234 THE PORTRAIT GALLERY 



OUR GREATEST CHIEF JUSTICE 



91. The foremost jurist of the evolving young America was 

 John Marshall. His early manhood caught him in the throes 

 of the Revolution and he performed ably as an officer of Virginia 

 militia. At Monmouth, Brandywine and Germantown he showed 

 his military ability, but at Stony Point and in covering Major 

 Lee's retreat at Paulus Hook, he showed his real genius and per- 

 severance. His military career was terminated by recruiting duty 

 in Virginia in 1780, and while he participated in Baron Steuben's 

 operations in Virginia, he never really indulged so actively again. 



His legal career began at the time of his recruiting duty in 

 1780. During his leisure hours he attended the course of lec- 

 tures given by Chancellor Wythe of William and Mary, and 

 late in the season he was admitted to the bar at Williamsburg. 

 In 1781 he resigned his commission and entered upon law prac- 

 tice in Fauquier county. He attained immediate prominence and 

 was elected a member of the house of burgesses. He forthwith 

 located in Richmond, and barring the time he was on national 

 duty, remained there the rest of his days. 



John Marshall was one of the four lawyers engaged by the 

 defendant in the celebrated case of Ware vs. Hilton, tried before 

 Justice John Jay, involving the question of indebtedness to 

 Britain. His colleagues were Patrick Henry, Alexander Camp- 

 bell and James Irvine. He declined attorney-generalship under 

 Washinton's first administration, also a foreign mission. On 

 the occasion of the French hostility due to the replacement of 

 James Monroe as ambassador by Charles C. Pinckney, he was 

 appointed a member of the special mission to France to settle 

 the difficulty. This proving impossible, he returned to America, 

 after backing up Pinckney's immortal "millions for defense, 

 but not one cent for tribute." 



He resumed his law practice, declining an appointment as 

 supreme justice, but in 1800 he was appointed Secretary of State 



