The Life of John Marshall, Volume 1: Frontiersman, soldier, lawmaker, 1755-1788

475

Monroe, Bland, and Grayson are the only conspicuous exceptions.

476

Story, in Dillon, iii, 338.

477

This prevalent idea is well stated in one of Mrs. Carrington's unpublished letters. "What sacrifice would not an American, or Virginian (even) at the earliest age have made for so desireable an end – young as I was [twelve years old when the war began] the Word Liberty so continually sounding in my ears seemed to convey an idea of everything that was desirable on earth – true that in attaining it, I was to see every present comfort abandoned; a charming home where peace and prosperous fortune afforded all the elegancies of life, where nature and art united to render our residence delightful, where my ancestors had acquired wealth, and where my parents looked forward to days of ease and comfort, all this was to be given up; but in infancy the love of change is so predominant that we lose sight of consequences and are willing to relinquish present good for the sake of novelty, this was particularly the case with me." (Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy, March, 1809; MS.; and see infra, chap. VIII.)

478

Marshall, i, 355-65.

479

Ib., 422-24.

480

Ib., 425.

481

Marshall, i, 425.

482

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy, 1810; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 546; and same to same, March, 1809; MS. Thomas Marshall was now Colonel of the Virginia State Regiment of Artillery and continued as such until February 26, 1781, when his men were discharged and he became "a reduced officer." (Memorial of Thomas Marshall, supra. See Appendix IV.) This valuable historical document is the only accurate account of Thomas Marshall's military services. It disproves the statement frequently made that he was captured when under Lincoln at Charleston, South Carolina, May 12, 1780. Not only was he commanding the State Artillery in Virginia at that time, but on March 28 he executed a deed in Fauquier County, Virginia, and in June he was assisting the Ambler family in removing to Richmond. (See infra.) If a Thomas Marshall was captured at Charleston, it must have been one of the many others of that name. There was a South Carolina officer named Thomas Marshall and it is probably he to whom Heitman refers. Heitman (ed. 1914), 381. For account of the surrender of Charleston, see McCrady, iii, 507-09.

483

"Certain it is that another Revolutionary War can never happen to affect and ruin a family so completely as ours has been!" It "involved our immediate family in poverty and perplexity of every kind." (Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 545-47.)

484

Ib.

485

Dog Latin and crude pun for "bell in day."

486

Jefferson to Page and to Fleming, from Dec. 25, 1762, to March 20, 1764; Works: Ford, i, 434-52. In these delightful letters Jefferson tells of his infatuation, sometimes writing "Adnileb" in Greek.

"He is a boy and is indisputably in love in this good year 1763, and he courts and sighs and tries to capture his pretty little sweetheart, but like his friend George Washington, fails. The young lady will not be captured!" (Susan Randolph's account of Jefferson's wooing Rebecca Burwell; Green Bag, viii, 481.)

487

Tradition says that George Washington met a like fate at the hands of Edward Ambler, Jacquelin's brother, who won Mary Cary from the young Virginia soldier. While this legend has been exploded, it serves to bring to light the personal attractiveness of the Amblers; for Miss Cary was very beautiful, heiress of a moderate fortune, and much sought after. It was Mary Cary's sister by whom Washington was captivated. (Colonel Wilson Miles Cary, in Pecquet du Bellet, i, 24-25.)

488

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 547. Of the letters which John Marshall wrote home while in the army, not one has been preserved.

489

Ib.

490

Ib.

491

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 547.

492

Hist. Mag., iii, 165. While this article is erroneous as to dates, it is otherwise accurate.

493

Ib., 167.

494

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 547.

495

Hist. Mag., iii, 167.

496

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 547.

497

Supra, chap. II.

498

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 547.

499

"Notes on Virginia": Jefferson; Works: Ford, iv, 65.

500

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; supra. William and Mary was the first American institution of learning to adopt the modern lecture system. (Tyler; Williamsburg, 153.) The lecture method was inaugurated Dec. 29, 1779 (ib., 174-75), only four months before Marshall entered.

501

John Brown to Wm. Preston, Feb. 15, 1780; W. and M. C. Q., ix, 76.

502

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; MS.

503

See infra.

504

The Reverend James Madison, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics; James McClung, Professor of Anatomy and Medicine; Charles Bellini, Professor of Modern Languages; George Wythe, Professor of Law; and Robert Andrews, Professor of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy. (History of William and Mary College, Baltimore, 1870, 70-71.) There was also a fencing school. (John Brown to Wm. Preston, Feb. 15, 1780; W. and M. C. Q., ix, 76.)

505

History of William and Mary College, Baltimore, 1870, 45. "Thirty Students and three professors joined the army at the beginning of the Revolutionary War." (Ib., 41.) Cornwallis occupied Williamsburg, June, 1781, and made the president's house his headquarters. (Tyler: Williamsburg, 168.)

506

Fithian, 107.

507

John Brown to Wm. Preston, Jan. 26, 1780; W. and M. C. Q., ix, 75. Seventeen years later the total cost to a student for a year at the college was one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy dollars. (La Rochefoucauld, iii, 49-56.) The annual salary of the professors was four hundred dollars and that of the president was six hundred dollars.

508

In Marshall's time the college laws provided that "No liquors shall be furnished or used at [the college students'] table except beer, cider, toddy or spirits and water." (History of William and Mary College (Baltimore, 1870), 44; and see Fithian, Feb. 12, 1774, 106-07.)

Twelve years after Marshall took his hasty law course at William and Mary College, a college law was published prohibiting "the drinking of spirituous liquors (except in that moderation which becomes the prudent and industrious student)." (History of William and Mary College, 44.)

In 1769 the Board of Visitors formally resolved that for professors to marry was "contrary to the principles on which the College was founded, and their duty as Professors"; and that if any professor took a wife "his Professorship be immediately vacated." (Resolution of Visitors, Sept. 1, 1769; ib., 45.) This law was disregarded; for, at the time when Marshall attended William and Mary, four out of the five professors were married men.

The college laws on drinking were merely a reflection of the customs of that period. (See chaps. VII and VIII.) This historic institution of learning turned out some of the ablest and best-educated men of the whole country. Wythe, Bland, Peyton and Edmund Randolph, Taylor of Caroline, Nicholas, Pendleton, Madison, and Jefferson are a few of the William and Mary's remarkable products. Every one of the most distinguished families of Virginia is found among her alumni. (See Catalogue of Alumni, History of William and Mary College, 73-147. An error in this list puts John Marshall in the class of 1775 instead of that of 1780; also, he did not graduate.)

509

Infra, chap. VII.

510

La Rochefoucauld, iii, 49; and see Schoepf, ii, 79-80.

William Wirt, writing twenty-three years after Marshall's short attendance, thus describes the college: "They [Virginians] have only one publick seminary of learning… This college … in the niggardly spirit of parsimony which they dignify with the name of economy, these democrats have endowed with a few despicable fragments of surveyors' fees &c. thus converting their national academy into a mere lazaretto and feeding its … highly respectable professors, like a band of beggars, on the scraps and crumbs that fall from the financial table. And, then, instead of aiding and energizing the police of the college, by a few civil regulations, they permit their youth to run riot in all the wildness of dissipation." (Wirt: The British Spy, 131, 132.)

511

"Notes on Virginia": Jefferson; Works: Ford, iv, 69.

512

Chastellux, 299. It is difficult to reconcile Jefferson's description of the college building with that of the French traveler. Possibly the latter was influenced by the French professor, Bellini.

513

John Brown to Col. Wm. Preston, July 6, 1780: W. and M. C. Q., ix, 80.

514

John Brown to Col. Wm. Preston, July 6, 1780; W. and M. C. Q., ix, 80.

515

Records, Phi Beta Kappa Society of William and Mary College, printed in W. and M. C. Q., iv, 236.

516

Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, now President of William and Mary College, thinks that this date is approximately correct.

517

Records, Phi Beta Kappa Society of William and Mary College; printed in, W. and M. C. Q., iv, 236.

518

See infra.

519

Marshall's Notebook; MS. See infra.

520

Betsy Ambler to Mildred Smith, 1780; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 536.

521

See infra.

522

Marshall to his wife, infra.

523

Marshall could have had at least one year at William and Mary, for the college did not close until June, 1781. Also he could have continued to attend for several weeks after he left in June, 1780; for student John Brown's letters show that the college was still open on July 20 of that year.

524

County Court Minutes of Fauquier County, Virginia, 1773-80, 473.

525

Autobiography.

526

Marshall, with other officers, did go to Philadelphia in January or February of 1777 to be inoculated for smallpox (Marshall to Colonel Stark, June 12, 1832, supporting latter's pension claim; MSS. Rev. War, S. F. no. 7592, Pension Bureau); but evidently he was not treated or the treatment was not effective.

527

First, the written permission to be inoculated had to be secured from all the justices of the county; next, all the neighbors for two miles around must consent – if only one of them refused, the treatment could not be given. Any physician was fined ten thousand dollars, if he inoculated without these restrictions. (Hening, ix, 371.) If any one was stricken with smallpox, he was carried to a remote cabin in the woods where a doctor occasionally called upon him. (La Rochefoucauld, iii, 79-80; also De Warville, 433.)

528

Horses were very scarce in Virginia at this time. It was almost impossible to get them even for military service.

529

Southern Literary Messenger (quoting from a statement by Marshall), ii, 183.

530

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 547.

531

Ib., 548. A story handed down through generations of lawyers confirms Mrs. Carrington. "I would have had my wife if I had had to climb Alleghanys of skulls and swim Atlantics of blood" the legend makes Marshall say in one of his convivial outbursts. (The late Senator Joseph E. McDonald to the author.)

532

"The Palace" was a public building "not handsome without but … spacious and commodious within and prettily situated." ("Notes on Virginia": Jefferson; Works: Ford, iv, 69.)

533

Richard Anderson, the father of the defender of Fort Sumter. (Terhune: Colonial Homesteads, 97.)

534

A country place of Edward Ambler's family in Hanover County. (See Pecquet du Bellet, i, 35.) Edward Ambler was now dead. His wife lived at "The Cottage" from the outbreak of the war until her death in 1781. (Ib., 26; and Mrs. Carrington to Mrs. Dudley, Oct. 10, 1796; MS.)

535

Marshall to his wife, Feb. 23, 1826; MS.

536

Most of the courts were closed because of the British invasion. (Flanders, ii, 301.)

537

Infra, chap. VI.

538

Autobiography.