Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/209

Rh James Innes, the Attorney-General of Virginia, "ranks first in genius, in force of thought, in power of expres- sion, and in effect of voice and manner**; ** public opinion gives the next rank as an orator to Edmund Randolph", and "John Marshall (a general of militia) is inferior in voice and manner, but for talent, he substitutes genius, and instead of talking abovi his subject, he talks upon it. He possesses neither the energy of expression nor the sublimity of imagination of Innes, but he is superior to every other orator at the Bar of Virginia, in closeness of argument, in his most surprising talent of placing his case in that point of view suited to the purpose he aims at, throwing a blaze of light upon it, and of keeping the attention of his hearers fixed upon the object to which he originally directed it. He speaks like a man of plain common sense, while he delights and informs the acute. In a less captivating line of oratory than that which signal- izes Innes, he is equally great and equally successful. The jury obeys Innes from inclination, Marshall from dviy.^^ ^ Another contemporary well summed up Mar- shall's peculiar powers by describing the "irresistible cogency and luminous simplicity in the order of his reasoning."

By many of his political opponents, Marshall was held in slight estimation, and in the Aurora, in 1800, he had been characterized as "more distinguished as a rhetorician and sophist than as a lawyer and statesman, suflBciently pliant to succeed in a corrupt court, too insincere to command respect or confidence in a republic." * Jefferson had long been at variance with him,

^John H. B. Latrobe and hit Times 180S-1891 (1919), by John E. Semmes, 11, 177-181, 191-197, letter of Benjamin H. Latrobe. May 31, 1796; this account is not cited by Beveridge, who otherwise gives full quotations from contemporary writers as to Marshall's position at the Bar. Marshall, II.

> Aurora, June 12, 1800.