Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

JOHN MARSHALL.

JOHN MARSHALL, the author of the Life of Washington, and the judicial basis of authority of the Supreme Court of the United States, was one of the vigorous natural growths of America, which could sometimes out of the field of action and the energies of the new state produce even great lawyers the product, according to Lord Coke, of the vigils of twenty years at much shorter notice. Hamilton took his station at the bar in almost a single step from the camp. Marshall's education was that of a soldier. Both, however, possessed what neither the Temple nor Westminster Hall, Littleton nor Coke could confer the judicial mind. Nature had set in these men the elements of the law, and whatever wind that should blow, was to ripen them.

Montain

John Marshall was born (the eldest of a family of fifteen children) in Fauquier county, Virginia, September 24, 1755. His father was a man of character and ability, of limited education and opportunities among the mountains of Virginia, but of sufficient insight and sagacity to direct the capacities of his son, whom he placed, at the age of fourteen, under the charge of a clergyman, a Mr. Campbell, at a considerable distance from his home, receiving him back again at the end of a year, to complete what book knowledge he was to start in the world with, under the tuition of another clergyman from Scotland, who had then become guardian of the parish, and an inmate of his father's house. This is one of many instances in which the great minds of America received their first discipline at the hands of the clergy. At a somewhat later day, in Virginia, William Wirt, another legal eminence, received his first culture and generous love of learning at the hands of a clergyman-the Rev. James Hunt, from Princeton. James Madison was educated by a

She knows the cheat, but feigning ignorance, lends her pouting lips and gives a gentle blast, which warms the husband's heart more than it cools his pudding."

[ocr errors]

clergyman, and also Legaré. Hamilton in the West Indies was taught, and sent to New York by a clergyman, Dr. Knox, at Santa Cruz, and two clergymen of that city, Drs. Rodgers and Mason, received him on his arrival. In New England it was the general rule. The clergyman was the sun of the intellectual system in village, township, and city. John Adams, in his early lifewe may take him as a fair type of self-culture, seizing upon all neighboring advantages-was almost as much a clerical growth as a pupil of St. Omer's or the Propaganda. Throughout the South, the clergyman was the pioneer of education. This is a missionary influence which does not suggest itself so prominently as it should to the American of the present day. We are apt to think of the clergyman only in his relation to the pulpit, and confine our notions of his influence to the family and the parish, in those concerns of eternal welfare which are locked up in the privacies of home and the heart. These spiritual relations have, indeed, the grandest and widest scope; but there are others which should not be separated from them. The clergyman not only sanctified and cemented the parish, but he founded the state. It was his instruction which moulded the soldier and the statesman. Living among agriculturists remote from towns, where language and literature would naturally be neglected and corrupted, in advance of the schoolmaster and the school, he was the future college in embryo. When we see men like Marshall graduating at his right hand, with no other courses than the simple man of God who had left the refinements of civilization for the wilderness taught, and with no other diploma but his benediction, we may indeed stop to honor their labors. Let the name of the American missionary of the colonial and revolationary age suggest something more to the student of our history than the limited notion of a combatant with heathenism and vice. He was also the companion and guide to genius and virtue. When the memorials of those days are written, let his name be recorded, in no insignificant or feeble letters, on the page with the great men of the state whom his talents and presence inspired.

Like his father, Marshall took part in the active military service of the Revolutionary war, starting in the action of the provincial militia of Virginia with Lord Dunmore at the Great Bridge. He attained the rank of a Captain in 1777, and was at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, continuing with his Virginia company till the expiration of their term of service. In the midst of these affairs he attained his initiatory knowledge of law; was admitted to the bar in 1780, and recalled at once to the field to repel the invasion of Arnold. He rose rapidly in his legal profession at the close of the war in 1782, when he was elected to the legislature of his state, appearing in that assembly, from various constituencies, till 1796. When the Constitution of the United States was ratified in 1788 by the Virginia convention, he was a member of that body, ably seconding its provisions. In 1797 he was minister to France, with Pinckney and Gerry, in the unsuccessful attempt at negotiation with the French Directory, when his native manliness and honor were brought in contact with

[graphic]

the mean and subtle policy of Talleyrand. Returning to America the next year, he was elected to Congress in 1799. His speech in the House of Representatives, when the papers were called for in the Robbins case, is one of the great landmarks of Congressional debate. Robbins had been a mutineer in the British navy; had escaped to the United States; betrayed his disguise at Charleston; been reclaimed under the British treaty; surrendered by the administration; carried off to Halifax; tried, and executed. Marshall closed a long debate with a brilliant legal vindication of the Government. It prepared his way to the Chief-Justiceship of the Supreme Court in 1801, the office with which his memory is identified. In the authority and ability of his decisions, extended over a period of thirty-five years, he still exists in the life and action of the Republic.*

Ilis latest memorialist, Benton, quotes John Randolph's eulogy of his "native dignity and unpretending grace" in this office, and adds this tribute to the man and his manners:-" He was supremely fitted for high judicial station—a solid judgment, great reasoning powers, acute and penetrating mind; with manners and habits to suit the purity and the sanctity of the ermine; attentive, patient, laborious; grave on the bench, social in the intercourse of life; simple in his tastes, and inexorably just. Seen by a stranger come into a room, and he would be taken for a modest country gentleman, without claims to attention, and ready to take the lowest place in company or at table, and to act his part without trouble to anybody. Spoken to and closely observed, he could be seen to be a gentleman of finished breeding, of winning and prepossessing talk, and just as much mind as the occasion required him to show."t

In 1805 appeared his Life of Washington, in five octavo volumes. As a narrative it is faithful and conscientious, and it relies on valuable original material, the writer having had access to the papers of the family.

Marshall died in office, at Philadelphia, July 6, 1835, having, shortly previous to his death, borne with characteristic fortitude a painful and temporarily successful operation for the stone. As the patient was nearly eighty years of age, this is one of the remarkable cases of medical science.

A courteous and intelligent English traveller in the United States, the Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, has given us a pleasing picture of Marshall, as he appeared at Richmond in 1835, a few months before his death:-"A tall, venerable man; his hair tied in a cae, according to olden custom, and with a countenance indicating that

In 1839, an octavo volume of Marshall's leading decisions in the Supreme Court was published in Boston-"The Writings of John Marshall, late Chief Justice of the United States, upon the Federal Constitution."

+ Thirty Years' View, by a Senator, i. 681.

The Life of George Washington, Commander-in-chief of the American forces, during the war which established the independence of his country, and first President of the United States: compiled under the inspection of the Honourable Bushrod Washington, from original papers bequeathed to him by his deceased relative, and now in possession of the author, to which is prefixed an Introduction, containing a compendious view of the Colonies planted by the English on the Continent of North America, from the settlement to the commencement of that war which terminated in their Independence. By John Marshall, Philadelphia.

simplicity of mind and benignity which so eminently distinguish his character. I had the pleasure of several long conversations with him, and was struck with admiration at the extraordinary union of modesty and power, gentleness and force which his mind displays. His house is small, and more humble in appearance than those of the average of successful lawyers or merchants. I called three times upon him; there is no bell to the door; once I turned the handle of it, and walked in unannounced; on the other two occasions he had seen me coming, and lifted the latch and received me at the door, although he was at the time suffering from some very severe contusions received in the stage while travelling on the road from Fredericksburg to Richmond. I verily believe there is not a particle of vanity in his composition, unless it be of that venial and hospitable nature which induces him to pride himself on giving to his friends the best glass of Madeira in Virginia."*

Anecdotes of the simplicity of Marshall are numerous. On one occasion, as the story has been related to us, at the old market at Richmond, meeting a would-be exquisite, and hearing him call for some one to take a turkey which he had purchased home for him, he humorously offered himself. He was in his usual plain dress, and the gentleman, taking him for a countryman, accepted his services. The judge carried the turkey home, and actually received a shilling for his services, which proved a very costly retainer to the young man, in the amount of chagrin he endured, when he found that his porter was the Chief-Justice of the United States. He added to his rustic appearance with his homespun dress and yarn stockings, on some occasions, by coming into court covered with the burrs caught in riding through the woods from his farm on his little pony.

His favorite haunt at Richmond was Buchanan's spring, just on the edge of town, where he used to go with the club of which he was a member, pitch quoits, drink juleps, and dispute about the technicalities of the game with the zest of a boy. The club still survives, rich in these traditions.t

WASHINGTON.

In the sober language of reality, without attempting to deck a figure with ornaments or with qualities borrowed from the imagination, a person who has had some opportunity to observe him while living, and who since his decease has most assiduously inspected his private and public papers, will endeavour faithfully to give the impressions which he has himself received.

General Washington was rather above the common size, his frame was robust, and his constitution vigorous capable of enduring great fatigue, and requiring a considerable degree of exercise for the preservation of his health. His exterior created in the beholder the idea of strength united with manly gracefulness.

ix.

His manners were rather reserved than free,

Travels in North America during the years 1834-5-6, ch.

+ Art. Encyclopædia Americana. Supplementary Volume. Life by Story, American Portrait Gallery, and Discourse before the Suffolk Bar. 1835. Sketch and Eulogy by Horace Binney, Philadelphia, 1835. George Van Santvoord's Lives of Chief Justices, 1854.

though they partook nothing of that dryness and sternness which accompany reserve when carried to an extreme; and on all proper occasions, he could relax sufficiently to show how highly he was gratified by the charms of conversation, and the pleasures of society. His person and whole deportment exhibited an unaffected and indescribable dignity, unmingled with haughtiness, of which all who approached him were sensible; and the attachment of those who possessed his friendship and enjoyed his intimacy, was ardent but always respectful.

His temper was humane, benevolent, and conciliatory; but there was a quickness in his sensibility to any thing apparently offensive, which experience had taught him to watch and to correct.

In the management of his private affairs, he exhibited an exact yet liberal economy. His funds were not prodigally wasted on capricious and ill examined schemes, nor refused to beneficial though costly improvements. They remained therefore competent to that expensive establishment which his reputation, added to a hospitable temper, had in some measure imposed upon him, and to those donations which real distress has a right to claim from opulence.

He made no pretensions to that vivacity which fascinates, or to that wit which dazzles, and frequently imposes on the understanding. More solid than brilliant, judgment rather than genius constituted the most prominent feature of his character.

As a military man, he was brave, enterprising, and cautious. That malignity which has sought to strip him of all the higher qualities of a general, has conceded to him personal courage, and a firmness of resolution, which neither dangers nor difficulties could shake. But candour will allow him other great and valuable endowments. If his military course does not abound with splendid achievements, it exhibits a series of judicious measures adapted to circumstances, which probably saved his country.

Placed, without having studied the theory, or been taught in the school of experience, the practice of war, at the head of an undisciplined, ill-organized multitude, which was unused to the restraints and unacquainted with the ordinary duties of a camp, without the aid of officers possessing those lights which the commander-in-chief was yet to acquire, it would have been a miracle indeed had his conduct been absolutely faultless. But, possessing an energetic and distinguishing mind, on which the lessons of experience were never lost, his errors, if he committed any, were quickly repaired; and those measures which the state of things rendered most advisable, were seldom if ever neglected. Inferior to his adversary in the numbers, in the equipment, and in the discipline of his troops, it is evidence of real merit that no great or decisive advantages were ever obtained over him, and that the opportunity to strike an important blow never passed away unused. He has been termed the American Fabius; but those who compare his actions with his means, will perceive at least as much of Marcellus as of Fabius in his character. He could not have been more enterprising without endangering the cause he defended, nor have put more to hazard, without incurring justly the imputation of rashness. Not relying upon those chances which sometimes give a favourable issue to attempts apparently desperate, his conduct was regulated by calculations made upon the capacities of his army, and the real situation of his country. When called a second time to command the armies of the United States, a change of circumstances had taken place, and he meditated a corresponding change of conduct. In modelling the

army of 1798, he sought for men distinguished for their boldness of execution, not less than for their prudence in counsel, and contemplated a system of continued attack. “The enemy," said the general in his private letters, “must never be permitted to gain foothold on our shores."

In his civil administration, as in his military career, were exhibited ample and repeated proofs of that practical good sense, of that sound judgment which is perhaps the most rare, and is certainly the most valuable quality of the human mind. Devoting himself to the duties of his station, and pursuing no object distinct from the public good, he was accustomed to contemplate at a distance those critical situations in which the United States might probably be placed; and to digest, before the occasion required action, the line of conduct which it would be proper to observe. Taught to distrust first impressions, he sought to acquire all the information which was attainable, and to hear, without prejudice, all the reasons which could be urged for or against a particular measure. His own judgment was suspended until it became necessary to determine, and his decisions, thus maturely made, were seldom if ever to be shaken. His conduct therefore was systematic, and the great objects of his administration were steadily pursued.

Respecting, as the first magistrate in a free government must ever do, the real and deliberate sentiments of the people, their gusts of passion passed over without ruffling the smooth surface of his mind. Trusting to the reflecting good sense of the nation for approbation and support, he had the magnanimity to pursue its real interests in opposition to its temporary prejudices; and, though far from being regardless of popular favour, he could never stoop to retain by deserving to lose it. In more instances than one, we find him committing his whole popularity to hazard, and pursuing steadily, in opposition to a torrent which would have overwhelmed a man of ordinary firmness, that course which had been dictated by a sense of duty.

In speculation, he was a real republican, devoted to the constitution of his country, and to that system of equal political rights on which it is founded. But between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos. Real liberty, he thought, was to be preserved only by preserving the authority of the laws, and maintaining the energy of government. Scarcely did society present two characters which, in his opinion, less resembled each other than a patriot and a demagogue.

No man has ever appeared upon the theatre of public action whose integrity was more incorrup tible, or whose principles were more perfectly free from the contamination of those selfish and unworthy passions which find their nourishment in the conflicts of party. Having no views which required concealment, his real and avowed motives were the same; and his whole correspondence does not furnish a single case from which even an enemy would infer that he was capable, under any circumstances, of stooping to the employment of duplicity. No truth can be uttered with more confidence than that his ends were always upright, and his means always pure. He exhibits the rare example of a politician to whom wiles were absolutely unknown, and whose professions to foreign governments and to his own countrymen were always sincere. In him was fully exemplified the real distinction which for ever exists between wisdom and cunning, and the importance as well as truth of the maxim, that "honesty is the best policy."

If Washington possessed ambition, that passion

was, in his bosom, so regulated by principles, or controlled by circumstances, that it was neither vicious nor turbulent. Intrigue was never employed as the mean of its gratification, nor was personal aggrandizement its object. The various high and important stations to which he was called by the public voice were unsought by himself; and in consenting to fill them, he seems rather to have yielded to a general conviction that the interests of his country would be thereby promoted, than to his particular inclination.

Neither the extraordinary partiality of the American people, the extravagant praises which were bestowed upon him, nor the inveterate opposition and malignant calumnies which he experienced, had any visible influence upon his conduct. The cause

is to be looked for in the texture of his mind.

In him, that innate and unassuming modesty which adulation would have offended, which the voluntary plaudits of millions could not betray into indiscretion, and which never obtruded upon others his claims to superior consideration, was happily blended with a high and correct sense of personal dignity, and with a just consciousness of that respect which is due to station. Without exertion, he could maintain the happy medium between that arrogance which wounds, and that facility which allows the office to be degraded in the person who fills it.

It is impossible to contemplate the great events which have occurred in the United States under the auspices of Washington, without ascribing them, in some measure, to him. If we ask the causes of the prosperous issue of a war, against the successful termination of which there were so many probabilities of the good which was produced, and the ill which was avoided during an administration fated to contend with the strongest prejudices that a combination of circumstances and of passions could produce of the constant favour of the great mass of his fellow-citizens, and of the confidence which, to the last moment of his life, they reposed in him? the answer, so far as these causes may be found in his character, will furnish a lesson well meriting the attention of those who are candidates for political fame.

Endowed by nature with a sound judgment, and an accurate discriminating mind, he feared not that laborious attention which made him perfectly master of those subjects, in all their relations, on which he was to decide; and this essential quality was guided by an unvarying sense of moral right, which would tolerate the employment only of those means that would bear the most rigid examination; by a fairness of intention which neither sought nor required disguise: and by a purity of virtue which was not only untainted, but unsuspected.

AARON BANCROFT

Was born at Reading, Massachusetts, November 10, 1755. His father was a farmer, and the son assisted him in the intervals of his hurried studies with the migratory school of the district. He entered Harvard in 1774, and succeeded in the midst of the revolutionary difficulties in getting his degree in 1788. He became a clergyman, and in 1780 accepted a call to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, with the consent of the executive council of

A. Bancroft

Massachusetts. On his return in 1783, he was engaged in Connecticut and his native state in preach

ing, forming a permanent connexion with a congregational society at Worcester, in 1785. He published a great number of sermons and addresses.* Many of these are on topics of religious education. He also took an active part in the affairs of his town, in the improvement of secular instruction, His Life of Washington, a narrative written with ease and simplicity, mainly based on the work of Marshall, in which he led the way for the pursuits of his son the historian, was published at Worcester in an octavo volume, in 1807. He delivered, on the 31st January, 1836, a discourse on the fifty years of his ministry at Worcester, which has been printed with historical notes. John Adams admired his Sermons on the Doctrines of the Gospel. In 1823, he acknowledges "the gift of a precious volume. It is a chain of diamonds set in links of gold. I have never read, nor heard read, a volume of sermons better calculated and adapted to the age and country in which it was written."

Dr. Bancroft died at Worcester, in his eightyfifth year, August 19, 1840.

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

General Washington was exactly six feet in height; he appeared taller, as his shoulders rose a little higher than the true proportion. His eyes were of a gray, and his hair of a brown color. His limbs were well formed, and indicated strength. His complexion was light, and his countenance serene and thoughtful.

His manners were graceful, manly, and dignified. His general appearance never failed to engage the respect and esteem of all who approached him.

Possessing strong natural passions, and having the nicest feelings of honor, he was in early life prone keenly to resent practices which carried the intention of abuse or insult; but the reflections of maturer age gave him the most perfect government of himself. He possessed a faculty above all other men to hide the weaknesses inseparable from human nature; and he bore with meekness and equanimity his distinguished honors.

Reserved, but not haughty, in his disposition, he was accessible to all in concerns of business, but he opened himself only to his confidential friends; and no art or address could draw from him an opinion, which he thought prudent to conceal.

He was not so much distinguished for brilliancy of genius as for solidity of judgment, and consummate prudence of conduct. He was not so eminent for any one quality of greatness and worth, as for the union of those great, amiable, and good qualities, which are very rarely combined in the same character.

His maxims were formed upon the result of mature reflection, or extensive experience; they were the invariable rules of his practice; and on all important instances, he seemed to have an intuitive view of what the occasion rendered fit and proper. He pursued his purposes with a resolution, which, one solitary moment excepted, never failed him.

Alive to social pleasures, he delighted to enter into familiar conversation with his acquaintance, and was sometimes sportive in his letters to his friends; but he never lost sight of the dignity of his character, nor deviated from the decorous and appropriate behaviour becoming his station in society.

Thirty-five are enumerated in the notice of his life from which these facts are taken, in Lincoln's History of Worcester, p. 208.

He commanded from all the most respectful attention, and no man in his company ever fell into light or lewd conversation. His style of living corresponded with his wealth; but his extensive establishment was managed with the strictest economy, and he ever reserved ample funds liberally to promote schemes of private benevolence, and works of public utility. Punctual himself to every engagement, he exacted from others a strict fulfilment of contracts, but to the necessitous he was diffusive in his charities, and he greatly assisted the poorer classes of people in his vicinity, by furnishing them with means successfully to prosecute plans of industry.

In domestic and private life, he blended the authority of the master with the care and kindness of the guardian and friend. Solicitous for the welfare of his slaves, while at Mount Vernon, he every morning rode round his estates to examine their condition; for the sick, physicians were provided, and to the weak and infirm every necessary comfort was administered. The servitude of the negroes lay with weight upon his mind; he often made it the subject of conversation, and revolved several plans for their general emancipation; but could devise none, which promised success, in consistency with humanity to them, and safety to the state.

The address presented to him at Alexandria, on the commencement of his presidency, fully shows how much he was endeared to his neighbors, and the affection and esteem in which his friends held his private character.

His industry was unremitted, and his method so exact, that all the complicated business of his military command, and civil administration, was managed without confusion, and without hurry.

Not feeling the lust of power, and ambitious only for honorable fame, he devoted himself to his country upon the most disinterested principles: and his actions wore not the semblance but the reality of virtue: the purity of his motives was accredited, and absolute confidence placed in his patriotism.

While filling a public station, the performance of his duty took the place of pleasure, emolument, and every private consideration. During the more critical years of the war, a smile was scarcely seen upon his countenance; he gave himself no moments of relaxation; but his whole mind was engrossed to execute successfully his trust.

As a military commander, he struggled with innumerable embarrassments, arising from the short enlistment of his men, and from the want of provi

sions, clothing, arms, and ammunition; and an opinion of his achievements should be formed in view of these inadequate means.

The first years of his civil administration were attended with the extraordinary fact, that while a great proportion of his countrymen did not approve his measures, they universally venerated his character, and relied implicitly on his integrity. Although his opponents eventually deemed it expedient to vilify his character, that they might diminish his political influence; yet the moment that he retired from public life, they returned to their expressions of veneration and esteem; and after his death used every endeavor to secure to their party the influence of his name.

He was as eminent for piety as for patriotism. His public and private conduct evince, that he impressively felt a sense of the superintendence of God and of the dependence of man. In his addresses, while at the head of the army, and of the national government, he gratefully noticed the signal blessings of Providence, and fervently commended his country to divine benediction. In private, he was known to have been habitually devout.

In principle and practice he was a Christian. The support of an Episcopal church, in the vicinity of Mount Vernon, rested principally upon him, and here, when on his estate, he with constancy attended public worship. In his address to the American people, at the close of the war, mentioning the favorable period of the world at which the independence of his country was established, and enumerating the causes which unitedly had ameliorated the condition of human society, he, above science, philosophy, commerce, and all other considerations, ranked "the pure and benign light of Revelation." Supplicating Heaven that his fellow citizens might cultivate the disposition, and practise the virtues, which exalt a community, he presented the following petition to his God: That he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion; without a humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.

During the war, he not unfrequently rode ten or twelve miles from camp to attend public worship; and he never omitted this attendance, when opportunity presented.

In the establishment of his presidential household, he reserved to himself the Sabbath, free from the interruptions of private visits, or public business; and throughout the eight years of his civil administration, he gave to the institutions of Christianity the influence of his example.

He was as fortunate as great and good.

Under his auspices, a civil war was conducted with mildness, and a revolution with order. Raised himself above the influence of popular passions, he happily directed these passions to the most useful purposes. Uniting the talents of the soldier with the qualifications of the statesman, and pursuing, unmoved by difficulties, the noblest end by the purest means, he had the supreme satisfaction of beholding the complete success of his great military and civil services, in the independence and happiness of his country.

HANNAH ADAMS.

THE life of this lady presents an admirable example of self-reliance and perseverance. She was probably the first woman in the country to devote herself to a literary life, and this, too, at a time when the temptations such a career could offer to either sex, were insignificant, either in view of fame or gain.

Hannah Adams was born at Medfield, near Boston, in 1756. Her father was a man of education, who endeavored to procure the means of support from a small country store. To the use of the books which constituted-the calls of his customers being taken as a standard—an undue proportion of his stock, his daughter attributed her early taste for literature. She was a diligent student, although ill health rendered her attendance at school extremely irregular. She obtained from some young divinity students, who boarded at her father's house, a knowledge of Greek and Latin, and from a sinall manuscript, containing an account of Arminians, Calvinists, and a few other leading denominations, in the possession of one of these, the hint of her first work, the View of Religious Opinions.

She had lost her mother at the early age of ten years, and the ill success of her father in Lust

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »