HAZARD'S REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA: DEVOTED TO THE PRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. VOL. XVI.--NO. 19. PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER 7, 1835. BINNEY'S EULOGY ON JOHN MARSHALL. The Eulogy on the Life and Character of John Marshall, BY THE HONOURABLE HORACE BINNEY. Fellow Citizens, No. 409. which is eternal, and it is thus sanctified while it still lives and is seen of men. When death has set his seal up. one of the appointed sanctions of virtue, and if great. on such an example, the universal voice proclaims it as public services are blended with it, communities of men come as with one heart, to pay it the tribute of their praise, and to pass it to succeeding generations, with the attestation of their personal recognition and regard. by the side of his venerable remains, after the spirit which enlightened him had gone to its reward; and you now claim to record your reverence for a name which after first coming to distinction in its native state, and then for a long course of years shedding lustre upon the whole country, has finally ceased to be mortal upon this spot. If its defective commemoration by me, could mar the beauty of this example, I should shrink from it, as from a profanation: but it is the consolation of the humblest, as it ought to be of the most gifted, of his eulogists, that the case of this illustrious man is one, in which to give with simplicity, the record of his life, is to come nearest to a resemblance of the great original; and to attempt to go beyond it, is with taper light To seck the beauteous eye of Heaven to garnish. It is such an example and such a motive, my fellow citizens, that have led the Councils of this city to comThe Providence of God is shown most beneficently it to my hands the duty of expressing your admiration to the world, in raising up from time to time, and in and gratitude for the illustrious virtues, talents, and crowning with length of days, men of pre-eminent services of JOHN MARSHALL. His last hours were numgoodness and wisdom. Many of the undoubted bless- bered within your city. His unfading example here ings of life, which minister, and were designed to min-received its last finish. You were the first to mourn ister, to the elevation of man, tend, nevertheless, by developing the inferior qualities of his mixed nature, to impair the authority and to deaden the aspirations of his immortal spirit. The unnumbered contributions to the sum of physical enjoyment, which a bountiful Creator has spread around us, afford such a prodigal repast to the senses, that if man were not sometimes allured from the banquet by the example of wisdom, or driven from it by the voice of conscience or of inspiration, he would "decline so low from virtue" as to become incapable of discerning its beauty, or of rising to its delights. If there was not something within or without to remind him that these pleasures of sense were designed to alleviate the labours of virtue in her arduous career, and not to seduce her from it, it might raise the irreverent question, whether the frame of man was adequately devised to contend with the temp. tations which surround him. But the wisdom of the Creator is justified in all his works. It is a provision in the moral government of the world, to hold out constantly to mankind, both the example of virtue for imitation, and its precepts for obedience; and the moral constitution of man is never so depraved, as to be totally insensible to either. Sometimes the inducement to virtue is derived from the catastrophe which closes the career of vice, sometimes from that internal monitor, which, however oppressed by a lad of crimes, has always sufficient remains of life to breathe its complaints into the hearts of the guilty. To the sensual it often comes in the pains and disgusts of satiety, and occasionally to the most hardened in the awakening denunciations of future responsibility. The good find it in the pleasures of beneficence, and the wise in the enjoyments of wisdom. It is addressed severally to each, and with endless variety corresponding to his personal case and condition. But it comes to all, and at all times, and with most persuasive influence, in the beautiful example of a long career of public and private virtue, of wisdom never surprised, of goodness never intermitted, of benignity, simplicity, and gentleness, finally ending in that hoary head which is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." To this example all men, of all descriptions, pay voluntary, or involuntary homage. There is no one from whom the impress of the Deity is so wholly effaced, as to be insensible to its beauty. The very circumstance of its duration affects all hearts with the conviction, that it has the characters of that excellence! VOL. XVI. 37 JOHN MARSHALL was born at a place called Germantown, in Fauquier county, Virginia, on the 24th of September, 1755, eighty years ago this day. It was a little more than two months after the memorable defeat of Braddock had brought to the notice of the British empire, the name of George Washington, then a youth of twenty-three, whose courage and conduct in that disastrous surprise, were afterwards to be the grateful theme of his faithful historian and friend. His grandfather, of the same name, was a native of Wales, who settled in Westmoreland county about the year 1730, where he married Elizabeth Markham, a native of England. Of four sons and five daughters of this marriage, Thomas, the father of the Chief Justice, was the oldest, and inherited the family estate called "Forest," consisting of a few hundred acres of poor land in Westmoreland. He removed from this county to Fauquier soon after he had attained manhood, and having intermarried with Mary Keith, by which he became connected with the Randolphs; he sat down upon a small farm at the place where John Marshall, his oldest son, was afterwards born. The great proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia, including Fauquier, was at that time Lord Fairfax, who gave to George Washington the appointment of Surveyor in the west. ern part of his territory, and Washington employed Thomas Marshall in the same business. They had been near neighbours from birth, associates from boyhood, and were always friends. Thomas Marshall was a man of extraordinary vigour 290 of mind, and of undaunted courage. When his asso- from other sources, Mr. Marshall wrought out in after life, a comprehensive mass of learning both useful and elegant, which accomplished him for every station that he filled, and he filled the highest, of more than one description. The war of the revolution is known to have been in preparation for some years before the first blow was struck. In all the colonies, the topics of controversy were familiar to the youth, and in none more than in Virginia. The most temperate spirits in the land,looked to arms as the inevitable recourse; and by their writ ings, their speeches, their daily and familar conversation, spread the preparatory temper around them. It was the retired soldier of Mount Vernon, who in April 1769, thus wrote to his friend George Mason, who afterwards drafted the first constitution of Virginia: "At a time when our lordly masters in Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than a deprivation of American freedom, it seems highly necessary that something should be done to avert the stroke, and maintain the liberty which we have derived from our ancestors. But the manner of doing it, to answer the purpose effectually, is the point in question. That no man should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion." This sentiment and others of the like strain, univezsally diffused, led to military training in many parts of the country. It was to furnish the only effectual answer to the purpose of oppression; and as the heart of John Marshall was from his birth riveted to the cause. of freedom, he devoted himself from 1773, when he was in his eighteenth year, to acquire the elements of military knowledge in a volunteer corps, with a comparative disregard of the further pursuit of his civil education, and of the study of the law, which he had commenced. The battle of Lexington, on the 19th of April, 1775, brought to a crisis the protracted efforts of the colonies, to obtain the blessings of political liberty by appeals to justice, and the principles of the British constitution. about ten miles from his residence. A kinsman and cotemporary, who was an eye witness of this scene, has thus described it to me. "It was in May, 1775. He was then a youth of nineteen. The muster field was some twenty miles distant from the Court house, and in a section of coun After residing a few years at Germantown, the father removed with his family about thirty miles farther west, and settled in the midst of the mountains east of the Blue Ridge, at a place called "The Hollow," in a country thinly peopled and destitute of schools, but remarkable for the salubrity of its atmosphere, and the picturesque beauty of its mountain scenery. It was a place altogether admirable for the formation of a physical constitution, and for the development of its powers by athletic exercises and sports: and it was here that At this date, Mr. Marshall resided in the paternal the son remained until his fourteenth year, laying the mansion of Oak Hill, and his first appearance after infoundation of that vigorous health which attended him telligence of the event, was as an officer of a militia comthrough life, and deriving from his father all the train-pany in Fauquier, which had been ordered to assemble ing in letters, which a then frontier county of Virginia, or the moderate resources of a farmer could afford. At the age of fourteen he was sent for instruction in Latin to a Clergyman named Campbell, who resided in Westmoreland, with whom he remained about a year, having for one of his fellow students James Monroe, afterwards President of the United States; he then re-try peopled by tillers of the earth. Rumours of the octurned to his father, who about that time removed to currences near Boston, had circulated with the effect the place called Oak Hill, which still remains in the of alarm and agitation, but without the means of ascerfamily. He here received for the term of another year, taining the truth, for not a newspaper was printed nearer some further instruction in Latin from a Scotch gentle- than Williamsburg, nor was one taken within the man named Thomson, who was the clergyman of the bounds of the militia company, though large. The parish, and lived in his father's family; and this was the Captain had called the company together, and was exwhole of the classical tuition he ever obtained. But pected to attend, but did not. John Marshall had been his father, though he had not himself enjoyed the bene-appointed Lieutenant to it. His father had formerly fit of an early education, was devoted to the cultivation commanded it. Soon after Lieutenant Marshall's apof his children, and sought by personal instruction to pearance on the ground, those who knew him clustered supply to them what he had not the means of deriving about him to greet him, others from curiosity, and to from seminaries of learning. He was a practical sur-hear the news. veyor, adequately acquainted with the Mathematics "He proceeded to inform the company that the and Astronomy, and familiarly conversant with History, Captain would not be there, and that he had been apPoetry, and general literature, of which he possessed pointed Lieutenant instead of a better;-that he had most of the standard works in our language; and these come to meet them as fellow soldiers, who were likely were the means, which, under his fostering attention, to be called on to defend their country, and their own seconded by extraordinary facility in his pupil, and by right and liberties invaded by the British:-that there a sweetness of temper which was his characteristic had been a battle at Lexington in Massachusetts, be from birth, completed all the education the son re-tween the British and Americans, in which the Americeived. It is the praise and the evidence of the native cans were victorious, but that more fighting was expowers of his mind, that by domestic instruction, and pected:-that soldiers were called for, and that it was two years of grammatical and classical tuition obtained time to brighten their fire-arms, and learn to use them n the field; and that if they would fall into a single line, he would show them the new manual exercise, 1 Marsh. Life of Washington, 429. 1835.] BINNEY'S EULOGY ON JOHN MARSHALL. 291 for which purpose he had brought his gun,-bringing | protection or the rescue of this city from the grasp of it up to his shoulder. The sergeants put the men in the enemy, was connected with most of them. His re line, and their fugleman presented himself in front to giment belonged to the brigade of General Woodford the right. His figure, says his venerable kinsman, I which formed part of the American right at the Battle have now before me. He was about six feet high, of Brandywine, in front of which was placed the third straight and rather slender, of dark complexion-show-regiment, commanded by his gallant father. ing little if any rosy red, yet good health, the outline of On the fourth of October following, he was in the the face nearly a circle, and within that, eyes dark to battle of Germantown, and in that part of the American blackness, strong and penetrating, beaming with intel- army, which after attacking the light infantry posted ligence and good nature; an upright, forehead, rather in front of the British right wing, and driving it from low, was terminated in a horizontal line by a mass of its ground, was detained, while pursuing the flying raven-black hair of unusual thickness and strength-enemy, by the fire of the 40th British regiment in the features of the face were in harmony with this out Chew's house. line, and the temples fully developed. The result of this combination was interesting and very agreeable. The body and limbs indicated agility, rather than strength, in which, however, he was by no means de. ficient. He wore a purple or pale blue hunting-shirt, and trowsers of the same material fringed with white. A round black hat, mounted with the bucks-tail for a cockade, crowned the figure and the man, "He went through the manual exercise by word and motion deliberately pronounced and performed, in the -presence of the company, before he required the men to imitate him; and then proceeded to exercise them, with the most perfect temper. Never did man possess a temper more happy, or if otherwise, more subdued or better disciplined. "After a few lessons, the company were dismissed, and informed that if they wished to hear more about the war, and would form a circle around him, he would tell them what he understood about it. The circle was formed, and he addressed the company for something " He Oak Hill, where he arrived a little after sunset. In the summer of 1775, he was appointed first Lieutenant of a company in that Minute Battalion, of which he had spoken,was ordered in the autumn of that year to the defence of the inhabitants adjacent to Norfolk, then menaced by a predatory force under Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of the colony; and on the 9th of December he had a part in the gallant and successful action at the Great Bridge, where Lord Dunmore attempted to arrest their further progress to Norfolk, but was compelled by defeat to take refuge in his vessels, and to leave the inhabitants the succuor which had been sent them. Thus, at an age when the law regarded him as still in a state of pupilage to be defended by others, he was facing the fire of the enemy in the defence of his country. He was one of that body of men, never surpassed in the history of the world, who, unpaid, unclothed, unfed, tracked the snows of Valley Forge with the blood of their footsteps in the rigorous winter of 1778, and yet turned not their faces from their country in resentment, nor from their enemies in fear. He was again in battle at Monmouth on the 28th June, 1778, upon the retreat of the British army from this city to New York; and thus in the course of less than a year, he was three times in battle under the immortal father of his country, and twice, in the fields of Brandywine and Monmouth, with the heroic La Fayette. Washington-La Fayette-Marshall-what names are now more sacred to the lovers of constitutional freedom throughout this land! Brandywine-Germanthe disaster of these, if their rolls had returned such town-Monmouth,-What battles could have equalled names among the dead? On the night of the 15th June, 1779, he was in the subsequently an officer of the detachment ordered by covering party at the assault of Stony Point; and was Lord Sterling to cover the retreat of Major Lee, after his brilliant surprise, and capture of the British garrison at Powles' Hook, on the night of the 18th August. He continued on the Hudson until the close of that year, when not being in that part of the Virginia line which was ordered to South Carolina, and the enlistment of turned to his native state, and until October, 1780, the rest of the Virginia troops having expired, he reprosecuted the study, and took a license for the prac tice of the law. In October, 1780, when the man who was the only stain upon the fidelity of the American army, invaded the state of Virginia with a British force, Captain Marshall again joined the army under the command of Bawith it near Hoods, when the British troops, on their ron Steuben, and on the 10th of January, 1781, was retiring to Portsmouth, sustained, in an ambuscade by the Americans, the only loss which on their part attended that incursion. Before the renewed invasion of Virginia in the spring of 1781, there being more officers than the state of the Virginia line required, he resigned his commission, and in the succeeding autumn commenced the business of his profession. And now, my fellow citizens, if in the heat and conflict of political parties, it sometimes happens, as happen it does, that the principles and motives of the best among us, are calumniated by imputed disaffection to freedom, to republicanism, and to the good of the people, what more triumphant refutation of the slander, if it were uttered against John Marshall, than to hold up this brief sketch of the first twenty-five years of his life! A man of the people, deriving his existence from a cultivator of the earth: a stranger during youth to all the In July, 1776, he was commissioned a Lieutenant in the 11th Virginia Regiment in the continental ser-indulgences which nourish a sense of superiority to vice, with which he marched to the northward; where in May, 1775, he was appointed a Captain; and from this time till February, 1781, with the exception of a part of the year 1779-80, he was constantly at the post of danger, and had before the age of twentysix, given one third of his life either to preparations for duty, or to the full and effective services of a patriot soldier. The principal events of his military life, have a peculiar interest for you, my fellow citizens, since the others, or deaden a sympathy with the humble:-imbibing his knowledge, his tastes, his morality, his estimate of mankind, from a brave and virtuous yeoman; and at the age of nineteen, seizing a sword from the armory of his country, and without the thirst of military glory or the love of command, carrying it for six years unsheathed, in the cause of equal rights!-Such a man, at the age of twenty-five, must have turned out his father's blood from his veins, and have dug up from the native soil of his heart, every seed and plant of his youth, or 292 he could have no choice but to live and to die a republican. states, but was without judicial authority to decide upon the violation of the compact, or to declare the nullity It was in fine the organ of com But a short time elapsed after Mr. Marshall's appear of the violating law. ance at the bar of Virginia, before he attracted the munication between the states, and with foreign pow notice of the public. His placidity, moderation and ers, and was entrusted in certain cases to declare their calmness, irresistibly won the esteem of men, and in- respective relations, and to assess the proportions in vited them to intercourse with him; his benevolent heart, which the members of the confederacy were to dis and his serene, and at times joyous temper, made him charge their common duty, but it could effectuate nothe cherished companion of his friends;-his candor thing, until the separate consent and act of the states Every case of nonand integrity attracted the confidence of the bar, and had supplied it with the means. that extraordinary comprehension and grasp of mind, compliance with the requisitions of Congress, and they were frequent and fearful, was consequently either a by which difficulties were seized and overcome without effort or parade, commanded the attention and respect case of rupture and dissolution of the union, or of general paralysis. When the excitement of war had subof the Courts of Justice. This is the traditionary account of the first professional years of John Marshall. sided, and a diversity of local interest had produced the He accordingly rose rapidly to distinction, and to a dis- inevitable birth of opposing wishes and opinions, "a tinction which nobody envied, because he seemed government depending upon thirteen distinct sovereignties for the preservation of the public faith, could neither to wish it, nor to be conscious of it himself. He was chosen a representative to the Legislature, not be rescued from ignominy and contempt, but by findand then a member of the Executive Council, in the ing those sovereignties administered by men exempt course of the year 1782, but after his marriage in Janu from the passions incident to human nature."* The years of peace which immediately ensued this gloary, 1873, with Mary Willis Ambler, a daughter of Jacqueline Ambler, of York, in Virginia, he was desi-rious war, attested but too faithfully the entire inefficienrous of leaving public life, that he might devote him-cy of this system, for the maintenance of the character as self more closely to his profession, and to that domestic well as of the interests of the American people. The felicity which was promised by his union with a lady debts of the nation were unpaid, even to "that illus who for nearly fifty years enjoyed his unceasing affec- trious and patriotic band of fellow citizens, whose blood tion and tenderness, and whom he describes in his will and whose bravery had defended the liberties of their as a Sainted Spirit that had filed from the sufferings of country." The men whom we now seek for in every life. He accordingly, in the year 1784, resigned his nook and corner of this extended land, to clothe them with the mantle of unsparing bounty, in gratitude for seat in the Executive Council; but although he was an inhabitant of Richmond, his friends in Fauquier, who the smallest contribution of military service, are the had known and loved him from his birth, and took a survivors of those, who, having borne the burden of most natural pride in connecting his rising name with the whole war, were then suffered to perish in their their county, spontaneously elected him to the Legisla- rags for want of justice. Some of the stipulations of ture; and in the year 1787, he was chosen a represen- the treaty of peace with Great Britain, were confessedly violated by us, through the inability of Congress to tative to the same body for the city of Richmond. enforce their performance by the states; and the nation from whom we had wrung our freedom, in a struggle not more illustrated by courage, than by that virtue which justified the appeal to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions," could cite our defaults in peace, as the cause and excuse of Public credit was annihilated:-Private enher own. gagements were disregarded:-State laws, instead of correcting the evil, in many instances increased it, by relaxing the administration of Justice; and the fruit of the whole, was the prodigious birth of parties, in whose conflict the common mother that bore them, was threatened with dishonor and death. A day had now approached, when questions of momentous national concern were to display more extensively the powers of this eminent man, and to give to the whole American people an interest in his services and fame. Whoever speaks of the confederation under which these States achieved their separation from Great Britain, may safely do it in the language, and with the feelings of the Historian of Washington. "Like many other human institutions, he says, "it was productive neither in war nor in peace, of all the benefits which its sanguine advocates had expected. Had peace been made before any agreement for a permanent union was formed, it is far from being improbable, that the different parts might have fallen asunder, and a dismemberment have taken place. If the confederation really preserved the idea of union, until the good sense of the nation adopted a more efficient system, this service alone entitles that instrument to the respectful recollection of the American people, and its framers to their gratitude." With this just testimonial to a merit sufficient of itself to consecrate it in the affections of the country, it must at the same time be conceded, that the confederation was no more than the limited representatives of other governments, and not a government itself. It was a league of Sovereigns, but not a Sovereign, nor had its mandates the sanctions, nor consequently the efficacy of a supreme law. With power to contract debts, and to pledge the public faith for their payment, it had no power to levy taxes, or to impose duties for the redemption of the pledge. It was competent to declare war, but not to raise armies to carry it on. ed to receive Ambassadors and to make treaties, but not to regulate commerce, their most frequent and most salutary object. It stipulated for the free and equal trade and intercourse of the citizens of all the These parties, in both of which there were many who looked with agony upon the state of the country, and at the crisis, which the unremedied mischiefs of the time must soon have brought on, were, in all that regards our national union, discriminated by a broad and never to be forgotten distinction. On the one side, regarding the people as one, by their common sufferings, triumphs and interests, and dreading the catastrophe which they feared was at hand, they laboured to unite them in an indissoluble union, under one Federal head, having supreme power to regulate and govern the general concerns of the whole. On the other, regarding the states with partial affection, and jealous of every measure which tended to deprive them of any portion of the ultimate control, they magnified the danger, and descried the uses, and resisted the grant, of efficient powers, even to the confederation. It is known on which side of this great question was the immortal father of his country. I do not conceive," It was authoriz-he said in the year 1786, "that we can exist long as a nation, without lodging somewhere a power which will pervade the whole union in as energetic a manner, as the authority of the state governments extends over the *1 Marsh. Life of Washington, 429. *2 Marsh. Life of Washington, 75. 1835.] BINNEY'S EULOGY ON JOHN MARSHALL. 293 several states." Being called upon to use his personal ginia adopted the Constitution; but the small majority influence, to bring to order a body of insurgents, whom of ten by which it was carried, and this brief notice of the disordered state of the times permitted to grow into the objections to it, may show that the seeds of party flagrant rebellion against the laws, he replied, "I know division were sown, before the formation of the present not where that influence is to be found, nor, if attaina- | union, and that if the spirit of the confederation was ble, that it would be a proper remedy for these disor- not likely to misinterpret the administration of the Con. ders. Influence is not Government. Let us have a go- stitution, it was as little likely to regard it with favor. vernment by which our lives, liberties and properties, The sentiments of Mr. Marshall upon the best genewill be secured, or let us know the worst at once." On ral structure of government, declared in this memorathe same side, then and ever after, was John Marshall, ble convention, were those in which he afterwards lived and when the extremity of public distress had wrung and died. He was the friend of a government of suffi from twelve of the states their consent to a convention cient strength to protect those rights in whose behalf for the revision of the Federal System, and that body government is instituted; but he was also, and therehad submitted for the approbation of the people of the fore, the friend of the people, and of the principle of several states the present Constitution, he was a dele- representation, by which rulers are kept in harmony gate to the convention of Virginia, which met on the with the people; and he gave his cordial preference to second of June, 1788, to take it into consideration. the scheme of regulated liberty, proposed in the ConVirginia was divided with remarkable equality in re- stitution, over every other form of government upon gard to this instrument, for which there is now among earth. In his first reply to Mr. Henry, he said, "I con us a profession of universal admiration; and she sent ceive that the object of the discussion now before us the flower of her people to the convention at which is whether democracy or despotism be most eligible. it was to be considered. Intelligence, talents, patri- Those who framed the system submitted to our investiotism, and undoubted integrity of purpose, did not dis- gation, and those who now support it, intend the estabtinguish the parties in that body from each other; but lishment and security of the former. The supporters they were irreconcileably opposed in opinion, and re- of the Constitution claim the title of being firm friends spectively assailed and defended the fundamental prin- of liberty and the rights of mankind. They consider ciples of the constitution with the ardour of equal con- it the best means of protecting liberty. We, sir, idol- viction. The fire of Patrick Henry kindled in many ize democracy. Those who oppose it, have bestowed of his hearers the most vivid apprehensions for the fate eulogiums on monarchy. We prefer this system to any of the states, and of freedom itself, under the influence monarchy, because we are convinced that it has a greatof a constitution, in the first words of which, "We the er tendency to secure our liberty, and promote our happeople," he saw the portent of consolidation, and in piness. We admire it, because we think it a well regthe title and office of President, "the likeness of a ulated democracy." "The honourable gentlemen said, kingly crown. He alarmed them by the declaration, that a government should depend upon the affections that by the power of taxation, by that of raising an of the people. It must be so. It is the best support army, and by their control over the militia, Congress it can have." "We are threatened with the loss of our would have the sword in one hand and the purse in the liberties by the possible abuse of power, notwithstanding other, "and that unless a miracle in human affairs in the maxim that those who give may take away. It is terposed," the nation could not retain its liberty; that the people that give power and can take it back. What the treaty making power would place the territory and shall restrain them? They are the masters who gave commerce of the states in the hands of the President it, and of whom their servants hold it." "The worthy and two thirds of a quorum of the Senate; and that by member has concluded his observations by many euloits power to make all laws which should be necessary giums on the British Constitution. It matters not to us, and proper to carry its express powers into effect, the whether it be a wise one or not. I think that, for Amegovernment would operate like an ambuscade, and rica at least, the government on your table, is very would destroy the state governments, and swallow the much superior to it. I aşk you, if your house of repliberties of the people, without giving them previous resentatives would be better than this, if the hundredth notice." Other delegates of great name and influence, part of the people were to elect a majority of them? If the Masons and the Graysons, men at that time and af- your Senators were for life, would they be more agree. terwards most dear to Virginia, assisted to rivet these able to you? If your President were not accountable fears upon the public mind, by every variety of argu- to you for his conduct-if it were a constitutional maxment drawn from almost every provision in the Consti- im that he could do no wrong,-would you be safer tution, those especially to which there must be imme- than you are now? If you can answer yes to these diate resort, in the very first steps of its administra- questions, then adopt the British constitution. If tion. not, then, good as that government may be, this is bet ter." reer. Of the delegates who resisted these assaults, there were two whom subsequent events have distinguished from the rest by their long continued and elevated caJames Madison, who had been a distinguished member of the convention which formed the constitution, and had afterwards devoted his consummate pow. ers with Hamilton and Jay, to the explanation and defence of the whole instrument,-this now most venerable and venerated man, the beautiful evening of whose illustrious life, is, to the delight of a grateful people, still unspent,gave to it again the full vigor of his philosophical mind, and the copious resources of his mature and disciplined wisdom; and by his side stood the man we are assembled to honour, who turning from what was incidental or subordinate to the more important topics of debate, and shedding upon them the light of an intellect, in whose rays nothing was obscure, dispelled the shadows which had been thrown around them, and in sustaining the Constitution, unconsciously prepared for his own glory, the imperishable connection which bis name now has with its principles. For tunately for him, as for us all, the convention of Vir It was the admirable temper in which these remarks were made, and the spirit of sincerity and personal conviction which breathed in them, that drew from Patrick Henry, his short but comprehensive eulogium. "I have the highest respect and veneration for the honourable gentleman. I have experienced his candour upon all occasions" We ate now, fellow citizens, at the distance of nearly half a century from the first movements of the govern ment established by the Constitution thus adopted, and it is not possible to give an intelligible narrative of the life of John Marshall, without a glance at them during the administration of the first President. The principal actors in them have passed away. Their conflicts of opinion,-their struggles for personal triumph, or for public favour,-have ceased to divide or to excite us, while the memory of their talents and of their devotion to the public welfare, is perpetually coming up to us with fresh and renewed fragrance, as our senses take in the scene of universal happiness which has crowned their labours. In referring to that day, it is our duty |