The Life of John Marshall, Volume 3: Conflict and construction, 1800-1815

His violent and fearless opposition to British rule and officials made young Chase so popular that he was elected as one of the five Maryland delegates to the first Continental Congress that assembled during the winter of 1774. He was reëlected the following year, and was foremost in urging the measures of armed defense that ended in the appointment of Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces. Disregarding the instructions of his State, Chase hotly championed the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and was one of the signers of that document.

On the floor of Congress he denounced a member as a traitor – one Zubly, a Georgia parson – who in terror fled the country. Chase continued in the Continental Congress until 1778 and was appointed a member of almost every important committee of that body. He became the leader of his profession in Maryland, was appointed Chief Justice of the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and elected a member of the Maryland Convention, called to ratify the National Constitution. Thereafter, he was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. In 1796, President Washington appointed Chase as Associate Justice of the National Supreme Court of which he was conceded to be one of the ablest members. (Dwight, 245-52.)

509

See Plumer to his brother, Feb. 25, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.

510

Maryland Historical Society Fund-Publication No. 24, p. 20. Burr told Key that "he must not appear as counsel with his loose coat on." (Plumer, Feb. 11, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

511

Adams: U.S. ii, 227-28. Bayard strongly urged Chase to have no counsel, but to defend himself. (Bayard to Harper, Jan. 30, 1804, Bayard Papers: Donnan, 159-60.)

512

See Story's description of Martin three years later, Story to Fay, Feb. 16, 1808, Story, i, 163-64.

Luther Martin well illustrates the fleeting nature of the fame of even the greatest lawyers. For two generations he was "an acknowledged leader of the American bar," and his preëminence in that noble profession was brightened by fine public service. Yet within a few years after his death, he was totally forgotten, and to-day few except historical students know that such a man ever lived.

Martin began his practice of the law when twenty-three years of age and his success was immediate and tremendous. His legal learning was prodigious – his memory phenomenal.

Apparently, Martin was the heaviest drinker of that period of heavy drinking men. The inexplicable feature of his continuous excesses was that his mighty drinking seldom appeared to affect his professional efficiency. Only once in his long and active career did intoxication interfere with his work in court. (See infra, 586.)

Passionate in his loves and hates, he abhorred Jefferson with all the ardor of his violent nature; and his favorite denunciation of any bad man was, "Sir! he is as great a scoundrel as Thomas Jefferson."

For thirty years Martin was the Attorney-General of Maryland. He was the most powerful member of his State in the Convention that framed the National Constitution which he refused to sign, opposing the ratification of it in arguments of such signal ability that forty years afterward John C. Calhoun quarried from them the material for his famous Nullification speeches.

When, however, the Constitution was ratified and became the supreme law of the land, Martin, with characteristic wholeheartedness, supported it loyally and championed the Administrations of Washington and Adams.

He was the lifelong friend of the impeached justice, to whom he owed his first appointment as Attorney-General of Maryland as well as great assistance and encouragement in the beginning of his career. Chase and he were also boon companions, each filled with admiration for the talents and attainments of the other, and strikingly similar in their courage and fidelity to friends and principles. So the lawyer threw himself into the fight for the persecuted judge with all his astonishing strength.

When, in his old age, he was stricken with paralysis, the Maryland Legislature placed a tax of five dollars annually on all lawyers for his support. After Martin's death the bench and bar of Baltimore passed a resolution that "we will wear mourning for the space of thirty days." (American Law Review, i, 279.)

No biography of Martin has ever been written; but there are two excellent sketches of his life, one by Ashley M. Gould in Great American Lawyers: Lewis, ii, 3-46; and the other by Henry P. Goddard in the Md. Hist. Soc. Fund. Pub. No. 24.

513

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 160-61. The case to which Randolph refers was that of the United States vs. Thomas Logwood, indicted in April, 1801, for counterfeiting. Logwood was tried in the United States Circuit Court at Richmond during June, 1804. Marshall, sitting with District Judge Cyrus Griffin, presided. Notwithstanding Marshall's liberality, Logwood was convicted and Marshall sentenced him to ten years' imprisonment at hard labor. (Order Book No. 4, 464, Records, U.S. Circuit Court, Richmond.)

514

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 163-65; Chase Trial, 18. Randolph disgusted the Federalists. "This speech is the most feeble – the most incorrect that I ever heard him make." (Plumer, Feb. 9, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

515

Two witnesses to the Baltimore incident, George Reed and John Montgomery, committed their testimony to memory as much "as ever a Presbyterian clergyman did his sermon – or an Episcopalian his prayer." (Plumer, Feb. 14, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

516

See supra, chap. i.

517

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 203-05; Chase Trial, 36-37.

518

Plumer, Feb. 11, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.

519

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 200; Chase Trial, 35.

520

See supra, chap. i.

521

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 207. John Quincy Adams's description of all of the evidence is important and entertaining:

"Not only the casual expressions dropped in private conversations among friends and intimates, as well as strangers and adversaries, in the recess of a bed-chamber as well as at public taverns and in stage coaches, had been carefully and malignantly laid up and preserved for testimony on this prosecution; not only more witnesses examined to points of opinion, and called upon for discrimination to such a degree as to say whether the deportment of the Judge was imperative or imperious, but hours of interrogation and answer were consumed in evidence to looks, to bows, to tones of voice and modes of speech – to prove the insufferable grievance that Mr. Chase had more than once raised a laugh at the expense of Callender's counsel, and to ascertain the tremendous fact that he had accosted the Attorney General of Virginia by the appellation of Young Gentleman!!

"If by thumbscrews, the memory of a witness trace back for a period of five years the features of the Judge's face, it could be darkened with a frown, it was to be construed into rude and contumelious treatment of the Virginia bar; if it was found lightened with a smile, 'tyrants in all ages had been notorious for their pleasantry.'

"In short, sir, Gravity himself could not keep his countenance at the nauseating littlenesses which were resorted to for proof of atrocious criminality, and indignation melted into ridicule at the puerile perseverance with which nothings were accumulated, with the hope of making something by their multitude.

"All this, however, was received because Judge Chase would not suffer his counsel to object against it. He indulged his accusers with the utmost licence of investigation which they ever derived [sic], and contented himself with observing to the court that he expected to be judged upon the legal evidence in the case." (J. Q. Adams to his father, March 8, 1805, Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, iii, 112-13.)

522

This was the fourth member of the Marshall family upon whom offices were bestowed while Marshall was Secretary of State. (See vol. ii, 560, of this work.)

523

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 251-62; Chase Trial, 65-69. "I was unable to give credence to his [Heath's] testimony." (Plumer, Feb. 12, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.) Although Heath's story was entirely false, it has, nevertheless, found a place in serious history.

Marshall's brother made an excellent impression on the Senate. "His answers were both prompt & lucid – There was a frankness, a fairness & I will add a firmness that did him much credit. His testimony was [on certain points] … a complete defense of the accused." (Ib. Feb. 15, 1805.)

524

Harvie's son, Jacquelin B. Harvie, married Marshall's daughter Mary. (Paxton: Marshall Family, 100.)

525

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 262-67; Chase Trial, 71.

526

Plumer, Feb. 16, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.

527

Feb. 19, 1805, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 354.

Chase did not leave Washington, and was in court when some of the arguments were made. (See Chase to Hopkinson, March 10, 1805; Hopkinson MSS. in possession of Edward P. Hopkinson, Phila.)

528

Feb. 13, 1805, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 351.

529

Ib. The motion to admit the public was carried by one vote only. (Plumer, Feb. 13, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

530

Feb. 13, 1805, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 353.

531

Feb. 20, 1805, ib. 355.

532

Cutler, ii, 183; also Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 313-29; Chase Trial, 101-07.

533

Plumer, Feb. 20, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.

534

Cutler, ii, 183.

535

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 329-53; Chase Trial, 107 et seq.

536

Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 355-56.

537

Plumer, Feb. 21, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.

538

Adams: U.S. ii, 231. Even Randolph praised him. (Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 640.)

539

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 354-94; Chase Trial, 116-49.

540

Feb. 21, 1805, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 356.

"The effect on the auditory [was] prodigiously great." (Cutler, ii, 184.)

"His argument … was one of the most able … I ever heard." (Plumer, Feb. 21, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

541

Feb. 22, 1805, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 356.

542

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 394-413; see also Chase Trial, 149-62; and Cutler, ii, 184.

543

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 413-29; Chase Trial, 162-72.

544

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 429-82; Chase Trial, 173 et seq.

545

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 483.

546

Ib. 484-87.

547

See résumé of Franklin's indictment of the press in vol. i, 268-69, of this work.

548

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 488; Chase Trial, *223.

549

"Mr. Martin really possesses much legal information & a great fund of good humour, keen satire & poignant wit … he certainly has talents." (Plumer, Feb. 23, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

550

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 489; Chase Trial, *224.