The Life of John Marshall
Chapter 112 : [1054] Adams: _Gallatin_, 232.[1055] United States _vs._ Nash _alias_ Robins, Bee'

[1054] Adams: _Gallatin_, 232.

[1055] United States _vs._ Nash _alias_ Robins, Bee's _Reports_, 266.

[1056] Jefferson to Charles Pinckney, Oct. 29, 1799; _Works_: Ford, ix, 87.

[1057] _Aurora_, Feb. 12, 1800.

[1058] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 511.

[1059] _Ib._, 515-18. Nash himself confessed before his execution that he was a British subject as claimed by the British authorities and as shown by the books of the s.h.i.+p Hermione.

[1060] _Ib._, 526.

[1061] The Republicans, however, still continued to urge this falsehood before the people and it was generally believed to be true.

[1062] _Annals_, 6th Congress, 1st Sess., 532-33.

[1063] _Ib._, 541-47.

[1064] _Ib._, 548.

[1065] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 558.

[1066] This, in fact, was the case.

[1067] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 565.

[1068] Marshall to James M. Marshall, Feb. 28, 1800; MS.

[1069] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 595-96.

[1070] Pickering to James Winchester, March 17, 1800; Pickering MSS., Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc. Also Binney, in Dillon, iii, 312.

[1071] See Moore: _American Eloquence_, ii, 20-23. The speech also appears in full in _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 596-619; in Benton: _Abridgment of the Debates of Congress_; in Bee's _Reports_, 266; and in the Appendix to Wharton: _State Trials_, 443.

[1072] Pickering to Hamilton, March 10, 1800; Pickering MSS., Ma.s.s.

Hist. Soc.

[1073] _Aurora_, March 10, 1800.

[1074] _Aurora_, March 14, 1800.

[1075] Marshall's speech on the Robins case shows some study, but not so much as the florid encomium of Story indicates. The speeches of Bayard, Gallatin, Nicholas, and others display evidence of much more research than that of Marshall, who briefly refers to only two authorities.

[1076] Story, in Dillon, iii, 357-58.

[1077] Grigsby, i, 177; Adams: _Gallatin_, 232.

[1078] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 619.

[1079] Jefferson to Madison, March 8, 1800; _Works_: Ford, ix, 121. In sending the speeches on both sides to his brother, Levin Powell, a Virginia Federalist Representative, says: "When you get to Marshall's it will be worth a perusal." (Levin Powell to Major Burr Powell, March 26, 1800; _Branch Historical Papers_, ii, 241.)

[1080] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 247-50.

[1081] _Ib._, 252.

[1082] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 253-54.

[1083] _Ib._

[1084] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 254, 255.

[1085] Marshall to Dabney, Jan. 20, 1800; MS. Colonel Charles Dabney of Virginia was commander of "Dabney's Legion" in the Revolution. He was an ardent Federalist and a close personal and political friend of Marshall.

[1086] _Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., 395-96.

[1087] _Ib._, 191.

[1088] _Ib._, 247.

[1089] _Ib._, 126; see law as pa.s.sed, 1452-71.

[1090] Sedgwick to King, May 11, 1800; King, iii, 236.

[1091] The act requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to lay before Congress at each session a report of financial conditions with his recommendations. (_Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, 1523.) The Speaker thought this law important because it "will give splendor to the officer [Secretary of the Treasury] and respectability to the Executive Department of the Govt." (Sedgwick to King, _supra_.) Yet the session pa.s.sed several very important laws, among them the act accepting the cession of the Western Reserve (_Annals_, 6th Cong., 1st Sess., Appendix, 1495-98) and the act prohibiting American citizens "or other persons residing within the United States" to engage in the slave trade between foreign countries (_ib._, 1511-14.)

[1092] Sedgwick to King, May 11, 1800; King, iii, 237.

CHAPTER XII

CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES

I consider General Marshall as more than a secretary--as a state conservator. (Oliver Wolcott.)

To Mr. Jefferson I have felt insuperable objections. The morals of the author of the letter to Mazzei cannot be pure. (Marshall.)

You have given an opinion in exact conformity with the wishes of your party. Come forward and defend it. (George Hay to Marshall.)

"The P. requests Mr. McHenry's company for one minute," wrote President Adams to his Secretary of War on the morning of May 5, 1800.[1093] The unsuspicious McHenry at once responded. The President mentioned an unimportant departmental matter; and then, suddenly flying into a rage, abused his astounded Cabinet adviser in "outrageous"[1094] fas.h.i.+on and finally demanded his resignation.[1095] The meek McHenry resigned. To the place thus made vacant, the harried President, without even consulting him, immediately appointed Marshall, who "as immediately declined."[1096] Then Adams tendered the office to Dexter, who accepted.

And resign, too, demanded Adams of his Secretary of State.[1097] The doughty Pickering refused[1098]--"I did not incline to accept this insidious favor,"[1099] he reported to Hamilton. Adams dismissed him.[1100] Again the President turned to Marshall, who, deeply troubled, considered the offer. The Federalist Cabinet was broken to pieces, and a presidential election was at hand which would settle the fate of the first great political party in American history.

The campaign had already started. The political outlook was dark enough before the President's outburst; this shattering of his Cabinet was a wicked tongue of lightning from the threatening clouds which, after the flash, made them blacker still.[1101]