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

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.

551

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 556; Chase Trial, *205-44.

552

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 560-62; Chase Trial, 237 et seq.

553

See Jefferson to Hay, infra, chap. viii.

554

See infra, chap. x.

555

Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 358.

556

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 582; Chase Trial, 237-43.

557

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 583.

This was an under-statement of the facts; for the first time the celebration of Washington's birthday was abandoned in the National Capital. (Plumer, 326.) Plumer says that this was done because the celebration might hurt Chase, "for there are senators who for the veriest trifles may be brought to vote against him." (Feb. 22, 1805, "Congress," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

558

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 583-84; Chase Trial, 243-56.

559

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 585-87.

560

Rodney here refers to the Republican allegation that Chase tried to secure appointment as Chief Justice by flattering Adams through charges to juries, rulings in court, and speeches on the stump.

561

John Jay to England and Oliver Ellsworth to France. (See vol. ii, 113, 502, of this work.)

562

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 587-89.

563

Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 359.

564

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 583-641; Chase Trial, 243-56.

565

Cutler announced it as "an outrageous, infuriated declamation, which might have done honor to Marat, or Robespierre." (Cutler, ii, 184.)

566

Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 359.

567

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 642; Chase Trial, 256.

568

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 644; Chase Trial, 257.

569

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 644-45; Chase Trial, 258.

570

See infra, chap. x.

571

See supra, 196.

572

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 651-52; Chase Trial, 266.

573

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 641-62. John Quincy Adams notes in his diary that Randolph spoke for more than two hours "with as little relation to the subject matter as possible – without order, connection, or argument; consisting altogether of the most hackneyed commonplaces of popular declamation." Throughout, records Adams, there was "much distortion of face and contortion of body, tears, groans and sobs." (Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 359.)

"His speech … was devoid of argument, method or consistency – but was replete with invective & even vulgarity… I never heard him deliver such a weak feeble & deranged harangue." (Plumer to his wife, Feb. 28, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

"After he sat down – he threw his feet upon the table – distorted his features & assumed an appearance as disgusting as his harangue." (Plumer, Feb. 27, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

574

See supra, chaps. ii and iii; infra, chap. vi, and vol. iv, chap. i.

575

"There was a vast concourse of people … and great solemnity." (Cutler to Torrey, March 1, 1805, Cutler, ii, 193.) "The galleries were crowded – many ladies. I never witnessed so general & so deep an anxiety." (Plumer to his wife, March 1, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

576

Plumer, 323.

577

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 665-69; Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 362-63.

578

Ib. 363.

579

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 669. By this time Burr had changed to admiration the disapproval with which the Federalist Senators had, at first, regarded his conduct of the trial. "Mr. Burr has certainly, on the whole, done himself, the Senate, and the Nation honor by the dignified manner in which he has presided over this high and numerous court," testifies Senator Plumer, notwithstanding his deep prejudice against Burr. (Plumer, March 1, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

580

See Adams: U.S. ii, 243.

581

See Plumer, 324; Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 371; Adams: John Randolph, 131-32, 152; Channing: Jeff. System, 120; Adams: U.S. ii, 243.

582

Plumer here adds six years to Chase's age – an unusual inaccuracy in the diary of that born newspaper reporter.

583

Plumer to his son, March 3, 1805, Plumer, 325.

584

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 1213; and see Annual Report, Am. Hist. Assn. 1896, ii, 64; also Adams: U.S. ii, 240.

585

Cutler, ii, 185.

586

Annals, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 1213; and see J. Q. Adams to his father, March 14, 1805, Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, iii, 117.

587

Jan. 30, 1805, Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 341.

588

See Adams: U.S. ii, 243.

589

See infra, chap. x.

590

Plumer, 325. Jefferson soon took Plumer into the Republican fold.

591

See vol. ii, 210-12, of this work.

592

See infra; also vol. ii, 211, of this work.

593

Marshall to James M. Marshall, April 1, 1804. MS.

594

Marshall to Peters, Oct. 12, 1815, Peters MSS. Pa. Hist. Soc.

595

Several persons were ambitious to write the life of Washington. David Ramsay and Mason Locke Weems had already done so. Noah Webster was especially keen to undertake the task, and it was unfortunate that he was not chosen to do it.

596

Washington to Wayne, April 11, 1800, Dreer MSS. Pa. Hist. Soc.

597

Ib.

598

Bushrod Washington to Wayne, Dec. 11, 1801, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

599

Wayne to Bushrod Washington, Dec. 10, 1801, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

600

Bushrod Washington to Wayne, Dec. 11, 1801, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

601

The division was to be equal between Marshall and Washington.

602

Bushrod Washington to Wayne, Dec. 11, 1801, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

603

"Articles of Agreement" between C. P. Wayne and Bushrod Washington, Sept. 22, 1802. (Dreer MSS. loc. cit.) Marshall's name does not appear in the contract, Washington having attended to all purely business details of the transaction.

604

Wayne to Bushrod Washington, May 16, 1802, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

605

Jefferson to Barlow, May 3, 1802, Works: Ford, ix, 372.

606

The "Anas," Works: Ford, i, 163-430, see infra. The "Anas" was Jefferson's posthumous defense. It was arranged for publication as early as 1818, but was not given to the public until after his death. It first appeared in the edition of Jefferson's works edited by his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. "It is the most precious mélange of all sorts of scandals you ever read." (Story to Fay, Feb. 5, 1830, Story, ii, 33.)

607

Bushrod Washington to Wayne, Nov. 19, 1802, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

608

Wayne to Marshall, Feb. 17, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

609

Weems is one of the most entertaining characters in American history. He was born in Maryland, and was one of a family of nineteen children. He was educated in London as a physician, but abandoned medicine for the Church, and served for several years as rector of two or three little Episcopal churches in Maryland and ministered occasionally at Pohick Church, in Truro Parish (sometimes called Mount Vernon Parish), Virginia. In this devout occupation he could not earn enough to support his very large family. So he became a professional book agent – the greatest, perhaps, of that useful fraternity.

On horseback he went wherever it seemed possible to sell a book, his samples in his saddlebags. He was a natural orator, a born entertainer, an expert violinist; and these gifts he turned to good account in his book-selling activities.

If a political meeting was to be held near any place he happened upon, Weems would hurry to it, make a speech, and advertise his wares. A religious gathering was his joy; there he would preach and exhort – and sell books. Did young people assemble for merrymaking, Weems was in his element, and played the fiddle for the dancing. If he arrived at the capital of a State when the Legislature was in session, he would contrive to be invited to address the Solons – and procure their subscriptions.

610

Weems probably knew more of the real life of the country, from Pennsylvania southward, than any other one man; and he thoroughly understood American tastes and characteristics. To this is due the unparalleled success of his Life of Washington. In addition to this absurd but engaging book, Weems wrote the Life of Gen. Francis Marion (1805); the Life of Benjamin Franklin (1817); and the Life of William Penn (1819). He was also the author of several temperance pamphlets, the most popular of which was the Drunkard's Looking Glass. Weems died in 1825.

Weems's Life of Washington still enjoys a good sale. It has been one of the most widely purchased and read books in our history, and has profoundly influenced the American conception of Washington. To it we owe the grotesque and wholly imaginary stories of young Washington and the cherry tree, the planting of lettuce by his father to prove to the boy the designs of Providence, and other anecdotes that make that intensely human founder of the American Nation an impossible and intolerable prig.

The only biography of Weems is Parson Weems, by Lawrence C. Wroth, a mere sketch, but trustworthy and entertaining.

611

Weems to Wayne, Dec. 10, 1802, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

612

Same to same, Dec. 14, 1802, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

613

Weems to Wayne, Dec. 17, 1802, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

614

Same to same, Dec. 22, 1802, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

615

Same to same, April 2, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

616

Wayne to Bushrod Washington, Jan. 23, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

617

Weems to Wayne, April 8, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

618

Same to same, April 18, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

619

Bushrod Washington, like the other Federalists, would not call his political opponents by their true party name, Republicans: he styled them "democrats," the most opprobrious term the Federalists could then think of, excepting only the word "Jacobins." (See vol. ii, 439, of this work.)

620

Washington to Wayne, March 1, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

621

Same to same. March 23, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

622

Wayne to Washington, Oct. 23, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

An interesting sidelight on the commercial methods of the times is displayed by a circular which Wayne sent to his agents calling for money from subscribers to Marshall's Life of Washington: "The remittance may be made through the Post Office, and should any danger be apprehended, you can cut a Bank note in two parts and send each by separate mails." (Wayne's Circular, Feb. 17, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.)

623

This list was published in the first edition. It is a good directory of the most prominent Federalists and of the leading Republican politicians of the time. "T. Jefferson, P.U.S." and each member of his Cabinet subscribed; Marshall himself was a subscriber for his own book, and John C. Calhoun, a student at Yale College at the time, was another. In the cities most of the lawyers took Marshall's book.

624

Wayne to Bushrod Washington, Nov. 3, 1803, Dreer MSS. loc. cit.

It would seem from this letter that Marshall and Washington had reduced their lump cash price from $100,000 to $70,000. In stating his expenses, Wayne says that the painter "Gilbert Stuart demanded a handsome sum for the privilege of Engraving from his Original" portrait of Washington.