The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-06-20
PRESERVE THE MARSHALL HOME

PRESERVE THE MARSHALL HOME.
The School Board ought by all means to APP
prove the request of the Association for the Pre-
serwuton of Virginia Antiquities, that there be
turned over to its care the home OF Chief Justice
John Marshall which stands upon the corner
Of Marshall and Ninth Streets, upon the grounds
occupied by John Marshall High School.
1t IS due postcrity that hand down to it
the monuments Of the men who were truly great
IN the work Of establishing and giving form 10
this government No memorial is perfect as
a home About the house where one has dweIt
there chngs the aura of It's owner, which even
those who come long afterwards intangiblv but
windy feel and experience 10 keep the house
Is IN SENSE TO keep the man in way in which
his personality can be no otherwise preserved.
Association is the sauce Of history. and intimate
acquaintance with its figures is the best means
of It's acquisition. BY keeping intact the home
Of a great man VIC keep him alive and vital in
his relationship to the present. We transform
him from name into an ever living entity. 1t
Is this spirit Of the place that makes appeal TO
the human heart so to give shrine its value.
In no other way adequately touch
fingers with the hand and come into sympathy
with the spirit of the past.
John Marshall's was the constructive intel
, lect of his day. His mind it was which an
nounced and bound together against the future
the national idea. 1t was his determination
! that made of the Constitution something more
ririle than an Grafton of lofty sentiment. More
IS to hlm than to any other one man is the country
indebted for the nice adjustment between the
, powers of State and Nation which, (even agains
the always encroachng tide of Il tendency to
ward Capitalization falsely directed in biz
name), still ayais to preserve the rights of th'
t one, while preserving the dignity ot the other
1t is not too much to say that, without the prin
ciple which Marshall announced and enforced
the country could not have attained the soidar
lty by which it has endured.
In making the request for the custody of thu
building the Association binds itself to so ia
/ as possible restore it to the state in which tn
\ great jurist used it, to make of it museum o
Marshall and to see that it is preserved with th
care to which it is entitled as Il memento of on
of the most potent Nirginians Of them all Wha
to do with the house, has for wears been an I'm
, solved problem. 1t has actually been propose,
in seriousness to demoIish it, To now place
in the care Of an association of patriotic women
whose efforts in other similar directions hav
e proven so successful and valuable to the Stat
$ and Nation, Is to solve the problem happily TO
o Eall time.
I The suggestion that the City has no power It
I deed the house is met by the precedent by whicl
t the old Davis residence was turned over to tn
+ care of the Confederate Memorial Literary Sc
ciety, under whose direction it has been mad
t into the Confederate Museum The transfe
= is not sale or gift, but nothing more nor les
than a lease upon the valuable consideration o
a the care and preservation of valuable historical
e property. The Association will merely be place,
/ in custody, as the agent of the city, of a valu
, able relic, to care properly for which it ha
abundantly shown its ability.