The Life of John Marshall (Volume 2 of 4)

in every country, and left free, it wou

ely pursue, through oceans of blood, abstract systems fo

lly distant from the despotism of an individual

imself and to the Monarchy of France. As a result, Great Britain lost America, but Louis lost his head. Had not the Bourbon Government sent troops, fleets, munitions, and money to the support of the faili

s, nevertheless, the shining and dramatic example which Frenchmen imitated in beginning that vast and elemental upheaval called the French Revoluti

ous drama which will forever engage the interest of mankind. And just as the American Revolution vitally influenced French opinion, so the French Revolu

he forge of the French Revolution. American history, especially of the period now under consideration, can be read correctly only by the lights that shine from that titanic smithy; can be u

lton on the one hand, and Jefferson on the other hand, in a fashion as deep and lasting as it was antagonistic and antipodal; and the intellectual and moral phenomena, manifested in picture

, that arose from the time Washington became President until Marshall took his seat as Chief Justice, we must have always before our eyes the extraordinary scenes and consider the delirious emotions which the French Revolution produced in America. It must be constantly borne in mind that Americans of the period now under discussion did not

of the present work, an outline, at least, of the effect of the French Revolution on American thought and feeling is indispensable. Just as the careers of Marshall and Jefferson are inseparably intertwined, and as neither ca

which was completed by limiting the powers of the monarch, and by the establishment of a popular assembly. In no part of the globe was this revolution hailed with more joy than in America. The influence it would

rstand the forces which he had helped set in motion. A little later he advises Madison of the danger threatening the reformed French Government, but adds, reassuringly, that though "the lees ... of the patriotic party [the French radical party] of wicked principles & desperate fo

cap.... The ensuing winter [1789] will be the commencement of a Golden Age,"[6] was the glowing prophecy of an enthusiastic

show the extreme rottenness.... The virtuous ... stand forward from a background deeply and darkly shaded.... From such crumbling matter ... the great edifice of freedom is to be erected here [in France].... [There is] a perfect indifference to the violation of engagements.... Inconstancy is mingled in the blood, marrow, and very essence of

ssolution."[8] And yet, a year earlier, Lafayette had lamented the French public's indifference to much needed reforms; "The people ...

it." These victims, declared the American Minister, had been "the best people," killed "without form of trial, and their bodies thrown like dead dogs into the first hole that offered."[10] Gouverneur Morris

to the daughter of the Philadelphia financier. Gouverneur Morris, while not related to Robert Morris, was "entirely devoted" to and closely associated with him in business; and both were in perfect a

of appreciation or understanding of the basic causes and high purposes of the French Revolution appears i

correspondingly dark, and as lasting as it was somber. Of this, Marshall himself leaves us in no doubt. Writing

ach other in Paris. With the eye of an intelligent, and of an unimpassioned observer, he marked all passing events, and communicated them with fidelity. He did not mistake despotism for freedom, because it was sanguinary, because it was exercised by th

patriarch," hastened to present Washington with "the main key of the fortress of despotism."[17] Washington responded that he accepted the key of the Bastille as "a token of the victory gained by liberty."[18] Thomas Paine wrote of

nt quantity to quench American enthusiasm for the cause of liberty in France. We had had plenty of

f the Jacobin Clubs, however, alarmed some and gave pause to all

ary 9, 1790, "we were in danger of being entangled by the example of France in the net of a relentless despotism.... Our present danger from the example of a people whose character knows no medium, is, with regard to government, a danger fro

ced boys at school.... They systematically destroyed every hold of authority by opinion, religious or civil, on the minds of the people.[21]... On the scheme of this barbarous philosophy, which is the offspring of cold he

r, to be baptized, caused a voice to speak to which America did listen, a page to be written that America did read. Thomas Paine, whose "Common Sense" had made his name better known to all people in the United States than that of any o

o the other; for while Paine annihilated Burke's Brahminic laudation of rank, title, and custom, he also penned a doctrine of paralysis to all government. As was the case with his

reigns among mankind is not the effect of government.... It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished.... The instant formal government is abolished," said he, "societ

d, using our newly formed and untried National Government as an example, he asserted with grotesque inaccuracy: "In America ... all the parts are bro

great iconoclast exclaimed: "It is impossible that such governments as have hitherto [1790] existed in

of governing beyond the grave is the most ridiculous and insolent of all tyrannies." The people of yesterday have "no right ... to bind or to control ... the people of the present d

Rights of Man" was reproduced in the "Columbian Centinel" of Boston on June 6, 1792: "Can we possibly suppose that if government had originated in right principles and had not an interest in pursuing a wrong one, that the world could have been in

before from your first part of the Rights of Man. They have both served here to separate the wheat from the chaff.... Would you believe it possible that in this country there should be high & important characters[27] who need you

times was done with the sword, ... and be assured that it has not a more si

e in France than by the principles which Paine announced, men of moderate mind and conservative temperament in Amer

" of Boston in the summer of 1791, over the nom de guerre "Publicola"; and these were widely c

t the essay was to be printed in this country and "that something is at length to be publickly said against the political heresies which have spr

re was "but one sentiment...-that of exultation." But what did Jefferson mean by "heresies"? asked Publicola. Was Paine's pamphlet "the ca

ver the right to violate these. Even majorities have no right to do as they please; if so, what security has the individual citizen? Under the unrestrained rule of the majority "the principl

s easy for a nation to change its government as for a man to change his coat." But "the extreme difficulty which impeded the progress of its [the American Constitutio

und ignorance and deplorable credulity make them proper tools for any man who can inflame their passions; ... and," warned Publicola, "as they have nothing to lose by the total dissolution of civil society, their rage may

l had said the same thing in the Virginia Constitutional Convention; but even at that early period the Richmond attorney went further and flatly declared that the temporary "spirit of the people" was not infallible and that the Supreme Court could

icane of American sympathy with the French Revolution; but they also strengthened the force of that growing storm. Multitudes of writers attacked Publicola as the a

of Boston asserted that Publicola was trying to build up a "system of Monarchy and Aristocracy ... on the ruins both of the Reputation and Liberties of the People."[35] Madison reported to Jefferson that because of John A

oversy began in America o

overwhelming majority of Americans were for the French Revolution and its doctrines;[3

fluential even with so strong a conservative and extreme a Nationalist as Madison, in bringing about his amazing reversal of views which occurred soon after the Constitutio

a new and intimate meaning in the eyes of those who had begun to look with disfavor upon the results of Galli

ed in the French West Indies.... The revolutionists of France formed the mad and wicked project of spreading their doctrines of equality among persons [negroes and white people] between whom distinctions and prejudices exi

d in one indiscriminate massacre, from which neither age nor sex could afford an exemption. Only a few females, reserved for a fate more cruel than death, were intentionally spared; and not

party [St. Domingo revolutionists] had taken possession of 600 aristocrats & monocrats, had sent 200 of them to France, & were sending 400 here.... I wish," avowed Je

repeats that, at first, every American wished success to the French reformers. But the later steps of the movement "impaired this ... unanimity of opinion.... A few who had thought deeply on the science of government ... believed that ... the influence of the galleri

powerful and enlightened nation verging towards democracy, which imposes on the human mind, and leads human reason in fetters.... Long settled opinions yield to the overwhelming weight of such dazz

rejudice in favour of British institutions.... The war in which the several potentates of Europe were engaged against France, although in almost every instance declared by that power, was pronounced to be a war for the extirpation of human liberty, a

eclared, the massacres which preceded it, the scenes of turbulence and violence which were acted in every part of the nation, appeared to them [American conservati

nd to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on

: "The sensations it [the French Revolution] has produced here, and the indications of them in the public papers, have shown that the form our own government was to take depended much more on the

, remained as chargé d'affaires,[44] had written both officially and privately of what was going on in France and of the increasing dominance of the Jacobin Clubs.[45

e proceedings of the Jacobins of France.[46]... Many guilty persons [aristocrats] fell without the forms of trial, and with them some inno

ever such a prize won with so little innocent blood? My own affections have been deeply wounded by some of

d "my sentiments ... are really those of 99 in an hundred of our citizens," was that careful political observer's estimate of Amer

riends to the constitution.... The little party above mentioned have espoused it only as a stepping stone to monarchy...

ts of your country," Jefferson admonishes Short,

rginia] ... are unanimous & explicit in their sympathy with the Revolution" was the

order of things, the neck of Louis XVI was finally laid beneath the knife of the guillotine and the royal hea

of "the present revolution" which "injure[s its] character ... and discourage[s] the progress of liberty all over

speech of "aristocracy," "monarchy," and "despotism"; for the red fountains which drenched the fires of even Thomas Paine's enthusiasm did not extinguish the

d, not at Philadelphia, then our seat of government, but at Charleston, South Carolina. The youthful[51] representative of Revolutionary France

rity then reigning in Paris. All this was done long before he presented his credentials to the American Government. His progress to our Capital was an unbroken festival of tr

a and before our ignored and offended President had even an opportunity to receive him. "It seems," Jefferson continued, "as if his a

ere drunk to the Republic and the guillotine. Showers of fiery "poems" filled the literary air.[53] "What hugging and tugging! What addressing and car

t of power and "The Terror" reached high tide. Marie Antoinette met the fate of her royal husband, and the executioners, overworked, could

they chronicled.[55] It was a losing game to do otherwise, as one of the few journalistic supporters of the American Government discovered to his sorrow. Fenno, the editor of the "Gazette of the United States," found opposition t

nd advocate of Washington's Administration. "Since the 18th September, [1793] I have rec'd only 35? dollars," Fenno lamented. "Four years & an half of my life

d been lost. The effigy of Louis XVI was guillotined by the people, many times every day in Philadelphia, on the same spot where, ten years before, as a monument of their gratitude, these same patri

ning the liberty cap, shouted "tyrant" as with his knife he chopped the sundered head of the dead swine.[59] The news of the beheading of Louis's royal consort met with a like reception.

American conservatives, among whom Marshall was developing leadership, were also unmindful of the dark crimes against the people which, at an earlier period, had stained the Mon

exaggerated.[61] Of the latter class, Marshall was, by far, the most moderate and balanced, although the tragic aspect of the convulsion i

for us in our War for Independence, of deserting the cause of liberty because he had striven to hold the Gallic uprising within orderly bounds. Wh

n arms, and f

to gain

ot from a t

to embrace h

ette's release. Marshall tells us of the strong and tender personal friendship between Washington and Lafayette and of the former's anxiety for the latter. But, writes Marshall: "The extreme jealousy with which the persons who administered the government of France, as well as a large

ge: but before this messenger had reached his destination, the King of Prussia had delivered over his illustrious prisoner to the Emperor of Germany."[64] Washington tried "to obtain the powerful mediation

had served at Brandywine and Monmouth; Lafayette, leader of the movement in France for a free government like our own; Lafayette, hated by kings and aristocrats because he loved gen

liament for the American cause, a statue of Lord Chatham had been erected at Charleston, South Carolina; the people now suspended it by the neck in the air until the sculptured head was severed from the body. But Chatham was dead and knew only from the spirit world of this recognition of his bold words in behalf of the American peopl

l." In New York, "Queen Street became Pearl Street; and King Street, Liberty Street."[68] The liberty cap was the popular headgear and everybody wore the French cockade. Even the children, thus

n before the formation of our government, the people had shown their distaste for all formalities, and especially for terms denoting official rank; and, after the Constitution was adopted, one of the first things Congress did was to decide against any for

an extreme, but highly odious.... It has given me much pleasure to hear every part of your conduct spoken of with high approbation, and particularly your dispensing with ceremony, occasionally walking the streets; while Adams is never seen but in his carriage and six. As trivi

ister of the gospel as "Reverend." Even "sir" or "esquire" were, plainly, "monarchical." The title "Honorable" or "His Honor," when applied to any official, even a judge, was base pandering to aristocracy. "Mr." and "Mrs." were heret

speech of genuine liberty.[73] And the name of the Greek letter college fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, was the trick of kings to ensnare our unsuspecting youth. Even "Φ.Β.Κ." was declared to be "an infringem

ocieties sprang up all over the Union in imitation of the Jacobin Clubs of France. Each society had its corresponding committee; and thus these organizations were welded into an unbroken chain. Their avowed purpose was to cherish th

"are spreading mischief far and wide," he wrote;[77] and he declared to Randolph that "if these sel

ss murderers ruling in their stead with rods of iron. Will not this, or something like it, be the wretched fate of our country?... Is not this hostili

could not have devised greater absurdities than" the French Revolution had inspired in America;[80] but they were greatly outnumbered by those

clubs was denounced as a public robber or monarchist. "What a continual yelping and barking are our Swindlers, Aristocrats, Refugees, and British Agents making at the Constitutional Societies" which were "li

, they also solidified the conservative elements of the United States. Most viciously did the latter hate these "Jacobin Clubs," the princ

" said Ames, "is the bane of our politics, the mortal poison that makes our peace so sickly."[86] "They have, like toads, sucked poison from the earth. They thirst for vengeance."[87] "The spirit of mischief is as active as the element of fire and as destructive."[88] Ames describes the activities of the Boston Society and th

ntry," wrote Henry to Washington, "is destined in my day to encounter the horrors of anarchy, every power of mind or body which I possess will be exerted in support of the governme

later, after time had restored perspective and cooled feeling, Marshall says that these "pernicious societies"[92] were "the resolute champions of all the encroachments attempted by the

heir political influence had been maintained were wrested from them; and, in a short time, their meetings were prohibited. Not more certain is it that the boldest streams must disappear, if the fountains which fed them be emptied, than was t

into every great issue that arose in the United States. Generally speaking, the debtor classes and the poorer people were partisans of French revolutionary principles; and the creditor classes, the mercantile and financial interests, were the enemies of what they called

ved that government is essential to society and absolutely indispensable to the building of the American Nation, heard in the language and saw in the deeds of the French Revolution the forces that would wreck the foundat

dministrations," were combined in the opposition to and attacks upon a strong National Government. Thus provincialism in the form of States' Rights was given a fresh impulse and a new vitality

hat particular time this sacred cause meant State Rights. For everything which they felt to be oppressive, unjust, and antagonistic to liberty, came from the National Government. B

n must never be forgotten. Not a circumstance of the public lives of these two men and scarcely an incident of their private experience but was shaped and colored by this vast series of human ev

TNO

gton, May 1, 1790; Cor. Rev.2: Sparks, iv, 328.) "The principles of it [the French Revolution] were co

ench Revolution produce all the Calamities and Desolations to the human Race and t

inciples in America, and all have been fired by our example." (Gouverneur

ve been the means of raising that spirit in Europe which ... will ... extinguish every remain of that barbarous servitude under which all the European na

i, chap. viii

e all translated and circulated through the States. The enthusiasm they excited i

hreys, March 18, 1789

Madison, Aug. 2

nd Nov. 30, 1789; as quoted i

ad doubted French capacity for self-government because of what he described as French light-mindedness.

on, July 31, 1789; Cor

as well as it can, with a nation that has swallowed liberty at once, and is still liable to mistake licentiousness for freedom." Or, in August of the same year: "I have lately lost some of my favor with the mob, and displeased the frantic lovers of licentiousness, as I am bent on establishing a legal subordination." Or, six months later: "I still am tossed ab

. Morris, Dec. 24,

b., i,

tmorin, March 10, 1792; W

Ib.,

stocratic view. (Ib.; and see A. Esmein, Membre de l'Institut: Gouverne

ll, ii, not

life, had, in addition to remarkably abundant meals, an astonishing amount of extra viands and refreshments including comfortable quantities of wine, brandy, and beer. Prisoners of higher station fared still more generously, of course. (Funck-Brentano: Legends of the Bastille, 85-

gton, March 17, 1790; Co

yette, August 11, 1790;

v.: Sparks, iv, 328. Paine did not, personally

use of Commons; Work

1]

not astonish me so much as the Revolution of Mr. Burke.... How mortifying that this evidence of the rottenness of his mind must oblige us now to ascr

he came to be looked upon with horror by great numbers of people, he enjoyed the rega

ngs: Conwa

oment the sympathizers with the French Revolut

way, ii, 278-79, 4

tter to Mazzei (infra, chap. vii). Jefferso

had, two years before, expressed precisely the views set forth in Paine's Rights of Man. Indeed, he

ggest the writer's incomparable mother. Madison, who remarked their quality, wrote to Jefferson: "There is more of method ... in the arguments, and much l

ese and all the other invaluable papers of the younger Adams

: Ford, vi, 283, and footnote; also see Jeffe

57.) Later Jefferson avowed that "Mr. Paine's principles ... were the principles of the citizens of the U. S." (Jefferson to Adams, Aug. 30, 1791; Works: Ford, vi, 314.) To his intimate friend, Monroe, Jefferson wrote that "Pu

on and the Nationalists to transform the newborn Republic into a monarchy and to deliver the hard-won "liberties" of the

, J. Q. A.: F

the bar, he was still a student in the law office of The

, J. Q. A.: F

. Q. A.: Ford, i

writers attacked Publicola in support of those [Paine's] principles." (Jefferson to Adams,

s, J. Q. A.:

s; Hunt, vi, 56; and see Monroe to Jefferson, Jul

the Successes of their French brethren in their glorious enterprise for the Establishment of Equal Libert

bright fl

er East

ing in

pure D

all Nati

their

; carts of bread and two or three hogsheads of rum; and other devices of fancy and provisions for g

have continued in public life if he had remained a

rshall,

fferson Randolph, May 26, 1

shall, i

shall, i

Randolph, Jan. 7, 1793

Collections (7t

ve destroyed their own government [French Constitution of 1791] & disgusted all ... men of honesty & property.... All the rights of humanity ... are

esent order of things ... the most perfect & universal disorder that ever reigned in any country. Those who from the beginning took part in the revolution ... have been disgust

een massacred by the people & ... s

justice-the system they aim at so absolutely visionary & impracticable-that their efforts can end in nothing but despotism after having bewildered the unfortunate people, whom they rende

from the beginning. The people have gone farther than their leaders.... We may expect ... to hear of such proceedings, under the cloak of liber

tters are from The Hague, to which he had been transferred. They are all the more important, as coming from a young radical whom events

rom Paris of "the Jacobins who act without either prudence or morali

ed in the text, that: "We have had one week of unchecked murders, in which some thousands have perished in this city [Paris]. It began with between two and three hundred of the clergy, who would not take the oath prescribed by law. Thence these executors of speedy justice went to the Ab

son, June 17, 1793; Wr

May 6, 1793; Writing

volution and insisted that it was the French Nation that had come to our assistance. Such was the disregard of the times

ngs, J. Q. A.:

ison, April 28, 1793;

es of these, se

raydon

re violently prejudiced, his statements of fact are generally trustworthy. "I have seen a bundle of Gazettes published all by the same man, wherein Mirabeau, Fayette, Brissot, Danton, Robespierre, and Barras, are all panegyrized and execrated in

e next

1000 Dollars in New York, I will endeavor to raise another Thousand at Philadelphia. If this cannot be done, we must lose his [Fenno's and the

people in the reform movement. Thomas Paine, who was then in Paris, records that "The King ... prides him

her accounts of the "feasts" in honor of liberté, é

bbett,

Robespierre were as ready to burn libraries as the followers of Omar; and if the principle is finally to prevail which puts the sceptre of Sovereignty in the hands of Euro

eces the institutions of the civilized world, in my opinion innovated the state of things not

eneau,

rshall,

Aus

rshall,

part no friends to these principles anywhere, they cannot conceal the pleasure they [the aristocracy at The Hague] feel at their [principles of liber

bbett,

t to get rid of "this vile aristocratical name New York"; and, why not, inquired he, change the name of Kings County, Queens County, and Orange

Hazen

dams, Feb. 1, 1792; Writings

Cor. Rev.: Sparks, iv, 265-66; and see Ran

e Hazen

Ib.

ee Haz

bbett,

arshall, ii, 269 et seq. At first many excellent and prominent men were members; but these

ston, Aug. 10, 1794; Wr

6, 1794; ib., 475; and see Washingt

ons, Aug. 12, 1794

dams, Oct. 19, 1790; Writi

ledge, Aug. 29, 1791;

e Hazen

tember 1

, Sept. 11, 1794; W

g, July 25, 1795;

March 26, 1794; W

inot, Feb. 20,

ore, Jan. 28,

ight, Sept. 3,

ington, Oct. 16, 1

Ib.

rshall,

Ib.

shall, i