Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/786

 CHIEF JUSTICE IMARSHALL AND VIRGINIA, 1813-1821 Chief Justice [Marshall was a man of strong political con- victions, and it is the political significance of his opinions which must ever receive the larger share of the historian's attention. Marshall's appointment to the high office he so long adorned was most unwelcome to Virginia, for it was expected that Ellsworth's successor would be nominated by Jefferson. Judge Spencer Roane, son-in-law of Patrick Henry, a stanch and trusted Republican leader, was " slated " for the position.^ A timely resignation of the Con- necticut chief justice opened the way for resolute John Adams to fill this most important position with the ablest of Southern Federal- ists ; but from the day of Marshall's appointment to the end of Jefferson's life the Sage of jMonticello planned for the removal of the great judge or for the essential curbing of the powers of his court. Two bitterer political enemies never lived within the bounds of the Old Dominion than Jefferson and Marshall. When, fourteen years after Marshall's appointment, he came into collision with his own state, Virginia was Jefferson's pocket borough, and few men, John Randolph alone excepted, ever held important office at the hands of her people against his wishes. The Old Dominion was held firmly in the grasp of the Republican organization ; and the Supreme Court of Appeals, presided over since 1803 by Roane, was probably the most important wheel in the political machine. Its members were all men of real distinction, well trained and masters of constitutional law both American and English. One of them, William H. Cabell, had been Jefferson's protege; all had had a hand in the elevation of the first Republican president. Roane was the court's chief ornament, and Republi- can Virginia boasted that her own chief justice was an abler lawyer and statesman than Marshall himself, whose ability, how- ever, was never questioned. Roane was a close student of the law after the " Coke on Little- ton " style ; - he was familiar with the writings of Grotius, Locke and Montesquieu, and an ardent admirer of George Mason. He had been a leader of the Henr- forces in 1788 when the great ' I'irgiiiia Lazi' Register, II. 480. 2 Branch Hislortcal Pafcrs, II. i. 6. 776