The Life of John Marshall Volume II Part 50

CHAPTER XI

INDEPENDENCE IN CONGRESS

The Const.i.tution is not designed to secure the rights of the people of Europe or Asia or to direct proceedings against criminals throughout the universe. (Marshall.)

The whole world is in arms and no rights are respected but those that are maintained by force. (Marshall.)

Marshall is disposed to express great respect for the sovereign people and to quote their expressions as evidence of truth.

(Theodore Sedgwick.)

"I have been much in Company with General Marshall since we arrived in this City. He possesses great powers and has much dexterity in the application of them. He is highly & deservedly respected by the friends of Government [Federalists] from the South. In short, we can do nothing without him. I believe his intentions are perfectly honorable, & yet I do believe he would have been a more decided man had his education been on the other side of the Delaware, and he the immediate representative of that country."[993]

So wrote the Speaker of the House of Representatives after three weeks of a.s.sociation with the Virginia member whom he had been carefully studying. After another month of Federalist scrutiny, Cabot agreed with Speaker Sedgwick as to Marshall's qualities.

"In Congress, you see Genl. M.[arshall] is a leader. He is I think a virtuous & certainly an able man; but you see in him the faults of a Virginian. He thinks too much of that State, & he expects the world will be governed according to the Rules of Logic. I have seen such men often become excellent legislators after experience has cured their errors. I hope it will prove so with Genl. M.[arshall], who seems calculated to act a great part."[994]

The first session of the Sixth Congress convened in Philadelphia on December 2, 1799. Marshall was appointed a member of the joint committee of the Senate and the House to wait upon the President and inform him that Congress was in session.[995]

The next day Adams delivered his speech to the Senators and Representatives. The subject which for the moment now inflamed the minds of the members of the President's party was Adams's second French mission. Marshall, of all men, had most reason to resent any new attempt to try once more where he had failed, and to endeavor again to deal with the men who had insulted America and spun about our representatives a network of corrupt intrigue. But if Marshall felt any personal humiliation, he put it beneath his feet and, as we have seen, approved the Ellsworth mission. "The southern federalists have of course been induced [by Marshall] to vindicate the mission, as a sincere, honest, and politic measure," wrote Wolcott to Ames.[996]

Who should prepare the answer of the House to the President's speech?

Who best could perform the difficult task of framing a respectful reply which would support the President and yet not offend the rebellious Federalists in Congress? Marshall was selected for this delicate work.

"Mr. Marshall, from the committee appointed to draught an Address in answer to the Speech of the President of the United States ... reported same."[997] Although written in admirable temper, Marshall's address failed to please; the result was pallid.

"Considering the state of the House, it was necessary and proper that the answer to the speech should be prepared by Mr. Marshall," testifies Wolcott. "He has had a hard task to perform, and you have seen how it has been executed. The object was to unite all opinions, at least of the federalists; it was of course necessary to appear to approve the mission, and yet to express the approbation in such terms as when critically a.n.a.lyzed would amount to no approbation at all. No one individual was really satisfied; all were unwilling to encounter the danger and heat which a debate would produce and the address pa.s.sed with silent dissent; the President doubtless understood the intention, and in his response has expressed his sense of the dubious compliment in terms inimitably obscure."[998] Levin Powell, a Federalist Representative from Virginia, wrote to his brother: "There were members on both sides that disliked that part of it [Marshall's address] where he spoke of the Mission to France."[999]

The mingled depression, excitement, and resentment among Marshall's colleagues must have been great indeed to have caused them thus to look upon his first performance in the House; for the address, which, even now, is good reading, is a strong and forthright utterance. While, with polite agreement, gliding over the controverted question of the mission, Marshall's speech is particularly virile when dealing with domestic politics. In coupling Fries's Pennsylvania insurrection with the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions Marshall displayed as clever political dexterity as even Jefferson himself.

The address enumerates the many things for which Americans ought to thank "the benevolent Deity," and laments "that any portion of the people ... should permit themselves, amid such numerous blessings, to _be seduced_ by ... _designing men_ into an open resistance to the laws of the United States.... Under a Const.i.tution where the public burdens can only be imposed by the people themselves, for their own benefit, and to promote their own objects, a hope might well have been indulged that the general interest would have been too well understood, and the general welfare too highly prized, to have produced in any of our citizens a disposition to hazard so much felicity, by the criminal effort of a part, to oppose with lawless violence the will of the whole."[1000]

While it augured well that the courts and militia cooperated with "the military force of the nation" in "restoring order and submission to the laws," still, this only showed the necessity of Adams's "recommendation"

that "the judiciary system" should be extended. As to the new French mission, the address "approves the pacific and humane policy" which met, by the appointment of new envoys, "the first indications on the part of the French Republic" of willingness to negotiate; and "offers up fervent prayers to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe for the success of their emba.s.sy."

Marshall declares "the present period critical and momentous. The important changes which are occurring, the new and great events which are every hour preparing ... the spirit of war ... prevalent in almost every nation ... demonstrate" the need of providing "means of self-defense." To neglect this duty from "love of ease or other considerations" would be "criminal and fatal carelessness." No one could tell how the new mission would terminate: "It depends not on America alone. The most pacific temper will not ensure peace." Preparation for "national defense ... is an ... obvious duty. Experience the parent of wisdom ... has established the truth ... that ... nothing short of the power of repelling aggression will" save us from "war or national degradation."[1001]

Gregg of Pennsylvania moved to strike out the italicized words in Marshall's address to the President, but after a short debate the motion was defeated without roll-call.[1002]

Wolcott gives us a clear a.n.a.lysis of the political situation and of Marshall's place and power in it at this particular moment: "The federal party is composed of the old members who were generally re-elected in the northern, with new members from the southern states. New York has sent an anti-federal majority; Pennsylvania has done the same; opposition principles are gaining ground in New Jersey and Maryland, and in the present Congress, the votes of these states will be fluctuating and undecided."

Nothing shows more clearly the intimate gossip of the time than the similarity of Wolcott's and Cabot's language in describing Marshall. "A number of distinguished men," continues Wolcott, "appear from the southward, who are not pledged by any act to support the system of the last Congress; these men will pay great respect to the opinions of General Marshall; he is doubtless a man of virtue 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 const.i.tution as if it were a penal statute, and will sometimes be embarra.s.sed with doubts of which his friends will not perceive the importance."[1003]

Marshall headed the committee to inquire of the President when he would receive the address of the House, and on December 10, "Mr. Speaker, attended by the members present, proceeded to the President's house, to present him their Address in answer to his Speech."[1004] A doleful procession the hostile, despondent, and irritated Representatives made as they trudged along Philadelphia's streets to greet the equally hostile and exasperated Chief Magistrate.

Presidential politics was much more on the minds of the members of Congress than was the legislation needed by the country. Most of the measures and practically all the debates of this remarkable session were shaped and colored by the approaching contest between the Federalists and Republicans and, personally, between Jefferson and Adams. Without bearing this fact in mind the proceedings of this session cannot be correctly understood. A mere reading of the maze of resolutions, motions, and debates printed in the "Annals" leaves one bewildered. The princ.i.p.al topic of conversation was, of course, the impending presidential election. Hamilton's faction of extreme Federalists had been dissatisfied with Adams from the beginning. Marshall writes his brother "in confidence" of the plots these busy politicians were concocting.

"I can tell you in confidence," writes Marshall, "that the situation of our affairs with respect to domestic quiet is much more critical than I had conjectured. The eastern people are very much dissatisfied with the President on account of the late [second] Mission to France. They are strongly disposed to desert him & push some other candidate. King or Ellsworth with one of the Pinckneys--most probably the General, are thought of.

"If they are deter'd from doing this by the fear that the attempt might elect Jefferson I think it not improbable that they will vote generally for Adams & Pinckney so as to give the latter gentleman the best chance if he gets the Southern vote to be President.

"Perhaps this ill humor may evaporate before the election comes on--but at present it wears a very serious aspect. This circ.u.mstance is rendered the more unpleasant by the state of our finances. The impost received this year has been less productive than usual & it will be impossible to continue the present armament without another loan. Had the impost produced the sum to which it was calculated, a loan would have been unavoidable.

"This difficulty ought to have been foreseen when it was determined to execute the law for raising the army. It is now conceiv'd that we cannot at the present stage of our negotiation with France change the defensive position we have taken without much hazard.

"In addition to this many influential characters not only contend that the army ought not now to be disbanded but that it ought to be continued so long as the war in Europe shall last. I am apprehensive that our people would receive with very ill temper a system which should keep up an army of observation at the expense of the annual addition of five millions to our debt. The effect of it wou'd most probably be that the hands which hold the reins wou'd be entirely chang'd. You perceive the perplexities attending our situation.

"In addition to this there are such different views with respect to the future, such a rancorous malignity of temper among the democrats,[1005]

such [an ap]parent disposition--(if the Aurora be the index of the [mind of] those who support it) to propel us to a war with B[ritain] & to enfold us within the embrace of Fran[ce], [s]uch a detestation & fear of France among others [that I] look forward with more apprehension than I have ever done to the future political events of our country."[1006]

On December 18 a rumor of the death of Was.h.i.+ngton reached the Capital.

Marshall notified the House. His grief was so profound that even the dry and unemotional words of the formal congressional reports express it.

"Mr. Marshall," says the "Annals" of Congress, "in a voice that bespoke the anguish of his mind, and a countenance expressive of the deepest regret, rose, and delivered himself as follows:--

"Mr. Speaker: Information has just been received, that our ill.u.s.trious fellow-citizen, the Commander-in-Chief of the American Army, and the late President of the United States, is no more!

"Though this distressing intelligence is not certain, there is too much reason to believe its truth. After receiving information of this national calamity, so heavy and so afflicting, the House of Representatives can be but ill fitted for public business. I move, therefore, they adjourn."[1007]

The next day the news was confirmed, and Marshall thus addressed the House:--

"Mr. Speaker: The melancholy event which was yesterday announced with doubt, has been rendered but too certain.

"Our WAs.h.i.+NGTON is no more! The Hero, the Sage, and the Patriot of America--the man on whom in times of danger every eye was turned and all hopes were placed--lives now only in his own great actions, and in the hearts of an affectionate and afflicted people.

"If, sir, it has even not been usual openly to testify respect for the memory of those whom Heaven had selected as its instrument for dispensing good to men, yet such has been the uncommon worth, and such the extraordinary incidents, which have marked the life of him whose loss we all deplore, that the American Nation,[1008] impelled by the same feelings, would call with one voice for a public manifestation of that sorrow which is so deep and so universal.

"More than any other individual, and as much as to one individual was possible, has he contributed to found this our wide-spread empire,[1009]

and to give to the Western World its independence and its freedom.

"Having effected the great object for which he was placed at the head of our armies, we have seen him converting the sword into the plough-share, and voluntarily sinking the soldier in the citizen.

"When the debility of our federal system had become manifest, and the bonds which connected the parts of this vast continent were dissolving, we have seen him the Chief of those patriots who formed for us a Const.i.tution, which, by preserving the Union, will, I trust, substantiate and perpetuate those blessings our Revolution had promised to bestow.

"In obedience to the general voice of his country, calling on him to preside over a great people, we have seen him once more quit the retirement he loved, and in a season more stormy and tempestuous than war itself, with calm and wise determination, pursue the true interests of the Nation, and contribute, more than any other could contribute, to the establishment of that system of policy which will, I trust, yet preserve our peace, our honor and our independence.

"Having been twice unanimously chosen the Chief Magistrate of a free people, we see him, at a time when his re-election with the universal suffrage could not have been doubted, affording to the world a rare instance of moderation, by withdrawing from his high station to the peaceful walks of private life. However the public confidence may change, and the public affections fluctuate with respect to others, yet with respect to him they have in war and in peace, in public and in private life, been as steady as his own firm mind, and as constant as his own exalted virtues.

"Let us, then, Mr. Speaker, pay the last tribute of respect and affection to our departed friend--let the Grand Council of the Nation display those sentiments which the Nation feels. For this purpose I hold in my hand some resolutions which I will take the liberty to offer to the House."[1010]

The resolutions offered by Marshall declared that:--

"The House of Representatives of the United States, having received intelligence of the death of their highly valued fellow-citizen, GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON, General of the Armies of the United States, and sharing the universal grief this distressing event must produce, _unanimously resolve_:--

"1. That this House will wait on the President of the United States, in condolence of this national calamity.

"2. That the Speaker's chair be shrouded with black, and that the members and officers of the House wear mourning during the session.