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Rh new Chief Justice, however, did not share in Adams' view in 1801 ; and they little comprehended Marshall's breadth of vision or constructive power as a jurist and statesman. Thus OUver Wolcott had written to Fisher Ames, in December, 1799, that Marshall was "doubtless a man of vurtue and distinguished talents, but he will think much of the State of Virginia, and is too much disposed to govern the world according to rules of logic ; he will read and expound the Constitu- tion as if it were a penal statute, and wiU sometimes be embarrassed with doubts, of which his friends will not perceive the importance '* ; George Cabot had written to Timothy Pickering, in 1798: "Mr. Marshall, I know, has much to learn on the subject of a practicable system of free government for the United States. I believe, however, he is a man of so much good sense, that, with honest principles, he cannot fail to discern and pursue a right course, and therefore that he will eventually prove a great acquisition' and in 1800, he wrote of his "great talents and, I believe, great vir- tues. But I fear he is not yet a poUtician and has much to learn on the subject of practicable theories of free government.** ^ Theodore Sedgwick wrote of Marshall, less than a year before his appomtment : " He is a man of a very affectionate disposition, of great simplicity of manner, and honest and honorable in all his conduct. He is attached to pleasures, with convivial habits strongly fixed. He is indolent therefore and indisposed to take part in the common business of the house. He has a strong attachment to popularity but indisposed to sacrifice to it his integrity ; hence it is that he is disposed on all popular subjects to feel the public

tority, I would proudly daim it of both for these acU as due to my father and myself." ^ 1 Lit€ and LeUen of Charge Cabal (1877), by Henry Cabot Lodge, letter of Cabot to Pickenng, Oct. 81, 1798^ letter of Cabot to Gore, Jan. 21, 1800.