The sun., 1916-12-10
SOME NEW BOOKS.
Ex Senator Bcseridge's Life Of John
Marshall.

Marshall.
Volumes I. and III. Of The Life o.
John Marshall, by ALBERT J. BEvER-
Dos (IIoughton Mifiin) carry the
work to 1901 and the appointment OF
Marshall to the Chief Justiceship OF
the Supreme Court Of the United
States OF America. Mr.. Beveridge Is
kind to his readers: he explains o n
alterations which moved him to the
composition Of so detailed and *
pansive a biography. Such a declara.
ton establishes Immediately the foot
ing on which author and reader are to
be associated.
The biographer thinks less is known
Of Marshall than OF any Of the other
great builders OF the republic, and that
what Americans do know OF him has
come through such exalted, IL vague.
encomium'' that he has become "a kind
Of mythical being, endowed with vir-
tues and wisdom not OF this earth"
He appears ~ us as a gigantic figure
looming indistinc.ly out Of the mists Of
the past: Impressive. yet lacking
vitality" But mo man in our his
tory was more intensely human than
John Marshall, and few had careers so
full Of movement and color" This
one thing Mr.. Beveridge has set out
to DO, and this one thing he does: to
make John Marshall. frontiersman,
soldier In ths Revolution. lawyer and
lawmaker. politician. diplomatist and
statesman and Chief Justice. intelli-
gible to the Americans OF this day and
generation.
We are inclined TO believe that Mr..
Beveridge might have made his Mar
shall' twice as good in half the
space. arbitrary though such an as
sertion must be. and painful to the
honest pride Of an author who has
shirked no labor Of research and has
composed out Of his conscience. There
10 hardly q page in these volumes but
has the quality which makes US in
easy speech call print readable" and
brevity would have been attained only
at the sacrifice of good matter; as. by
way Of specific exemplification. in the
long chapter on Valley Forge. But
Just there comes the test. What We
mean to assert Is that where. by the
inclusive system. all may be good. n
severe ~self-editing would reap an
abundant reward In the enhanced value
Of what survives the system.
We have mentioned the chapter. the
fourth of Volume l., on the Valley
Forge winter as dispensable in the
interest OF comparative brevity in
days when long books take more time
foe the reading than many but the
leisured scholarly a find for II; and
that chapter Illustrates both sides OF
the argument. This side We have
taken because Marshall's army expe-
riences may be made to stand out as
wildly with a paragraph refreshing
the common. sufficiently picturesque
notion Of the sufYerings Of that winter
encampment as by a score or two Of
pages reciting particulars. The other
side. because the recital throws into
such clear relief the contrast between
Washington's soldier patriotism. which
was an agency In the moulding Of
Marshall's character. and the political
activities Of Jefferson. at home in Vir-
gtnia, after resigning the seat In Con-
gress to which he had been reelected.
In a letter to Pendleton. July. 1876.
Jefferson named the situation OF my
domestic affairs as the consideration
that made it "indispensably neces-
sary" that he should solicit the sub
atitufinn nf Snp,a athar parSnn Ttlf
his domestic affairs did not keep him
out OF the State Legislature and from
sowing the seeds OF liberalism In
the State. as this Progressive Republi-
can author expresses 1t. at Is only
human nature" says the biographer.
that breasts bearing the storm OF wal
should not have thrilled in admiration
OF this civil h~usbandry."
Our concern Is not here with the mo-
tives and political morals OF the father
Of the Democratic party. II Is with the
bearing OF the matter upon the convic-
lions influencing the conduct Of John
Marshall, and even then upon that
matter as illustrating Mr.. Beveridge's
method In making us see John Mar
shall grow. He says: Just as to John
Marshalls army experience the roots
OF the greatest OF his constitutional
opinions may clearly he traced. so the
beginnings Of his personal estimate OF
Thomas jefferson may he as plainly
found in their relative situations and
conduct during the same period" The
second volume ends with Adams's APP
pofntments, the very night before JEFF
ferson's inauguration. TO judicial posi-
t!ons-with the Senate sitting late to
confirm the appointments as fast as
they were made and Marshall signing
h commissions. until, as fable has il.
at the stroke OF midnight Levi Lincoln,
holding Jefferson's watch in his hand,
babe Marshall "lay down his nefarious
pen" tSee Parton's "Jefferson.'D
But now to matters less partisan.
The cream OF the forty pages on "Val-
ley Forge n After Is it's conclusion
as 10 h effect Of those hard cam
paigns in Pennsylvania and at Mon
mouth on Marshalls political mind. II
was his experience. says Mr.. Bcveridge,
on the march, in camp and on the field
OF battle that taught John Marshall
tho primary lesson OF the necessity OF
Efficient government The Govern
ment that failed to shoe and clothe the
patriot army and to keep its belly filed
was not efficient. also his military
life developed his real temperament,
which was essentially conservatives"
He went I'm a frontier i~ndividualist,"
thinking only OF driving the invader
back across the sea and leaving Amer