National University - Docket Yearbook (Washington, DC)

Page 25 text:

[ 21 ]

Page 24 text:

When the Federal Government was organized Washington offered Marshall the post of Attorney-General, but he declined, preferring to re- main in private practice in Virginia without the interruptions that public office would entail. In 1798 he was one of the three commissioners sent to Paris to negotiate with The French Directory. Denied formal recogni- tion, the commissioners were told that a sum of money might induce the desired cordiality. “No, not a sixpence,” replied Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, angered by the hint for a bribe. When Marshall returned to America he was very popular with the Federalists and they gave him a ban- quet in Philadelphia. One of the toasts was “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute,” a saying which is ascribed to Pinckney but which he never heard until his return months later. In 1798 Marshall declined to accept a place as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, but in 1799 he consented to be a candidate for the House of Representatives. While a member of the House he offered the famous resolution, written by Light- Horse Harry Lee, declaring that Washington, who had just died, was “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Resigning from the House in 1800, he was tendered the post of Secretary of War by President Adams, an offer which he did not even consider. A few weeks later, however, he consented to become Secretary of State, and he continued to discharge the duties of that office until March 4, 1801, notwithstanding he had taken the oath as Chief Justice a month before. This is not a proper place to review the distinguished judicial career of Chief Justice Marshall. Suffice it to say that in the thirty-four years following Marshall’s appointment Jay’s description of the Court was belied, and, due to the Chief Justice’s genius and courage, the Supreme Court acquired the “energy, weight and dignity which are essential to its afford- ing due support to the national government,” none of which it possessed under his predecessors. The Jeffersonians complained that Marshall con- ni; 0m wmm ' aim m TOl p L(L1

Page 26 text:

tinued to make Federalist laws long after the Federalist Party was dead. John Adams had lef t the Capital in a huff without waiting to see his suc- cessor inaugurated, but he had, without realizing it at the time, left behind a greater force for consolidating the national government than Alexander H amilton and a dozen other leading Federalists combined. Chief Justice Marshall boldly declared that any act of Congress repugnant to the Constitution is void and that it is the function of the Supreme Court to so declare. This power, often criticized, remains un- shaken to the present day. However, contrary to the popular notion, com- paratively few of the many acts passed by Congress are later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. It is estimated that between 1789 and 1929 Congress passed about 55,000 separate acts, considerably more than half of which were of a public nature. During this period of one hun- dred and forty years the Supreme Court, according to its librarian, declared only fifty-six acts and parts of acts of Congress unconstitutional. Associate Justice Samuel Chase of Maryland, a signer of the Declara- tion of Independence and the only Justice of the Supreme Court ever im- peached, was impeached in the early years of Marshall’s Chief Justiceship. The Senate acquitted him. In 1804 the Court received a valuable acquisi- tion in Associate Justice William Johnson of South Carolina, the youngest man who has ever been a member of the Court. He was thirty-two years of age when appointed and he served under Marshall for more than thirty years. The Constitution does not provide that persons shall have attained a certain age before they are qualified to become F ederal judges, as it does in the cases of the President, Vice-President, Senators and Representatives, and therefore it is presumed that any person of legal age is qualified in that respect. The feeling of the Jeffersonian party against the administration of the Supreme Court under Marshall subsided during the more conservative