The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 68

Leftwitch _et ux._ _v._ Stovall Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 303

Lee, Ex'r, _v._ Cooke Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 306

Burnley _v._ Lambert Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 308

Cooke _v._ Beale's Ex'rs Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 313

Dandridge _v._ Harris Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 326

Nicolas _v._ Fletcher Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 330

Watson & Hartshorne _v._ Alexander Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 340

Wroe _v._ Washington _et al._ Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 357

Cosby, Ex'r, _v._ Hite Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 365

Hewlett _v._ Chamberlayne Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 367

Pendleton _v._ Vandevier Fall Term, 1794 1 Wash. 381

Walden, Ex'r, _v._ Payne Fall Term, 1794 2 Wash. 1

James Roy _et al._ _v._ Muscoe Garnett Fall Term, 1794 2 Wash. 9

James Ferguson _et al._ _v._ Moore Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 54

Currie _v._ Donald Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 58

Shelton _v._ Barbour Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 64

Brock _et al._ _v._ Philips Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 68

Turner _v._ Moffett Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 70

Turberville _v._ Self Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 71

Brydie _v._ Langham Spring Term, 1795 2 Wash. 72

Bernard _v._ Brewer Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 76

Philip McRae _v._ Richard Woods Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 80

Newell _v._ The Commonwealth Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 88

White _v._ Atkinson Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 94

Martin & William Picket _v._ James Dowdall Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 106

Claiborne _v._ Parrish Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 146

Brown _et al._ _v._ Adm'r, Thomas Brown, dec'd Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 151

Harrison, Ex'r, _v._ Sampson Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 155

Harvey _et ux._ _v._ Borden Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 156

Lee _v._ Turberville Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 162

Jordan _v._ Neilson Fall Term, 1795 2 Wash. 164

Ruffin _v._ Pendleton & Courtney Spring Term, 1796 2 Wash. 184

Pearpoint _v._ Henry Spring Term, 1796 2 Wash. 192

Sarah Walker & Thomas Walker, Ex'rs, _v._ Thomas Walke[r] Spring Term, 1796 2 Wash. 195

Davenport _v._ Mason Spring Term, 1796 2 Wash. 200

Lewis Stephens _v._ Alexander White Fall Term, 1796 2 Wash. 203

Picket _v._ Morris Fall Term, 1796 2 Wash. 255

Booth's Ex'rs _v._ Armstrong Fall Term, 1796 2 Wash. 301

II. GENERAL MARSHALL'S ANSWER TO AN ADDRESS OF THE CITIZENS OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

I will not, Gentlemen, attempt to describe the emotions of joy which my return to my native country, and particularly to this city, has excited in my mind; nor can I paint the sentiments of affection and grat.i.tude towards you which my heart has ever felt, and which the kind and partial reception now given me by my fellow citizens cannot fail to increase. He only who has been ... absent from a much loved country, and from friends greatly and deservedly esteemed--whose return is welcomed with expressions, which, di[rec]ted by friendship, surpa.s.s his merits or his ho[pes,] will judge of feelings to which I cannot do justice.

The situation in which the late Envoys from [the] United States to the _French Republic_ found themselves in _Paris_ was, indeed, attended with the unpleasant circ.u.mstances which you have traced.--Removed far from the councils of their country, and receiving no intelligence concerning it, the scene before them could not fail to produce the most anxious and disquieting sensations. Neither the ambition, the power, nor the hostile temper of _France_, was concealed from them; nor could they be unacquainted with the earnest and unceasing solicitude felt by the government and people of the _United States_ for peace. But midst these difficulties, they possessed, as guides, clear and explicit instructions, a conviction of the firmness and magnanimity, as well as of the justice and pacific temper of their government, and a strong reliance on that patriotism and love of liberty, which can never cease to glow in the American bosom. With these guides, however th.o.r.n.y the path of duty might be, they could not mistake it. It was their duty, unmindful of personal considerations, to pursue peace with unabating zeal, through all the difficulties with which the pursuit was embarra.s.sed by a haughty and victorious government, holding in perfect contempt the rights of others, but to repel, with unhesitating decision, any propositions, an acceptance of which would subvert the independence of the _United States_.--This they have endeavoured to do. I delight to believe that their endeavours have not dissatisfied their government or country, and it is most grateful to my mind to be a.s.sured that they receive the approbation of my fellow-citizens in _Richmond_, and its vicinity.

I rejoice that I was not mistaken in the opinion I had formed of my countrymen. I rejoice to find, though they know how to estimate, and therefore seek to avoid the horrors and dangers of war, yet they know also how to value the blessings of liberty and national independence:--They know that peace would be purchased at too high a price by bending beneath a foreign yoke, and that peace so purchased could be but of short duration. The nation thus submitting would be soon involved in the quarrels of its master, and would be compelled to exhaust its blood and its treasure, not for its own liberty, its own independence, or its own rights, but for the aggrandizement of its oppressor. The modern world unhappily exhibits but too plain a demonstration of this proposition. I pray heaven that _America_ may never contribute its still further elucidation.

Terrible to her neighbors on the continent of _Europe_, as all must admit _France_ to be, I believe that the _United States_, if indeed united, if awake to the impending danger, if capable of employing their whole, their undivided force--are so situated as to be able to preserve their independence. An immense ocean placed by a gracious Providence, which seems to watch over this rising empire, between us and the European world, opposes of itself such an obstacle to an invading ambition, must so diminish the force which can be brought to bear upon us, that our resources, if duly exerted, must be adequate to our protection, and we shall remain free if we do not deserve to be slaves.

You do me justice, gentlemen, when you suppose that consolation must be derived from a comparison of the Administration of the American Government, with that which I have lately witnessed. To a citizen of the _United States_, so familiarly habituated to the actual possession of liberty, that he almost considers it as the inseparable companion of man, a view of the despotism, which borrowing the garb and usurping the name of freedom, tyrannizes over so large and so fair a proportion of the earth, must teach the value which he ought to place on the solid safety and real security he enjoys at home. In support of these, all temporary difficulties, however great, ought to be encountered, and I agree with you that the loss of them would poison and embitter every other joy; and that deprived of them, men who aspire to the exalted character of freemen, would turn with loathing and disgust from every other comfort of life.

To me, gentlemen, the attachment you manifest to the government of your choice affords the most sincere satisfaction. Having no interests separate from or opposed to those of the people, being themselves subject in common with others, to the laws they make, being soon to return to that ma.s.s from which they are selected for a time in order to conduct the affairs of the nation, it is by no means probable that those who administer the government of the _United States_ can be actuated by other motives than the sincere desire of promoting the real prosperity of those, whose destiny involves their own, and in whose ruin they must partic.i.p.ate. Desirable as it is at all times, a due confidence in our government, it is peculiarly so in a moment of peril like the present, in a moment when the want of that confidence must impair the means of self defence, must increase a danger already but too great, and furnish, or at least give the appearance of furnishing, to a foreign real enemy, those weapons, which have so often been so successfully used.

Accept, gentlemen, my grateful acknowledgments for your kind expressions concerning myself, and do me the justice to believe, that your prosperity, and that of the city of _Richmond_ and its vicinity, will ever be among the first wishes of my heart.

(From _Columbian Centinel_, Sat.u.r.day, Sept. 22, 1798.)