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Serving as chief justice of the United States from 1801 to 1835, John Marshall well deserves to be known as the "Great Chief Justice." He profoundly enhanced the reputation and status of the Supreme Court, which went from being the weakest branch of the federal government to being the primary interpreter of the federal Constitution and one of the most respected legal institutions in the nation. Under his leadership, the Court made major steps in advancing the constitutional growth of the United States and in clarifying the nature of the Union, which is only tentatively outlined in the text of the Constitution itself. In addition, Marshall and his colleagues were able to shape American public and private law to facilitate economic stability and to create what modern economists term a common market. These constitutional changes were essential to the prosperity of the infant United States and in the enhancement of the nation's international standing in a highly competitive commercial world.

Even in ordinary times these would have been magnificent contributions to the general welfare, but Marshall accomplished them despite the adamant opposition of President Thomas Jefferson and his political party, which controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress during Marshall's thirty-four years as chief justice. At the same time, public opinion during the first four decades of the nineteenth century strongly favored states' rights and sharp limitations on the powers of the federal government. As a consequence, each of the new appointees to the Supreme Court made by Jefferson and his successors threatened to weaken the Court's efforts to provide the legal basis for effective government at the national level.

A veteran of five years' service in the Culpeper Minutemen and the Continental army, Marshall was a native of the Northern Neck of Virginia, and his family enjoyed a close friendship with General George Washington. Admitted to practice law after the American Revolution, Marshall became successful, principally in the highest courts of the state, which were in Richmond. In 1797 he was persuaded to accept a commission as one of three diplomats sent to France; when he and his two colleagues refused to pay a bribe to the French government before the French would begin talks, they returned home to receive the enthusiastic thanks of the American people. Known as the XYZ Affair, this event and the public support it generated for the courage and patriotism of the American ministers, resulted in Marshall's winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Taking his seat in March 1799, he remained in Congress until President John Adams appointed him secretary of state in May 1800. In January 1801 Adams nominated Marshall to head the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Senate quickly confirmed the nomination. Adams would later assert that Marshall's appointment as chief justice was the most significant act of his presidency. Marshall was a Federalist, and he lived in the shadow of his fellow Virginian George Washington, who was both his commanding general and a family friend from his childhood. This personal affinity reinforced Marshall's commitment to Federalist ideology and devoted service within the party's structure. Along with his brother-in-law, Edward Carrington, Marshall became actively involved in the electoral process in Virginia and influential in the distribution of patronage appointments within the Old Dominion. As secretary of state in the Adams administration, he was directly involved in the day-to-day administration of the federal government, particularly during Adams's increasingly frequent absences from the capital.

For Marshall, being a Federalist also involved holding a vision of America's future, based in part upon the vast treasure of land and resources that the nation had barely begun to develop and also upon a foundation of stability in property ownership and regularity in commercial relationships. Post-Revolutionary America was, in fact, similar to modern developing nations: It lacked access to capital investment, and regional and state-based diversity undermined economic relationships among the states. As chief justice, Marshall bore a faith in the nation's economic future that clearly anticipated that commercial activity would enhance and alter the agricultural basis of American prosperity. Although he had reservations about the impact of industrialization on the United States, he reluctantly accepted the need for economic growth and diversification if the new nation was to take its rightful place in the international community.

Yet Marshall's Federalist politics did not override the personal qualities that made him a successful leader of the Supreme Court. As evidenced by family tradition, contemporary anecdotes, and occasional letters and other documents, Marshall was a man who enjoyed life, valued his friends, and was eminently capable of arguing persuasively and bringing others to the acceptance of his opinions. He was an instinctive mediator and builder of consensus. In the male-dominated politics of his day, he was accepted as a friend by all, with the exception of his distant cousin Thomas Jefferson. His gift for friendship enhanced his capacity to build agreement among the justices of the Supreme Court, just as it had made him an effective politician and leader. By 1827 Chief Justice Marshall's influence within the Supreme Court had begun to wane. In June 1835 digestive troubles drove him to consult Philadelphia physicians, and he died in that city on July 6, 1835.

References:

1. Baxter, Maurice G. The Steamboat Monopoly: Gibbons v. Ogden, 1824. New York: Knopf, 1972.

2. Clinton, Robert L. Marbury v. Madison and Judicial Review. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1989.

3. Cox, Thomas H. "Courting Commerce, Gibbons v. Ogden and the Transformation of Commerce Regulation in the Early Republic." PhD dissertation, State University of New York at Albany, 2004.

4. Currie, David P. The Constitution in the Supreme Court: The First Hundred Years, 1789-1888. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.

5. Frankfurter, Felix. The Commerce Clause under Marshall, Taney and Waite. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1937.

6. Haskins, George L., and Herbert A. Johnson. Foundations of Power: John Marshall, 1801-15. New York: Macmillan, 1981.

7. Hobson, Charles F. The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996.

8. Johnson, Herbert A. The Chief Justiceship of John Marshall, 1801-1835. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997.

9. Kahn, Paul W. The Reign of Law: Marbury v. Madison and the Construction of America. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2002.

10. Killenbeck, Mark R. M'Culloch v. Maryland: Securing a Nation. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

11. Newmyer, R. Kent. John Marshall and the Heroic Age of the Supreme Court. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2001.

12. Snowiss, Sylvia,. Judicial Review and the Law of the Constitution. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1990.

13. White, G. Edward. The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815-35. New York: Macmillan, 1988.

14. Wolfe, Christopher. The Rise of Modern Judicial Review: From Constitutional Interpretation to Judge-Made Law. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield,1994.

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