Page:History of the Supreme court of the United States (IA historyofsupreme00myeriala).pdf/232



Of all of the Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, John Marshall, in reputation, biographical lore, and tradition has stood out fixedly as the most illustrious. Certain fervent writers have even classed him as of the three greatest men that America has produced, ranking with Washington and Lincoln. A multitude of -eulogists have acclaimed him as one of the very foremost jurists of all ages, the quintessence and apogee of exalted judicial wisdom and virtue.

Long since, it became the settled fashion in particular quarters to reverence Marshall’s very memory. But it has been remarked that this continuous laudation has singularly failed to toucli and move the popular mind. Of other heroes, warrior and political, the people at large know, but they seem to lack all due appreciation of judicial heroes, and go their way caring nothing.

If to the unerndite run of people the name of John Marshall carries little, and means less, it signifies much to the aristocracy, or let us say, the oligarchy of wealth. Justly so to that highly conscious class, which always well rewards and honors its apostles and servers, the deeds and services of John Marshall stand out with a halo of dazzling greatness. To them, Marshall is the greatest of the great among judges.

In appearance he did violence to the prescribed fastidious apparel of awe with which a judge was expected to invest himself, He was careless, even sloven in his dress, looking more like a countryman than a jurist, often taking his seat on the Supreme Court bench with burrs sticking to his clothes—