The suburban citizen., 1901-02-23
HONOR A GREAT JURIST
CELEBRATING ELEVATION OF JUS.
TlcE MARSHALL TO THE BENCH.

Beauty as Was His Official Career
For Its Greatness.
In a celebration when the life of n
great man Is held up for the admira-
tion and emulation Of a nation, there
is too often a reverse side Of the pic
! ture. which must be concealed, lest the
| effect be marred writes Gilberta SIN
clair Whittle, in the Philadelphia Rec
| ord. The spotless character of Chief
| Justice Marshall. however. symmetri-
! cal in outline and colossal in proper
| tions, resembles a heroic marble statue
rather than a painting. and, surveyed
on every side, challenges examination.
! DR.. Johnson defines genius as great
! ability accidentally directed into a par
! ticular channel" and Carlyle contends
that the qualities from which distinc-
tion springs. let the efforescence be
that of the poet, statesman. military
hero or what not, are the same, theo-
ries which the career Of Marshall-re-
nowned in turn as soldier, iurlst
statesman, diplomat and judge-illus-
trates.
The family, of British origin, eollat-
orally descended from the great Earl
Of Pembroke, the wise governor Of the
young King. Henry Ill, dates in
America about 1850, a singular circum-
stance being that the eldest son in
| each generation has been alternately
John or Thomas.
The father of the Chief Justice was
a native of Virginia, and, removing to
| Fauquier, in the same colony, he set
! tied in Germantown, now Midland, a
station on the Virginia Midland Rail
road and there on September "a,
1855. his ilustrious son, the eldest Of
fifteen children (all of whom the par
ents lived to see established in life and
married. was born. FauQuier was
then a thinly settled frontier county,
possessing almost no educational facil-
ities
Colonel Marshall, therefore, person
ally directed his children's studies,
grounding them in mathematics and
other sciences, and his wife. Mary
| Keith the daughter Of an Episcopal
| clergyman and the great-granddaugh-
ter of William Keith, Earl Mareschal
of Scotland, being a woman Of cul-
ture, they were reared in an intellec-
tual atmosphere, becoming early IA
miliar with the best English authors.
At twelve years old John had trans
scriped Pope's Essay on Man" and
memorized many of its striking pas
sages. When he was fourteen he was
sent to Westmoreland County to
school, attending the institution in
which his father and Washington
were educated, and having as fellow
pupil James Monroe. the future Presi-
dent of the United States.
Returning home at the end OF
year. he continued his studies with
tutor, an Episcopal clergyman Of Scot
land. and a granddaughter, still living,
states that in order to prevent trivial
conversation at dinner, each child was
required to tell all that he could re-
member Of the mornings lesson in his
tory. At eighteen he took his first step
toward his chosen profession by read
ing Blackstone's Commentaries, then
just published.
Meanwhile the war clouds which
had been gathering burst upon the
country. Eager to equip himself for
service. Marshall walked ten miles TO
a muster field, returning on foot when
the drill was over, and the captain
who had called the company together
failing to materialize, he was made
lieutenant and placed in charge of the
raw recruits. At their head he took
part in almost every important en-
gagen ent Of the troops under Wash
ington's immediate command. he
was also at Valley Forge, his cheerful
ness during that frightful winter of
hardship and privation being only
euualled by his courage in the field.
At this time, too. his judicial ability
still in embryo. was recognized. lie
was frequently called upon to settle
differences among the officers and
men, and became, in short, the Judge
Advocate Of the army.
In 1893, being selected to assist in
raising recruits he seized an oppor-
tunity of attending the law class OF
Chancellor Wythe professor Of Will
lam and Mary College, and the lee
lures on natural philosophy of Bishop
Madison, the President Of the institu-
ton, thus enabling him the following
summer to obtain a license to practice
law.
During the spring Of 1776, while the
troops tarried briefly at Yorktown
Marshall lost his heart with Mary
Willis Amber, a daughter Of Colonel
Jacuueline Amber, afterward Treas
urer of the new Commonwealth and a
descendant Of the noble Huguenot
Jacuuelines of France.
Miss Amber was only fourteen
years old, and so shy that when the
dashing officer upon whose banner
was the figure Of a coiled rattlesnake,
with the legend, Don't Tread On
Me-" and whose shirt front bore the
motto Liberty or Death proposed
to her her lips faltered mo" when
her heart said yes Marshall was
very ardent however, and one Of her
cousins, sending him surreptitlously
. q locl, of bpr hair he renewed his suit,