The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-26
The ADVERTISERS
 V HOME STUDY CIRCLE

\ uhintefesting speaker, because he did not 1 stoned eloquence. Quite the reverse IA l true. Few men were his equal in the power to hold and control an audience, | put he accomplished that result by fixing
 ms own mind and compelling his hearers | 70 nx their minds upon the end in view, | and then, keeping his and their eyes upon
 that chosen end marching them straight | the right hand or to the left 10 nick
 bouquets of the flowers that lined his | path, or point out the beauties of the
 rn'ffcspe ror fo,pncas HIS Fs, work york was too serious
 hating the passion of a deadly earnest | ness, profound conviction that aided
 hlm In carrying conviction and earnest | When the convention assembled there | was strong majority against the Con-
 stitution. That Marshall and his asso | majority of ten In favor of adoption, and l that, too, in the face of the powerful op-
 position of Patrick Henry. the most elo
 quent man in America, is a lasting monu which they presented their case. It should
 be said, also. that the final result was probably influenced by the news that | enough States had voted for the Consti- | tuition to secure its adoption for those | States.
 It is outside the province of this paper | to trace the career of John Marshall dur | ing the years intervening between the adoption of the Constitution and the close | of Adams's administration During those
 twelve years he had been practicing law. had been one of the commissioners sent to France, had been a member of Con- gress and a member of the Cabinet, and his reputation as an able, fearless, high
 minded man had been constantly extend- edged to stand in the very first rank of American lawyers, without a superior and with hardly an equal.
 On the last day of January, 1901, Presi- dent Adams ann0intnd hal tn the exalted station of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. From that day until his death. anaentire
 generation, he occupied the position. By
 this act Adams rendered greater ser- vice to his country than by almost any
 other performance of his entire adninis- tration.
 By habits of thought and by conviction
 Marshall was in political sympathy with
 the Federal party. and although that
 party never again held the reins of gov-
 ernment after they were taken from the
 hands of Adams-about a month after
 Marshall became Chief Justice-the ideas
 which the Federalists advocated con-
 of many lives. Marshalfs decisions were
 marvels of profound and lucid expositions
 of the legal questions involved in the
 cases brought before him and of the
 that applied to them. Holding the opin.
 ions he did, he inevitably so construed
 the law as to strengthen and consolidate
 NIOVCTnm0nv.
 He cannot be accused of partisanship for
 so interpreting the Constitution. A fairer
 and more open-minded man never lived
 or a man more free from favoritism Had
 he not been honest with his own con
 yictions and his own understanding of the
 Constitution he would be open to censure
 But he could not distort the law for any
 reason.
 Marshall had few precedents to guide
 him. The Government was still in the experimental stage. He must make pre-
 cedents-not follow them. He must blaze
 his own way through a wilderness that no American had walked before He be- lieved the Constitution was the charter Of 2 growing nation and that it's im- lieved that Congress had authority to legislate on a multitude of subjects of which the framers of the Constitution never nsre rdt dreamed, a so long as those powers Government or directly conferred else- where. As consequence the whole tend- | ency of his work was to strengthen the General Government.
 One of the most famous cases that came before Marshall in the earlier period | of his Chief Justiceship was the trial of on charge of conspiracy and treason. The attitude of the Government was in- | tensely hostile to Burr and popular clam | or was loud for his conviction. But none | Of these things moved him. Although he | seems to have felt the utmost contempt | for Burr and bathing for his character, | yet he was determined that neither the l pressure of Government. the clamor of | the people nor his own feeling should in- | fluence him. Even Aaron Burr should | receive Justice in his court. His words in | connection with that case we'll deserve courage worthy of imitation by all men. | That this court" said he, does not | shrink M from duty Is ." true. the peculiar object of calulnnv. No | man. might he let the bitter cup pass | IT rom hlm without reproach, would drain It to the bottom But if he has no choice presented to him but deFeliction of | duty or the opprobrium of those who are | denominated the world, he merits the con | tempt as well as the indignation of his country, who can hesitate which to em- brace"
 In personal character and habits Mar shall was anything but ostentatious. h. | deed he went so far in the direction of | as to be slovenly. He seems | to have had not a particle of personal 1 vanity or of that small pride which finds details of dress or looking out for his | dignity. The story is told that one morning in Richmond. a well-dressed turkey for his Christmas dinner, and was | swearing because there was no one to | carry 1t home for him. At that juncture | a rather shabbily-dressed old man, ovcr- hearing his remarks. said: T will carry | the turkey for you" Suppose it to be a | man from the country. the young Adonis gladly accepted the proffered service | What shali l pay ,you'?'' he asked wien they had reached his door and the turkey | was handed to a servant. Oh, nothing | I was coming this way and was glad | to relieve you," and the old man passed l on his way. Who was that polite old | man?' he asked of a passing friend. | That? That was John Marshall, Chief | Justice of the United States" l have | often wondered how that young man en- | joyed his turkey. He ought to have had | 1t embalmed as q perpetual reminder of the fact that man may very easily make | dongey of himself and that true great | ness ia humble and not to be measured by the cut of ones coat.
 Judge Marshall had no sympathy with the States-rights theory held by most Southerners of his time. and he desired also the gradual emancipation and colOni- | zation of the blacks. EIe mad no sym pathy. however, with the fanatical advo- cates of Instantaneous abolition. He knew the slaves and the South too well tc de- sire such a revolution.
 MT. Marshall died in rhe summer of 1885, revered and hOnored by all. The en- tire nation mourned his loss. jt was while tolling in his memory that the liberty bell in Philadelphia received the fracture that now dishgures 1t. It was fitting that 1t should break in honcr of one who did so much to earn, 10 define. to confirm and establish our American