The Life of John Marshall Volume IV Part 59

[1352] _Debates, Va. Conv._ 767.

[1353] _Ib._ 880.

[1354] Compare Marshall's report (_ib._ 33) with Article V of the const.i.tution (_ib._ 901-02; and see _supra_, 491, note 2.)

[1355] Contrast Marshall's resolutions (_Debates, Va. Conv._ 39-40), which expressed the conservative stand, with those of William H.

Fitzhugh of Fairfax County (_ib._ 41-42), of Samuel Clayton of Campbell County (_ib._ 42), of Charles S. Morgan of Monongalia (_ib._ 43-44), and of Alexander Campbell of Brooke County (_ib._ 45-46), which state the views of the radicals.

[1356] See, for instance, the speech of John R. Cooke of Frederick County for the radicals (_Debates, Va. Conv._ 54-65), of Abel P. Upshur of Northampton for the conservatives (_ib._ 65-79), of Philip Doddridge of Brooke County for the radicals (_ib._ 79-89), of Philip P. Barbour of Orange County for the conservatives (_ib._ 90-98), and especially the speeches of Benjamin Watkins Leigh for the conservatives (_ib._ 151-74, 544-48). Indeed, the student cannot well afford to omit any one of the addresses in this remarkable contest.

[1357] It is at this point that we see the reason for Jefferson's alarm thirteen years before the convention was called. (_See supra_, 469.)

[1358] _Debates, Va. Conv._ 497-500.

[1359] _Debates, Va. Conv._ 561-62.

[1360] Const.i.tution of Virginia, 1830, Article III, Sections 1 and 2.

[1361] _Ib._ Article III, Section 14.

[1362] See _supra_, 469.

[1363] See next chapter.

[1364] March 12, 1830.

[1365] 4 Peters, 432.

[1366] 4 Peters, 432.

[1367] _Ib._ 433.

[1368] _Ib._ 434.

[1369] 4 Peters, 434-36.

[1370] _Ib._ 437.

[1371] _Ib._ 420.

[1372] _Ib._ 438.

[1373] See 552-58.

[1374] 4 Peters, 438-44.

[1375] _Ib._ 445-50.

[1376] _Ib._ 458.

[1377] 4 Peters, 464.

[1378] Story to Ticknor, Jan. 22, 1831, Story, II, 49. Nevertheless Story did not despair. "It is now whispered, that the demonstrations of public opinion are so strong, that the majority [of the Judiciary Committee] will conclude not to present their report." (_Ib._)

[1379] Marshall to Story, Oct. 15, 1830, _Proceedings, Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc._ 2d Series, XIV, 342.

[1380] See _infra_, 584.

[1381] _Debates_, 21st Cong. 2d Sess. 532.

[1382] _Ib._ 535.

[1383] _Ib._ 534.

[1384] _Ib._ 659.

[1385] _Ib._ 665.

[1386] _Debates_, 21st Cong. 2d Sess. 620-21.

[1387] _Ib._ 731, 748; and see vol. I, 454-55, of this work.

[1388] _Debates_, 21st Cong. 2d Sess. 739.

[1389] _Debates_, 21st Cong. 2d Sess. 542.

This was the last formal attempt, but one, made in Congress during Marshall's lifetime, to impair the efficiency of National courts. The final attack was made by Joseph Lecompte, a Representative from Kentucky, who on January 27, 1832, offered a resolution instructing the Judiciary Committee to "inquire into the expediency of amending the const.i.tution ... so that the judges of the Supreme Court, and of the inferior courts, shall hold their offices for a limited term of years."

On February 24, the House, by a vote of 141 to 27, refused to consider Lecompte's resolution, ignoring his plea to be allowed to explain it.

(_Debates_, 22d Cong. 1st Sess. 1856-57.) So summary and brusque--almost contemptuous--was the rejection of Lecompte's proposal, as almost to suggest that personal feeling was an element in the action taken by the House.

CHAPTER X

THE FINAL CONFLICT

Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable. (Daniel Webster.)

Fellow citizens, the die is now cast. Prepare for the crisis and meet it as becomes men and freemen. (South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification.)

The Union has been prolonged thus far by miracles. I fear they cannot continue. (Marshall.)

It is time to be old, To take in sail. (Emerson.)

The last years of Marshall's life were clouded with sadness, almost despair. His health failed; his wife died; the Supreme Court was successfully defied; his greatest opinion was repudiated and denounced by a strong and popular President; his a.s.sociates on the Bench were departing from some of his most cherished views; and the trend of public events convinced him that his labor to construct an enduring nation, to create inst.i.tutions of orderly freedom, to introduce stability and system into democracy, had been in vain.

Yet, even in this unhappy period, there were hours of triumph for John Marshall. He heard his doctrine of Nationalism championed by Daniel Webster, who, in one of the greatest debates of history, used Marshall's arguments and almost his very words; he beheld the militant a.s.sertion of the same principle by Andrew Jackson, who, in this instance, also employed Marshall's reasoning and method of statement; and he witnessed the sudden flowering of public appreciation of his character and services.