Middletown transcript., 1869-03-27
"REMINISCENCES
OF THE
GREAT MEN OF OTHER DAYS.
Written for tie Middietown Transcript
BY JOHN COLLINS M'cADE, p.D.

BY JOHN COLLINS NJ CADE, D. D.
In continuing my memoranda in refer
ence to Chief Justice Marshall, would
mention that in ITS, John Marshall, then
in the 23d year of his age, Gan interim in
his early military career), attended IL
course of law lectures, delivered by Mr..
afterwards the distinguished Chancellor
Wythe, Cat William and Mary College
the early friend and patron of Henry Clay
in after years; and course of lectures on
Moral Philosophy by President Madison of
the same institution, himself afterwards
the first Bishop of the P. E. Church in
Virginia. In the Summer of 1880 he was
admitted to the practice of law. In Octo-
Der of the same year he went again into
the field of battle and continued in the mil
itary service of his country until the ter
mination of the invasion of Virginia by the
renegade, Benedict Arnold, when he re-
signed his commission and devoted him
self to the practice of his profession, in the
city of Richmond.
There is an amusing and instructive
tradition in connexion with Marshall's his
tory, which is not without its appropriate
moral. He was not disciple of the great
leaders of the Beau Monde of their respec-
tive reigns in the empire of fashion, Bcaux
Nash and Brummcll; and D'Orsay, the
star of has day, had not risen as the en-
We'd, the admired, the initiated of the les
ser lights in the fashionable horizon. John
Marshall, the young lawyer of the Rich
mond Bar, was no worshirper at the
shrine of the tickle, and ever-changing
goddess Of fashion. Plain almost to
fault in his costume, not very dtStingue in
his manners, but not wanting in proper,
and natural courtlincss, few, who did not
knoto him would have suspected that the
tall and rather ungainly individual whom
they met in their occasional visits to the
metropolis of Virginia, and at the Court
House of the city, was one of the profound
est lawyers in the State, of his. age.
A gentleman fiom one of the upper
counties paid visit to Richmond for the
purpose of obtaining legal aid in case
pending in the Court of Appeals, in which
he was specially interested He put up at
the Eagle Hotel" the prominent house
of entertainment in the place, and, having
stated the purport of his trip to "mine
host" desired of the landlord information
in regard to the employment of counsel.
Marshall, happening to enter the house at
the time, was pointed out to the stranger
as suitable person, but his plain and un-
assuming appearance did not happen to
strike the visitor favorably, and he at once
declined having anything to do in the way
of law matters with such a looking man.
Again, on application to the Clerk of the
Court, during the day, he was advised
to employ Marshall, but his first im-
pressions were not to be put aside. he pre-
ferred to enlist the aid of some other whose
toilet, in its tout ensemble, was more in
keeping with the dignity of the profession.
At this moment member of the Bar,
well-known in his day, dignifed in mien,
wearing faultlessly fitting black coat, and
wearing a most unexceptionably powdered
wig, entered the Court room. His appear
ance made so profound an impression on
the stranger in quest of a man of the law,
that he Immediately entrusted the case to
him, and gave him his retainer, fee of
S95. In the first case which came up, it
happened that this lawyer and Marshall
both, addressed the Court. The stranger
was not long in discovering his mistake in
his estimate of the two men, and at the ad
iournment of the Court for the day, intro
duced himself to the ungainly young man
whose toilet had given his sensibilities such
a shock, frankly told the story of his mis-
take, and employed Mr.. Marshall to un-
dertake the case in connection with the
other gentleman Marshall took his re-
tainer, but not before he INDUCED in joke
with his client on the omnipotence of a
black coat, and popdered aoig!
"The rank is but the guinea's stamp,
The mans the gowd for a that"
In 1882 he was sent to the Legislature,
and in the same year was made a member
of the Executive Council In January
1888, he married Mary Willis, daughter
of Jaqueline Amber, Treasurer of the
State, and one of the former proprietors of
jamestown, where the first Colony of Vir-
ginia was founded in 1907. This union
lasted for nearly half century. Her
death preceded his by only three years,
and it was both touching and beautiful to
witness the devotion of that old man to the
last days of her life, to the bride of his
youthful love. When she died, his grief
was as impassionate, as had been the
devotion of his boy-worship at her shrine.
In letter received some few years since
by the writer of these sketches, from Bish-
op Meade, the Senior Bishop Of Virginia,
a grand old man himself, and the most in
innate friend of the Chief Justice, this
venerable man, (now gone to his reward)
thus writes John Marshall fell in love
with his wife when she was only IA. He
was most ardent lover. He fell in love
during the war, when he was a Captain !;
he married her soon after, and having paid
the minister his fee, had only one guinea
left. He used to say that the young men
of later days did not know anything about
loving" g All this" says the Bishop,
t'accounts for his tender and patient atten-
tions to his wife,"