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

462

Wayne to Delaney, July 15, 1779; Dawson, 46-47.

463

The generous and even kindly treatment which the Americans accorded the vanquished British is in striking contrast with the latter's treatment of Americans under similar circumstances. When the fort was taken, the British cried, "Mercy, mercy, dear, dear Americans," and not a man was injured by the victors after he ceased to resist. (Dawson, 53; and Marshall, i, 311.)

464

The fort was captured so quickly that the detachment to which Marshall was assigned had no opportunity to advance.

465

Marshall, i, 314.

466

Ib., 314-16.

467

The rolls show Marshall in active service as captain until December 9, 1779. (Records, War Dept.) He retired from the service February 12, 1781. (Heitman, 285.)

468

Binney, in Dillon, iii, 290. There often were more officers of a State line than there were men to be officered; this was caused by expiring enlistments of regiments.

469

Tucker, i, 136.

470

Marshall, i, 418.

471

Ib., 139.

472

Marshall, i, 419; Binney, in Dillon, iii, 290.

473

Even the frightened Virginia women were ashamed. "Such terror and confusion you have no idea of. Governor, Council, everybody scampering… How dreadful the idea of an enemy passing through such a country as ours committing enormities that fill the mind with horror and returning exultantly without meeting one impediment to discourage them." (Eliza Ambler to Mildred Smith, 1781 MS. Also Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 538-39.) Miss Ambler was amused, too, it seems. She humorously describes a boastful man's precipitate flight and adds: "But this is not more laughable than the accounts we have of our illustrious G-[overno] – r [Jefferson] who, they say, took neither rest nor food for man or horse till he reached C-[arte] – r's mountain." (Ib.) This letter, as it appears in the Atlantic Monthly, differs slightly from the manuscript, which has been followed in this note.

These letters were written while the laughing young Tarleton was riding after the flying Virginia Government, of which Eliza Ambler's father was a part. They throw peculiar light on the opinions of Marshall, who at that time was in love with this lady's sister, whom he married two years later. (See infra, chap. v.)

474

An inquiry into Jefferson's conduct was formally moved in the Virginia Legislature. But the matter was not pressed and the next year the Legislature passed a resolution of thanks for Jefferson's "impartial, upright, and attentive Administration." (See Eckenrode's thorough treatment of the subject in his Revolution in Virginia, chap. vii. And see Tucker, i, 149-56, for able defense of Jefferson; and Dodd, 63-64; also Ambler, 37.)

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.

539

Betsy Ambler to Mildred Smith, 1780; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 537.

540

Betsy Ambler to Mildred Smith, 1780; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 537.

541

Jefferson to Short, Dec. 14, 1788; Works: Ford, vi, 24. Twelve years after Marshall's marriage, there were but seven hundred houses in Richmond. (Weld, i, 188.)

542

Pecquet du Bellet, i, 35-37. He was very rich. (See inventory of John Ambler's holdings, ib.) This opulent John Ambler married John Marshall's sister Lucy in 1792 (ib., 40-41); a circumstance of some interest when we come to trace Marshall's views as influenced by his connections and sympathies.

543

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 548.

544

She was born March 18, 1766, and married January 3, 1783. (Paxton, 37.) Marshall's mother was married at the same age.

545

Mrs. Carrington to her sister Nancy; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 548.

546

Thomas Marshall's will shows that he owned, when he died, several years later, an immense quantity of land.

547

Supra, chap. II.

548

Fauquier County Tithable Book, 1783-84; MS., Va. St. Lib.

549

Ib.

550

See infra.

551

Washington to Lund Washington, Aug. 15, 1778; Writings: Ford, vii, 151-52.

552

Records of Fauquier County (Va.), Deed Book, vii, 533.

553

Supra, chap. II.

554

See infra, chap. VIII.

555

Marshall to Monroe, Dec. 28, 1784; Monroe MSS., vii, 832; Lib. Cong.

556

Marshall, ii, 104.

557

Marshall to Monroe, Dec. 12, 1783; Draper Collection, Wis. Hist. Soc. Thomas Marshall first went to Kentucky in 1780 by special permission of the Governor of Virginia and while he was still Colonel of the State Artillery Regiment. (Humphrey Marshall, i, 104, 120.) During his absence his regiment apparently became somewhat demoralized. (Thomas Marshall to Colonel George Muter, Feb. 1781; MS. Archives, Va. St. Lib. and partly printed in Cal. Va. St. Prs., i, 549.) Upon his return to Virginia, he was appointed Surveyor of a part of Kentucky, November 1, 1780. (Collins: History of Kentucky, i, 20.) The following year he was appointed on the commission "to examine and settle the Public Accts in the Western Country" and expected to go to Kentucky before the close of the year, but did not, because his military certificates were not given him in time. (Thomas Marshall to Governor Harrison, March 17, 1781; Cal. Va. St. Prs., i, 578; and to Lieutenant-Governor Jameson, Oct. 14, 1781; ib., 549.) He opened his surveyor's office in Kentucky in November, 1782. (Butler: History of Kentucky, 138.) In 1783 he returned to Virginia to take his family to their new home, where he remained until his death in 1802. (Paxton, 19.) Thomas Marshall was immediately recognized as one of the leading men in this western Virginia district, and was elected to the Legislature and became "Surveyor [Collector] of Revenue for the District of Ohio." (See infra, chaps, III and V.)

558

Betsy Ambler to Mildred Smith; Atlantic Monthly, lxxxiv, 537.

559

Mrs. Carrington to Mildred Smith, Jan. 10, 1786; MS.

560

Mordecai, 45-47.

561

Ib., 40.

562

Mordecai, chap. ii.

563

Ib., 51-52. This was more than twenty years after Marshall and his young wife started housekeeping in Richmond.

564

Ib., 53.

565

Ib.

566

Meade, i, 140; Schoepf, ii, 62.

567

Mordecai, chap, xxi; Schoepf, ii, 63 et seq.

568

See supra, chaps. I and VII.

569

Schoepf, ii, 64. Marshall frequented this place and belonged to a club which met there. (See entries from Marshall's Account Book, infra.)

570

Supra, chap. II.

571

This invaluable Marshall source is not a law student's commonplace book alphabetically arranged, but merely a large volume of blank leaves. It is six inches wide by eight in length and more than one in thickness. The book also contains Marshall's accounts for twelve years after his marriage. All reference hereafter to his receipts and expenses are from this source.

572

The notes are not only of lectures actually delivered by Wythe, but of Marshall's reading on topics assigned for study. It is probable that many of these notes were made after Marshall left college.

573

See infra, chap. VI.

574

Such entries as these denote only Marshall's social and friendly spirit. At that period and for many years afterward card-playing for money was universal in Virginia (La Rochefoucauld, iii, 77; and Mordecai, ed. 1856, chap. xxi), particularly at Richmond, where the women enjoyed this pastime quite as much as the men. (Ib.) This, indeed, was the case everywhere among women of the best society who habitually played cards for money. (Also see Chastellux, 333-34.)

575

Marshall's wife.

576

The references are to pounds, shillings, and pence. Thus "3 14/" means three pounds and fourteen shillings. "30-5-10" means thirty pounds, five shillings, and tenpence; or "3/6" means three shillings, sixpence. Where the Account Book indicates the amount without the signs of denomination, I have stated the amount indicated by the relative positions of the figures in the Account Book. Computation should be by Virginia currency (which was then about three and one half dollars to the Virginia pound) and not by the English pound sterling. This is not very helpful, however, because there is no standard of comparison between the Virginia dollar of that period and the United States dollar of to-day. It is certain only that the latter has greater purchasing power than the former. All paper money had greatly depreciated at the time, however.