John Marshall. George Washington, John Jay and John Marshall.1 There are many testimonies to his great modesty, self-effacement and true humility, in any company, whether of friends or of strangers. Let me quote but one, recently made known to me by the kindness of the President of [the Virginia] Supreme Court of Appeals (a kinsman of Chief Justice Mar shall), and which, with his permission, is given in his own words: "I have an aunt in Fauquier County, Miss Lucy Chillón, now in her ninety-first year. I asked her on one occa sion if she had known Judge Marshall. She replied that she had spent weeks at a time in the same house with him. I then asked her what trait or characteristic most im pressed her. She replied without hesitation: 'His humility. He seemed to think himself the least considered person in whatever com pany he chanced to be.' " This quality in him may help us to understand the saying, that the great lawgiver and judge of the Hebrews—who, we are told, "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was
mighty in words and in deeds"—was "very meek, above all men which were upon the face of the earth." His private character cannot be more feli citously or more feelingly summed up than in the resolutions drawn up by Mr. Leigh, and unanimously adopted by the Bar of this circuit, soon after the death of the Chief Justice: "His private life was worthy of the exalted character he sustained in public sta tion. The unaffected simplicity of his man ners; the spotless purity of his morals; his social, gentle, cheerful disposition; his hab itual self-denial, and boundless generosity towards others; the strength and constancy of his attachments; his kindness to his friends and neighbors; his exemplary con duct in the relations of son, brother, hus band and father; his numerous charities; his benevolence towards all men, and his ever active beneficence; these amiable qualities shone so conspicuously in him, throughout his life, that, highly as he was respected, he had the rare happiness to be yet. more be loved." 1 1 M. Justice Gray.
1 Professor Jeremiah Smith.
195
