The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 22

"Nor does the exercise of it seem to cost him an effort. On the contrary, it is as easy as vision. I am persuaded that his eye does not fly over a landscape and take in its various objects with more prompt.i.tude and facility, than his mind embraces and a.n.a.lyses the most complex subject.

"Possessing while at the bar this intellectual elevation, which enabled him to look down and comprehend the whole ground at once, he determined immediately and without difficulty, on which side the question might be most advantageously approached and a.s.sailed.

"In a bad cause his art consisted in laying his premises so remotely from the point directly in debate, or else in terms so general and so s.p.a.cious, that the hearer, seeing no consequence which could be drawn from them, was just as willing to admit them as not; but his premises once admitted, the demonstration, however distant, followed as certainly, as cogently, as inevitably, as any demonstration in Euclid."[508]

Marshall's supremacy, now unchallenged, at the Virginia bar was noted by foreign observers. La Rochefoucauld testifies to this in his exhaustive volumes of travel:--

"Mr. J. Marshall, conspicuously eminent as a professor of the law, is beyond all doubt one of those who rank highest in the public opinion at Richmond. He is what is termed a federalist, and perhaps somewhat warm in support of his opinions, but never exceeding the bounds of propriety, which a man of his goodness and prudence and knowledge is incapable of transgressing.

"He may be considered as a distinguished character in the United States.

His political enemies allow him to possess great talents but accuse him of ambition. I know not whether the charge be well or ill grounded, or whether that ambition might ever be able to impel him to a dereliction of his principles--a conduct of which I am inclined to disbelieve the possibility on his part.

"He has already refused several employments under the general government, preferring the income derived from his professional labours (which is more than sufficient for his moderate system of economy), together with a life of tranquil ease in the midst of his family and in his native town.

"Even by his friends he is taxed with some little propensity to indolence; but even if this reproach were well founded, he nevertheless displays great superiority in his profession when he applies his mind to business."[509]

When Jefferson foresaw Marshall's permanent transfer to public life he advised James Monroe to practice law in Richmond because "the business is very profitable;[510] ... and an opening of great importance must be made by the retirement of Marshall."[511]

Marshall's solid and brilliant performance in the British Debts case before the Supreme Court at Philadelphia did much more than advance him in his profession. It also focused upon him the keen scrutiny of the politicians and statesmen who at that time were in attendance upon Congress in the Quaker City. Particularly did the strength and personality of the Virginia advocate impress the Federalist leaders.

These vigilant men had learned of Marshall's daring championship of the Jay Treaty in hostile Virginia. And although in the case of Ware _vs._ Hylton, Marshall was doing his utmost as a lawyer before the Supreme Court to defeat the collection of the British debts, yet his courageous advocacy of the Jay Treaty outweighed, in their judgment, his professional labors in behalf of the clients who had employed him.

The Federalist leaders were in sore need of Southern support; and when Marshall was in Philadelphia on the British Debts case, they were prompt and unsparing in their efforts to bind this strong and able man to them by personal ties. Marshall himself unwittingly testifies to this. "I then [during this professional visit to Philadelphia] became acquainted," he relates, "with Mr. Cabot, Mr. Ames, Mr. Dexter, and Mr.

Sedgwick of Ma.s.sachusetts, Mr. Wadsworth of Connecticut, and Mr. King of New York. I was delighted with these gentlemen. The particular subject (the British Treaty) which introduced me to their notice was at that time so interesting, and a Virginian who supported, with any sort of reputation, the measures of the government, was such a _rara avis_, that I was received by them all with a degree of kindness which I had not antic.i.p.ated. I was particularly intimate with Mr. Ames, and could scarcely gain credit with him when I a.s.sured him that the appropriations [to effectuate the treaty] would be seriously opposed in Congress."[512]

As we shall presently see, Marshall became a.s.sociated with Robert Morris in the one great business undertaking of the former's life. Early in this transaction when, for Marshall, the skies were still clear of financial clouds, he appears to have made a small purchase of bank stock and ventured modestly into the commercial field. "I have received your letter of 18 ulto," Morris writes Marshall, "& am negotiating for Bank Stock to answer your demand."[513]

And again: "I did not succeed in the purchase of the Bank Stock mentioned in my letter of the 3^d Ulto to you and as M^r Richard tells me in his letter of the 4 Inst that you want the money for the Stock, you may if you please draw upon me for $7000 giving me as much time in the sight as you can, and I will most certainly pay your drafts as they become due. The Brokers shall fix the price of the Stock at the market price at the time I pay the money & I will then state the Am^t including Dividends & remit you the Balance but if you prefer having the Stock I will buy it on receiving your Answer to this, cost what it may."[514]

Soon afterward, Morris sent Marshall the promised shares of stock, apparently to enable him to return shares to some person in Richmond from whom he had borrowed them.

"You will receive herewith enclosed the Certificates for four shares of Bank Stock of the United States placed in your name to enable you to return the four shares to the Gentlemen of whom you borrowed them, this I thought better than remitting the money lest some difficulty should arise about price of shares. Two other shares in the name of M^r Geo Pickett is also enclosed herewith and I will go on buying and remitting others untill the number of Ten are completed for him which shall be done before the time limited in your letter of the 12^h Ins^t The dividends shall also be remitted speedily."[515]

Again Washington desired Marshall to fill an important public office, this time a place on the joint commission, provided for in the Jay Treaty, to settle the British claims. These, as we have seen, had been for many years a source of grave trouble between the two countries.

Their satisfactory adjustment would mean, not only the final settlement of this serious controversy, but the removal of an ever-present cause of war.[516] But since Marshall had refused appointment to three offices tendered him by Washington, the President did not now communicate with him directly, but inquired of Charles Lee, Attorney-General of Virginia, whether Marshall might be prevailed upon to accept this weighty and delicate business.

"I have very little doubt," replied Lee, "that Mr. John Marshall would not act as a Commissioner under the Treaty with Great Britain, for deciding on the claims of creditors. I have been long acquainted with his private affairs, and I think it almost impossible for him to undertake that office. If he would, I know not any objection that subsists against him.

"First, he is not a debtor.[517] Secondly, he cannot be benefitted or injured by any decision of the Commissioners. Thirdly, his being employed as counsel, in suits of that kind, furnishes no reasonable objection; nor do I know of any opinions that he has published, or professes, that might, with a view of impartiality, make him liable to be objected to.

"Mr. Marshall is at the head of his profession in Virginia, enjoying every convenience and comfort; in the midst of his friends and the relations of his wife at Richmond; in a practice of his profession that annually produces about five thousand dollars on an average; with a young and increasing family; and under a degree of necessity to continue his profession, for the purpose of complying with contracts not yet performed."[518]

The "contracts" which Marshall had to fulfill concerned the one important financial adventure of his life. It was this, and not, as some suppose, the condition of his invalid wife, to which Marshall vaguely referred in his letter to Washington declining appointment as Attorney-General and as Minister to France.

The two decades following the establishment of the National Government under the Const.i.tution were years of enormous land speculation. Hardly a prominent man of the period failed to secure large tracts of real estate, which could be had at absurdly low prices, and to hold the lands for the natural advance which increasing population would bring. The greatest of these investors was Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, the second richest man of the time,[519] and the leading business man of the country.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

John Marshall had long been the attorney in Virginia for Robert Morris, who frequently visited that State, sometimes taking his family with him.

In all probability, it was upon some such journey that James M.

Marshall, the brother of John Marshall, met and became engaged to Hester Morris, daughter of the great speculator, whom he married on April 19, 1795.[520] James M. Marshall--nine years younger than his brother--possessed ability almost equal to John Marshall and wider and more varied accomplishments.[521]

It is likely that the Pennsylvania financier, before the marriage, suggested to the Marshall brothers the purchase of what remained of the Fairfax estate in the Northern Neck, embracing over one hundred and sixty thousand acres of the best land in Virginia.[522] At any rate, sometime during 1793 or 1794 John Marshall, his brother, James M.

Marshall, his brother-in-law, Rawleigh Colston, and General Henry Lee contracted for the purchase of this valuable holding.[523] In January of that year James M. Marshall sailed for England to close the bargain.[524] The money to buy the Fairfax lands was to be advanced by Robert Morris, who, partly for this purpose, sent James M. Marshall to Europe to negotiate[525] loans, immediately after his marriage to Hester Morris.

At Amsterdam "some Capitalists proposed to supply on very hard terms a Sum more than Sufficient to pay Mr. Fairfax," writes Morris, and James M. Marshall "has my authority to apply the first Monies he receives on my acco^t to that Payment."[526] By the end of 1796 Morris's over-speculations had gravely impaired his fortune. The old financier writes pathetically to James M. Marshall: "I am struggling hard, very hard, indeed to regain my Position." He tells his son-in-law that if a loan cannot be obtained on his other real estate he "expects these Washington Lotts will be the most certain of any Property to raise Money on"; and that "[I] will have a number of them Placed under your Controul."[527]

The loan failed, for the time being, but, writes Morris to John Marshall, "Mr. Hottenguer[528] who first put the thing in motion says it will come on again" and succeed; "if so, your brother will, of course, be ready for Mr. Fairfax." Morris is trying, he says, to raise money from other sources lest that should fail. "I am here distressed exceedingly in money matters," continues the harried and aging speculator "as indeed every body here are but I will immediately make such exertions as are in my power to place funds with your brother and I cannot but hope that his and my exertions will produce the needful in proper time to prevent mischief."[529]

A month later Morris again writes John Marshall that he is "extremely anxious & fearing that it [the Amsterdam loan] may fall through I am trying to obtain a loan here for the purposes of your Brother in London.

This," says the now desperate financier, "is extremely difficult, for those who have money or credit in Europe seem to dread every thing that is American." He a.s.sures John Marshall that he will do his utmost. "My anxiety ... [to make good the Fairfax purchase] is beyond what I can express." Alexander Baring "could supply the money ... but he parries me. He intends soon for the Southward I will introduce him to you."[530]

The t.i.tle to the Fairfax estate had been the subject of controversy for many years. Conflicting grants, overlapping boundaries, sequestration laws, the two treaties with Great Britain, were some of the elements that produced confusion and uncertainty in the public mind and especially in the minds of those holding lands within the grant. The only real and threatening clouds upon the t.i.tle to the lands purchased by the Marshall syndicate, however, were the confiscatory laws pa.s.sed during the Revolution[531] which the Treaty of Peace and the Jay Treaty nullified.[532] There were also questions growing out of grants made by the colonial authorities between 1730 and 1736, but these were not weighty.

The case of Hunter _vs._ Fairfax, Devisee, involving these questions, was pending in the Supreme Court of the United States. John Marshall went to Philadelphia and tried to get the cause advanced and decided.

He was sadly disappointed at his failure and so wrote his brother. "Your Brother has been here," writes Morris to his son-in-law, "as you will see by a letter from him forwarded by this conveyance. He could not get your case brought forward in the Supreme Court of the U. S. at which he was much dissatisfied & I am much concerned thereat, fearing that real disadvantage will result to your concern thereby."[533]

The case came on for hearing in regular course during the fall term.

Hunter, on the death of his attorney, Alexander Campbell, prayed the Court, by letter, for a continuance, which was granted over the protest of the Fairfax attorneys of record, Lee and Ingersoll of Philadelphia, who argued that "from the nature of the cause, delay would be worse for the defendant in error [the Fairfax heir] than a decision adverse to his claim." The Attorney-General stated that the issue before the Court was "whether ... the defendant in error being an alien can take and hold the lands by devise. And it will be contended that his t.i.tle is completely protected by the treaty of peace." Mr. Justice Chase remarked: "I recollect that ... a decision in favor of such a devisee's t.i.tle was given by a court in Maryland. It is a matter, however, of great moment and ought to be deliberately and finally settled."[534] The Marshalls, of course, stood in the shoes of the Fairfax devisee; had the Supreme Court decided against the Fairfax t.i.tle, their contract of purchase would have been nullified and, while they would not have secured the estate, they would have been relieved of the Fairfax indebtedness. It was, then, a very grave matter to the Marshalls, in common with all others deriving their t.i.tles from Fairfax, that the question be settled quickly and permanently.

A year or two before this purchase by the Marshalls of what remained of the Fairfax estate, more than two hundred settlers, occupying other parts of it, pet.i.tioned the Legislature of Virginia to quiet their t.i.tles.[535] Acting on these pet.i.tions and influenced, perhaps, by the controversy over the sequestration laws which the Marshall purchase renewed, the Legislature in 1796 pa.s.sed a resolution proposing to compromise the dispute by the State's relinquishing "all claim to any lands specifically appropriated by ... Lord Fairfax to his own use either by deed or actual survey ... if the devises of Lord Fairfax, or those claiming under them, will relinquish all claims to lands ... which were waste and unappropriated at the time of the death of Lord Fairfax."[536]

Acting for the purchasing syndicate, John Marshall, in a letter to the Speaker of the House, accepted this legislative offer of settlement upon the condition that "an act pa.s.ses during this session confirming ... the t.i.tle of those claiming under Mr. Fairfax the lands specifically appropriated and reserved by the late Thomas Lord Fairfax or his ancestors for his or their use."[537]

When advised of what everybody then supposed to be the definitive settlement of this vexed controversy, Robert Morris wrote John Marshall that "altho' you were obliged to give up a part of your claim yet it was probably better to do that than to hold a contest with such an opponent [State of Virginia]. I will give notice to M^r. Ja^s. Marshall of this compromise."[538] John Marshall, now sure of the t.i.tle, and more anxious than ever to consummate the deal by paying the Fairfax heir, hastened to Philadelphia to see Morris about the money.

"Your Brother John Marshall Esq^r. is now in this City," writes Robert Morris to his son-in-law, "and his princ.i.p.al business I believe is to see how you are provided with Money to pay Lord Fairfax.... I am so sensible of the necessity there is for your being prepared for Lord Fairfax's payment that there is nothing within my power that I would not do to enable you to meet it."[539]

The members of the Marshall syndicate pressed their Philadelphia backer unremittingly, it appears, for a few days later he answers what seems to have been a petulant letter from Colston a.s.suring that partner in the Fairfax transaction that he is doing his utmost to "raise the money to enable Mr. James Marshall to meet the Payments for your Purchase at least so far as it is inc.u.mbent on me to supply the means.... From the time named by John Marshall Esq^{re} when here, I feel perfect Confidence, because I will furnish him before that period with such Resources & aid as I think cannot fail."[540]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PAGE OF JAMES MARSHALL'S ACCOUNT WITH ROBERT MORRIS SHOWING PAYMENT OF 7700 TO FAIRFAX (_Facsimile_)]

Finally Marshall's brother negotiated the loan, an achievement which Morris found "very pleasing, as it enables you to take the first steps with Lord Fairfax for securing your bargain."[541] Nearly forty thousand dollars of this loan was thus applied. In his book of accounts with Morris, James M. Marshall enters: "Jany 25 '97 To 7700 paid the Rev^d.

Denny Fairfax and credited in your [Morris's] account with me 7700"

(English pounds sterling).[542] The total amount which the Marshalls had agreed to pay for the remnant of the Fairfax estate was "fourteen thousand pounds British money."[543] When Robert Morris became bankrupt, payment of the remainder of the Fairfax indebtedness fell on the shoulders of Marshall and his brother.

This financial burden caused Marshall to break his rule of declining office and to accept appointment as one of our envoys to France at the time of Robert Morris's failure and imprisonment for debt; for from that public employment of less than one year, Marshall, as we shall see, received in the sorely needed cash, over and above his expenses, three times the amount of his annual earnings at the bar.[544] "Mr. John Marshall has said here," relates Jefferson after Marshall's return, "that had he not been appointed minister [envoy] to France, he was desperate in his affairs and must have sold his estate [the Fairfax purchase] & that immediately. That that appointment was the greatest G.o.d-send that could ever have befallen a man."[545] Jefferson adds: "I have this from J. Brown and S. T. Mason [Senator Mason]."[546]

So it was that Marshall accepted a place on the mission to France[547]

when it was offered to him by Adams, who "by a miracle," as Hamilton said, had been elected President.[548]

FOOTNOTES:

[456] _Southern Literary Messenger_, 1836, ii, 181-91; also see Howe, 266.

[457] _Southern Literary Messenger_, ii, 181-91; also Howe, 266.

Apparently the older lawyer had been paid the one hundred dollars, for prepayment was customary in Virginia at the time. (See La Rochefoucauld, iii, 76.) This tale, fairly well authenticated, is so characteristic of Marshall that it is important. It visualizes the man as he really was.