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in the Legislature, until the year 1797, when I was associated with General Pinckney and Mr. Gerry in a mission to France. In 1798 I returned to the United States; and in the spring of 1799 was elected a member of Congress, a candidate for which, much against my inclination, I was induced to be come by the request of General Washington. At the close of the first session, I was nom inated, first to the Department of War, and afterwards to that of State, which last office I accepted, and in which I continued until the beginning of the year 1801, when Mr. Ellsworth having resigned, and Mr. Jay having declined his appointment, I was nom inated to the office of Chief Justice, which I still hold. I am the oldest of fifteen children, all of whom lived to be married, and of whom nine are now living. My father died when about seventy-four years of age; and my mother, who survived him about seven years, died about the same age. I do not recollect all the societies to which I belong, though they are very numerous. I have written no book, except the "Life of Washington," which- was executed with so much precipitation as to require much correction." "My earliest knowledge of the existence of such an autobiography." Mr. Justice Gray adds, "was obtained from a thin pamphlet, published at Columbus, Ohio, in 1848; found in an old bookstore in Boston; and contain ing (besides Marshall's famous speech in Congress on the case of Jonathan Robbins) only this letter, entitling it 'Autobiography of John Marshall.' The internal evidence of its genuineness is very strong; and its authenti city is put almost beyond doubt by a fac simile (recently shown me in your State Library) of a folio sheet in Marshall's hand writing, which, although it contains neither the whole of the letter, nor its address, bears the same date, and does contain the principal paragraph of the letter, word for word, with the corrections of the original manuscript, and immediately followed by his signature." This interesting autobiography is, perhaps.

the best possible introduction to the follow ing sketch of the great Chief Justice. ANCESTRY, BIRTH, YOUTH. At an early period of Virginia's history at Turkey Island (a plantation some fifteen or twenty miles from the city of Richmond, near the scene of the terrific battle of Malvern Hill) lived the Virginia planter, Wil liam Randolph. He was the ancestor of all of that name in Virginia, and from him de scended, in direct line, Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Robert E. Lee; a trium virate of civic, judicial and military power. Sprung from a distinguished lineage; trained in a school where the amenities of Jife as well as "the humanities'' were taught in their highest excellence, John Marshall practiced from his earliest childhood a scrupulous re gard for the rights and feelings of others, and an indulgence to all faults, except his own.1 Although the imperishable renown of Marshall rests largely upon the distinction attained by him in public office, it is never theless an interesting iact that he came from a distinguished ancestry. He belonged to that race of cavaliers whose influence upon the American character and our national history has been distinctively marked. John Marshall was born September 24, 1755, at Germantown, a small village in what was then frontier county of Fauquier, in the Colony of Virginia. He was descend ed from Captain John Marshall, who came to Virginia about 1650. His great-grand father was Thomas Marshall of Westmore land County, Virginia, and his grandfather was John Marshall of the "Forest," in the same county. His father was Colonel Thomas Marshall, a friend of Washington, and who took an active part in the Revolu tionary war. The grandfather of the Captain Marshall, who first settled in Virginia, was also a military man and fought as a captain 1 Professor Henry St. George Tucker, of Washington and Lee University.