The Life of John Marshall Volume IV Part 3

The migration to the West, which had been increasing for years, now became almost a folk movement. The Eastern States were drained of their young men and women. Some towns were almost depopulated.[155] And these hosts of settlers carried into wilderness and prairie a spirit and pride that had not been seen or felt in America since the time of the Revolution. But their high hopes were to be quickly turned into despair, their pride into ashes; for a condition was speedily to develop that would engulf them in disaster. It was this situation which was to call forth some of the greatest of Marshall's Const.i.tutional opinions. This forbidding future, however, was foreseen by none of that vast throng of home-seekers crowding every route to the "Western Country," in the year of 1815. Only the rosiest dreams were theirs and the spirited consciousness that they were Americans, able to accomplish all things, even the impossible.

It was then a new world in which John Marshall found himself, when, in his sixtieth year, the war which he so abhorred came to an end. A state of things surrounded him little to his liking and yet soon to force from him the exercise of the n.o.blest judicial statesmans.h.i.+p in American history. From the extreme independence of this new period, the intense and sudden Nationalism of the war, the ideas of local sovereignty rekindled by the New England Federalists at the dying fires that Jefferson and the Republicans had lighted in 1798, and from the play of conflicting interests came a reaction against Nationalism which it was Marshall's high mission to check and to turn into channels of National power, National safety, and National well-being.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] "The navy of Britain is our s.h.i.+eld." (Pickering: _Open Letter_ [Feb.

16, 1808] _to Governor James Sullivan_, 8; _infra_, 5, 9-10, 25-26, 45-46.)

[2] _Diary and Letters of Gouverneur Morris_: Morris, II, 548.

[3] Jefferson to D'Ivernois, Feb. 6, 1795, _Works of Thomas Jefferson_: Ford, VIII, 165.

[4] Jefferson to Short, Jan. 3, 1793, _ib._ VII, 203; same to Mason, Feb. 4, 1791, _ib._ VI, 185.

[5] See vol. II, 354, of this work.

[6] _Ib._ 133-39.

[7] The Fairfax transaction.

[8] The phrase used by the Federalists to designate the opponents of democracy.

[9] See vol. II, 24-27, 92-96, 106-07, 126-28, of this work.

[10] Ames to Dwight, Oct. 31, 1803, _Works of Fisher Ames_: Ames, I, 330; and see Ames to Gore, Nov. 16, 1803, _ib._ 332; also Ames to Quincy, Feb. 12, 1806, _ib._ 360.

[11] Rutledge to Otis, July 29, 1806, Morison: _Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis_, I, 282.

[12] The student should examine the letters of Federalists collected in Henry Adams's _New-England Federalism_; those in the _Life and Correspondence of Rufus King_; in Lodge's _Life and Letters of George Cabot_; in the _Works of Fisher Ames_ and in Morison's _Otis_.

[13] See Adams: _History of the United States_, IV, 29.

[14] Once in a long while an impartial view was expressed: "I think myself sometimes in an Hospital of Lunaticks, when I hear some of our Politicians eulogizing Bonaparte because he humbles the English; & others wors.h.i.+pping the latter, under an Idea that they will shelter us, & take us under the Shadow of their Wings. They would join, rather, to deal us away like Cattle." (Peters to Pickering, Feb. 4, 1807, Pickering MSS. Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc.)

[15] See Harrowby's Circular, Aug. 9, 1804, _American State Papers, Foreign Relations_, III, 266.

[16] See Hawkesbury's Instructions, Aug. 17, 1805, _ib._

[17] Fox to Monroe, April 8 and May 16, 1806, _ib._ 267.

[18] The Berlin Decree, Nov. 21, 1806, _ib._ 290-91.

[19] Orders in Council, Jan. 7 and Nov. 11, 1807, _Am. State Papers, For. Rel._ III, 267-73; and see Channing: _Jeffersonian System_, 199.

[20] Dec. 17, 1807, _Am. State Papers, For. Rel._ III, 290.

[21] Adams: _U.S._ V, 31.

[22] "England's naval power stood at a height never reached before or since by that of any other nation. On every sea her navies rode, not only triumphant, but with none to dispute their sway." (Roosevelt: _Naval War of 1812_, 22.)

[23] See Report, Secretary of State, July 6, 1812, _Am. State Papers, For. Rel._ III, 583-85.

"These decrees and orders, taken together, want little of amounting to a declaration that every neutral vessel found on the high seas, whatsoever be her cargo, and whatsoever foreign port be that of her departure or destination, shall be deemed lawful prize." (Jefferson to Congress, Special Message, March 17, 1808, _Works:_ Ford, XI, 20.)

"The only mode by which either of them [the European belligerents] could further annoy the other ... was by inflicting ... the torments of starvation. This the contending parties sought to accomplish by putting an end to all trade with the other nation." (Channing: _Jeff. System_, 169.)

[24] Theodore Roosevelt, who gave this matter very careful study, says that at least 20,000 American seamen were impressed. (Roosevelt, footnote to 42.)

"Hundreds of American citizens had been taken by force from under the American flag, some of whom were already lying beneath the waters off Cape Trafalgar." (Adams: _U. S._ III, 202.)

See also Babc.o.c.k: _Rise of American Nationality_, 76-77; and Jefferson to Crawford, Feb. 11, 1815, _Works_: Ford, XI, 451.

[25] See Channing: _Jeff. System_, 184-94. The princ.i.p.al works on the War of 1812 are, of course, by Henry Adams and by Alfred Mahan. But these are very extended. The excellent treatments of that period are the _Jeffersonian System_, by Edward Channing, and _Rise of American Nationality_, by Kendric Charles Babc.o.c.k, and _Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis_, by Samuel Eliot Morison. The latter work contains many valuable letters. .h.i.therto unpublished.

[26] But see Jefferson to Madison, Aug. 27, 1805, _Works_: Ford, X, 172-73; same to Monroe, May 4, 1806, ib. 262-63; same to same, Oct. 26, 1806, _ib._ 296-97; same to Lincoln, June 25, 1806, _ib._ 272; also see Adams: _U.S._ III, 75. While these letters speak of a temporary alliance with Great Britain, Jefferson makes it clear that they are merely diplomatic maneuvers, and that, if an arrangement was made, a heavy price must be paid for America's cooperation.

Jefferson's letters, in general, display rancorous hostility to Great Britain. See, for example, Jefferson to Paine, Sept. 6, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 493; same to Leib, June 23, 1808, _ib._ XI, 34-35; same to Meigs, Sept. 18, 1813, _ib._ 334-35; same to Monroe, Jan. 1, 1815, _ib._ 443.

[27] Jefferson to Dearborn, July 16, 1810, _ib._ 144.

[28] _Annals_, 9th Cong. 1st Sess. 1259-62; also see "An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Certain Goods, Wares, and Merchandise," chap. 29, 1806, _Laws of the United States_, IV, 36-38.

[29] See vol. III, 475-76, of this work.

[30] Jefferson's Proclamation, July 2, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 434-47; and _Messages and Papers of the Presidents:_ Richardson, I, 421-24.

[31] "This country has never been in such a state of excitement since the battle of Lexington." (Jefferson to Bowdoin, July 10, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 454; same to De Nemours, July 14, 1807, _ib._ 460.)

For Jefferson's interpretation of Great Britain's larger motive for perpetrating the Chesapeake crime, see Jefferson to Paine, Sept. 6, 1807, _ib._ 493.

[32] Adams: _U.S._ IV, 38.

[33] Lowell: _Peace Without Dishonor--War Without Hope_: by "A Yankee Farmer," 8. The author of this pamphlet was the son of one of the new Federal judges appointed by Adams under the Federalist Judiciary Act of 1801.

[34] See _Peace Without Dishonor--War Without Hope_, 39-40.

[35] Giles to Monroe, March 4, 1807; Anderson: _William Branch Giles--A Study in the Politics of Virginia, 1790-1830_, 108.

Thomas Ritchie, in the Richmond Enquirer, properly denounced the New England Federalist headquarters as a "hot-bed of treason." (_Enquirer_, Jan. 24 and April 4, 1809, as quoted by Ambler: _Thomas Ritchie--A Study in Virginia Politics_, 46.)

[36] Adams: _U.S._ IV, 41-44, 54.

[37] Jefferson to Leiper, Aug. 21, 1807, _Works_: Ford, X, 483-84.

Jefferson tenaciously clung to his prejudice against Great Britain: "The object of England, long obvious, is to claim the ocean as her domain....

We believe no more in Bonaparte's fighting merely for the liberty of the seas, than in Great Britain's fighting for the liberties of mankind."

(Jefferson to Maury, April 25, 1812, _ib._ XI, 240-41.) He never failed to accentuate his love for France and his hatred for Napoleon.