Middletown transcript., 1869-03-20
CASTLE COUNTY,
"REMINISCENCES
OF THE
GREAT MEN OF OTHER DAYS.
pY JOHN COLLINS M'cABE, D. d.

| 10 celebrate tne ultinOry Oi great anu worthy
men, as the best thanks which posterity can pay
them, but also the examples of virtue are of more
vigor when they are thus contracted into indi-
| viduals." DRYDEN.
"Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time"
LoNGrELLow.
JOHN MARSHALL, Chief Justice of the
United States, was born on the Oath of
September 1865, in the small village of
Germantown. in Fauquier County, Virgin
ia, and died in Philadelphia ON the 9th of
July, 1885.
TO write the biography of Judge Mar
shall would be to fill volumes-for it would
be, in great measure, the history of the
leading events of the country with which
his name was associated for more than half
a century. / shall not, therefore, enter
on so ambitious a task, but confne my
self to the briefest outline of his public ca
reer; and, with here and there extracts
from unpublished memoranda in my pos
session, and my own recollections of the
"Old Chief" as he was called, together
with authenticated anecdotes of the man,
close, as rapidly as / can, say in two or
three or four numbers, my first sketch of
one of the great men of other days.
HIS father was an officer of the Cont
mental Line, a native of Wcstmoroland
county, Virginia, and distinguished HIM
self in the battles of Trenton and Brandy
wine. His mother, Mary Keith, was the
daughter of Scotch Episcopal Clergy
man, who, being involved in the rebellion
of 1715 in favor of the so called Prctcndcr,
was forced to fly his country and came to
Virginia, and located in Fauquier county
Although the father of John Marshall
was man of limited resources, so much
so that he could not afford to give his son
a thorough classical education, yet, by his
judicious training of him under his own
personal supervision in his early years, was
doubtless laid the foundation of that ehdr-
actcr which in after years shone so conspic-
uously in the life of the Chief Justice of
the United States.
The Bible, Shakespeare, Milton, Pope,
and Dryden, were his principal studies, as
we learn from Mr.. Horace Binney, and
''these, with iudicious histories, were the
only volumes placed within his reach until
his fourteenth year" At the age of four
teen he was sent by his father to clergy
man named Campbell, residing in West
moreland, for the purpose of studying
Latin, where he had for classmate, James
Munroe, subsequently President of the
United States,
He returned to Fauquior, and resumed
for year his classical studies under a
Scotch clergyman named Thompson-he
knew nothing Of Greek, as we are assured
on competent authority and this, thet two
years study of Latin, was the extent of his
classical education.
From this beginning as one of his eu-
logists has informed us, "John Marshall
wrought out in after life comprehensive
mass of learning which accomplished him
for every station which he filled, and he
filled the highest Of more than one descrip-
ton"
In his 18th year he commenced the
study of law, but in consequence of the
threatening aspect of affairs between the
Colonies and the Mother Country, instead
of devoting himself exclusively to the ac-
QUESTION of legal science, with an intuitiye
ing the skill necessary for the battle field,
in volunteer corps of his native county.
The threatened storm soon burst upon
the Colonies, and the first news of the bat
tie of Lexington found young Marshall
ready to venture his life in the cause of his
injured country. The following, furnished
a distinguished gentleman some few years
since by near relation of the Chief JUS
tice, after his, Judge Marshall's, death, is
sketch: 1T was in May, 1775. He was
then youth Of 10. The muster field was
some twenty miles distant from the G. II.
and in a region of country poopled by till
ers of the earth, Rumops of the occur
renee near Boston, had circulated with
the effect of alarm and agitation, but with
out the means of ascertaining the truth, for
not paper was printed nearer than Will
liamsburg, nor was one taken within the
bounds of the militia company, though
large. The Captain had called the COM
pany together, and was expected to attend,
but did not. Soon after, Lieutenant Mar
shall made his appearance on the ground !;
those who knew him clustered about him
to greet him, others from curiosity and to
hear the news. He proceeded to inform
the company that the Captain would not
be there, that he had been appointed Lieu
tenant instead of better, and that he had
come to meet them as fellow soldiers who
would be likely to be called upon to defend
their country and their rights, invaded by
the British-that there had been battle
in Lexington. Massachusetts, between the
British and Americans, in which the latter
were victorious; but, that more fighting
was expected, that soldiers were called for,
that it was time to brighten their firearms,
and learn to use them in the field /; and,
that. if they would fall into single line,
he would show them the new manual exer-
else. for which purpose he had brought his
gun, bringing It at the same time to his
shoulder. The sergeant put the men into
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