratifying or rejecting the
United States Constitution, which had been proposed by the
Philadelphia Convention a year earlier. Together with
James Madison and
Edmund Randolph, Marshall led the fight for ratification. He was especially active in defense of Article III, which provides for the Federal judiciary. In 1799, Marshall reluctantly ran for a seat in the
United States House of Representatives. Although his congressional district (which included the city of
Richmond) favored the
Democratic-Republican Party, Marshall won the race, in part due to his conduct during the XYZ Affair and in part due to the support of
Patrick Henry. His most notable speech was related to the case of Thomas Nash (alias Jonathan Robbins), whom the government had extradited to Great Britain on charges of murder. Marshall defended the government's actions, arguing that nothing in the Constitution prevents the United States from extraditing one of its citizens. Marshall was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on
January 27 and took office on
February 4. However, he continued to serve as Secretary of State until President Adams' term expired on
March 4.
Soon after becoming Chief Justice, Marshall revolutionized the manner in which the Supreme Court announced its decisions. Previously, each Justice would author a separate opinion (known as a
seriatim opinion), as is still done in the 20th and 21st centuries in such jurisdictions as the
United Kingdom and
Australia. Under Marshall, however, the Supreme Court adopted the practice of handing down a single opinion of the Court. As Marshall was almost always the author of this opinion, he essentially became the Court's sole mouthpiece in important cases. His forceful personality allowed him to dominate his fellow Justices; he very rarely found himself on the losing side. (The case of
Ogden v. Saunders, in 1827, was the sole constitutional case in which he dissented from the majority.)
In 1807, he presided, with Judge
Cyrus Griffin, at the great state trial of former Vice President
Aaron Burr, who was charged with
treason and misdemeanor. Prior to the trial, President Jefferson condemned Burr and strongly supported conviction. Marshall, however, narrowly construed the definition of treason provided in Article III of the Constitution; he noted that the prosecution had failed to prove that Burr had committed an "overt act," as the Constitution required. As a result, the jury acquitted the defendant, leading to increased animosity between the President and the Chief Justice.
During the 1810s and 1820s, Marshall made a series of decisions involving the balance of power between the federal government and the states, where he repeatedly affirmed federal supremacy. For example, he established in
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) that states couldn't tax federal institutions and upheld congressional authority to create the
Second Bank of the United States, even though the authority to do this wasn't expressly stated in the Constitution. Also, in
Cohens v. Virginia (1821), he established that the Federal judiciary could hear appeals from decisions of state courts in criminal cases as well as the civil cases over which the court had asserted jurisdiction in
Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816). Justices
Bushrod Washington and
Joseph Story proved to be his strongest allies in these cases whereas
Smith Thompson was a strong opponent to Marshall.
As the young nation was endangered by regional and local interests that often threatened to fracture its hard-fought unity, Marshall repeatedly interpreted the Constitution broadly so that the Federal Government had the power to become a respected and creative force guiding and encouraging the nation's growth. Thus, for all practical purposes, the
Constitution in its most important aspects today is the Constitution as John Marshall interpreted it. As Chief Justice, he embodied the majesty of the
judiciary of the government as fully as the
President of the United States stood for the power of the
Executive Branch.
Marshall wrote several important
Supreme Court opinions, including:
Marshall served as Chief Justice through all or part of six Presidential administrations (
John Adams,
Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison,
James Monroe,
John Quincy Adams and
Andrew Jackson), and remained a stalwart advocate of
Federalism and a nemesis of the
Jeffersonian school of government throughout its heyday. He participated in over 1000 decisions, writing 519 of the opinions himself.
Other work, later life, legacy
Marshall loved his home in Richmond, Virginia, and spent as much time there as possible in quiet contentment. For approximately three months each year, however, he'd be away in Washington for the Court's annual term; he'd also be away for several weeks to serve on the circuit court in
Raleigh, North Carolina.
Between 1805 and 1807, he published a five-volume biography of
George Washington; his
Life of Washington was based on records and papers provided him by the president's family. The first volume was reissued in 1824 separately as
A History of the American Colonies. The work reflected Marshall's Federalist principles.
In 1823, he became first president of the Richmond branch of the
American Colonization Society, which was dedicated to resettling freed
American slaves in
Liberia, on the West coast of
Africa.
In 1828, he presided over a convention to promote internal improvements in Virginia.
In 1829, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, where he was again joined by fellow American statesman and loyal Virginians,
James Madison and
James Monroe, although all were quite old by that time. Marshall mainly spoke at this convention to promote the necessity of an independent judiciary.
On
December 25, 1831, Mary, his beloved wife of some 49 years, died. Most who knew Marshall agreed that after Mary's death, he was never quite the same.
In 1832, Marshall's revised and condensed two-volume
Life of Washington was published.
On returning from
Washington, D.C. in the spring of 1835, he suffered severe contusions resulting from an accident to the stage coach in which he was riding. His health, which hadn't been good for several years, now rapidly declined, and in June he journeyed to
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for medical attendance. There he died on
July 6, at the age of 79, having served as Chief Justice for over 34 years. He also was the last surviving member of John Adams's Cabinet.
Two days before his death, he enjoined his friends to place only a plain slab over his and his wife's graves, and he wrote the simple inscription himself. His body, which was taken to Richmond, lies in Shockoe Hill Cemetery.
JOHN MARSHALL
Son of Thomas and Mary Marshall
was born the 24th of September 1755
Intermarried with Mary Willis Ambler
the 3rd of January 1783
Departed this life
the 6th day of July 1835.
Legend has it that Marshall was the last person for whom the
Liberty Bell tolled, but it has been proved that
William Henry Harrison (1841) was the last. However, the famous crack in the bell appeared when it was tolled for Marshall's funeral.
Monuments and memorials
Marshall's home in
Richmond, Virginia, has been preserved by
APVA Preservation Virginia.
The United States Bar Association commissioned sculptor
William Wetmore Story to execute the statue of Marshall that now stands [sits] inside the Supreme Court on the ground floor. A copy of the statue also stands at Constitution Ave. and 4th Street in Washington D.C. Story's father
Joseph Story had served as an Associate Justice on the
United States Supreme Court with Marshall. The statue was originally dedicated in 1884.
An engraved portrait of Marshall appears on U.S. paper money on the series 1890 and 1891 treasury notes. These rare notes are in great demand by not collecting today. Also, in 1914, an engraved portrait of Marshall was used as the central vignette on series 1914 $500 federal reserve notes. These notes are also quite scarce. Example of both notes are available for viewing on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco website.
Four law schools and one University today bear his name: The
Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the
College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Virginia; The
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Cleveland, Ohio;
John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, Georgia; and,
The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois. The University that bears his name is
Marshall University in Huntington West Virginia.
Having grown from a Reformed Church academy, Marshall College, named upon the death of Chief Justice John Marshall, officially opened in 1836 with a well-established reputation. After a merger with Franklin College in 1853, the school was renamed
Franklin and Marshall College. The college went on to become one of the nations foremost liberal arts colleges.
John Marshall's birthplace in
Fauquier County is a park, the John Marshall Birthplace Park, and a marker can be seen on
Route 28 noting this event.
Marshall University began as Marshall Academy in 1837. Marshall became a university in 1961 and has since grown tremendously, particularly in the 1990's which saw the construction of the state-of-the-art Drinko Library, Jomie Jazz Center and the addition of the Graduate College.
Family
Humphrey Marshall — U.S. Senator is the first cousin and brother-in-law of the chief justice.
Thomas F. Marshall — U.S. Representative is a nephew of the Chief Justice.
George Marshall — General of the U.S. Army is a distant relative of the chief justice.
Thomas Jefferson — President of the United States distant cousin of Marshall on his mother's side.
Bibliography
Beveridge, Albert J., The Life of John Marshall, Four Volumes (1916–1919). Long, laudatory, biography. online edition
Corwin, Edward W., John Marshall and the Constitution: A Chronicle of the Supreme Court, Yale University Press, 1919. Online Edition: Project Gutenberg
Charles Hobson. The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law (University Press of Kansas, 1996).
Herbert Alan Johnson, "John Marshall" in Leon Friedman and Fred L. Israel, eds. The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions — Vol. 1 (1997) pp 180–200 online edition
Johnson, Herbert A. The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall from 1801 to 1835. U. of South Carolina Pr., 1998. 352 pp.
Newmyer, R. Kent. John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court Louisiana State U. Pr., 2001. 511 pp. online review
Robarge, David. A Chief Justice's Progress: John Marshall from Revolutionary Virginia to the Supreme Court. Greenwood 2000. 366 pp. online edition
G. Edward White; The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815-1835 Macmillan, 1988. 1009 pp; abridged ed. Oxford University Press, 1991. 864 pp.
Thomas C. Shevory; John Marshall's Law: Interpretation, Ideology, and Interest Greenwood Press, 1994 online edition
Simon, James F. What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States. Simon & Schuster, 2002. 348 pp.
Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer Of A Nation, Henry, Holt & Company, 1996; 736pp
Primary sources
Collon, Joseph P., Jr., ed., Constitutional Decisions of John Marshall, (New York and London, 1905)
Hobson, Charles F.; Perdue, Susan Holbrook; and Lovelace, Joan S., eds. The Papers of John Marshall published by the U. of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture; the standard scholarly edition; most recent volume: Vol. 11: Correspondence, Papers, and Selected Judicial Opinions, April 1827–December 1830. (2002)
Joseph Story, ed., The Writings of John Marshall, late Chief Justice of the United States, upon the Federal Constitution, Boston, 1839.Further Information
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