THE LIFE OF JOHN MARSHALL
Standard Library Edition
IN FOUR VOLUMES
VOLUME III
THE LIFE
OF
JOHN MARSHALL
BY
ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
Volume III
CONFLICT AND CONSTRUCTION
1800-1815
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PREFACE
Marshall's great Constitutional opinions grew outof, or were addressed to, serious public conditions,national in extent. In these volumes the effort ismade to relate the circumstances that required himto give to the country those marvelous state papers:for Marshall's opinions were nothing less than statepapers and of the first rank. In order to understandthe full meaning of his deliverances and toestimate the just value of his labors, it is necessaryto know the historical sources of his foremost expositionsof the Constitution, and the historical purposesthey were intended to accomplish. Withoutsuch knowledge, Marshall's finest pronouncementsbecome mere legal utterances, important, to besure, but colorless and unattractive.
It is worthy of repetition, even in a preface, thatthe history of the times is a part of his greatestopinions; and that, in the treatment of them a résuméof the events that produced them must be given.For example, the decision of Marbury vs. Madison,at the time and in the manner it was rendered, wascompelled by the political situation then existing,unless the principle of judicial supremacy over legislationwas to be abandoned. The Judiciary Debateof 1802 in Congress—one of the most brilliant aswell as most important legislative engagements inparliamentary history—can no more be overlookedby the student of American Constitutional[Pg vi]development, than the opinion of Marshall in Marburyvs. Madison can be disregarded.
Again, in Cohens vs. Virginia, the Chief Justicerises to heights of exalted—almost emotional—eloquence.Yet the case itself was hardly more than apolice court controversy. If the trivial fine of itinerantpeddlars of lottery tickets were alone involved,Marshall's splendid passages become unnecessaryand, indeed, pompous rhetoric. But when the curtainsof history are raised, we see the heroic partthat Marshall played and realize the meaning of hispowerful language. While Marshall's opinion inM'Culloch vs. Maryland, even taken by itself, is amajor treatise on constitutional government, it becomesa fascinating chapter in an engaging story,when read in connection with an account of thesituation which compelled that outgiving.
The same thing is true of his other historic utterances.Indeed, it may be said that his weightiestopinions were interlocking parts of one greatdrama.
Much space has been given to the con