board an English frigate. Congress ad journed upon the fourteenth of May, 1800. Without any intimation having been made to him, Marshall was nominated as Secretary of War on the seventh of May. This ap pointment he declined, but on the thirteenth he accepted the secretaryship of State, Mr. Pickering having been removed from that office by President Adams, and he continued to exercise the functions of secretary until March 5, 1801. The short time during which he held the portfolio of State was character ized by his successful correspondence with the English minister respecting the claims of British creditors and neutral rights. Upon the resignation of Mr. Chief Justice Ells worth, Marshall advised the appointment of John Jay to the vacancy, and, upon the declination of that gentleman, he urged President Adams to raise Mr. Justice Paterson to the Chief Justiceship. Instead of sending the name of that judge to the Sen ate, however, the President, on January 31, 1801, appointed his Secretary of State to that high office. The appointment was immedi ately confirmed, and on February 4 Mar shall took the oath of office and his seat upon the bench as Chief Justice of the United States. His commission was signed by Mr. Dexter, the Secretary of War, acting as Secretary of State at the request of the President, but Marshall continued to hold the office of secretary until the appointment of Mr. Madison by President Jefferson. For the remaining thirty-four years of his life Marshall's whole energies were engaged upon his judicial work, except the time which he spent in writing the "Life of Wash ington" and in attendance upon the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1829. His "Life of Washington" was undertaken at the solicitation of Mr. Justice Washington, who furnished the papers for and divided the profits of it. It was first published in a five-volume edition, with a long introduc tion on the history of the Colonies, — the first three volumes appearing in 1804, the fourth in 1805, and the fifth in 1807. It was
afterwards, in 1831, abridged to two volumes. The original w:ork did not prove so accept able to the public as had been anticipated. It is prolix and perhaps too comprehensive, and having been written in such a short space of time, while the weighty questions of his judicial position usurped his attention, it is not such a work as the public had the right to expect. It does justice neither to the author nor to the subject. Mr. Magruder in his "Life of Marshall," says of it: "In honesty it must be admitted that the censoriousness of the English critics came nearer to the truth than the friendly and courteous compliments of the popular author's coun trymen. In the first place, the time had not come when the life of Washington could be properly written, so far at least as his admin istrations as President were concerned; the questions which had then arisen were too near; the partisanship was as fresh and as strong as ever; and even the judicial mind of Marshall could not escape such powerful present influences. Neither was Marshall altogether fitted to write a great book; he was not a literary man nor a scholar; he did not understand the art of composition, and of making a vivid, condensed, attractive narrative. He wrote a useful book, as a man of his ability could not fail to do when dealing with subjects with which he was thoroughly familiar, and in which he was deeply interested; he had further the advan tage which arises always from personal acquaintance with the subject of the memoir and entire sympathy with him. For the stu dent of American history the book must thus have a value; but general readers have long since forgotten it, and leave it neglected on the shelves of the old libraries." No incident in the life of Marshall so well illustrates the veneration in which he was held as his attendance upon the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. He was then seventy-four years old and had attained his unexampled reputation and authority as a great judge. He spoke seldom and briefly, but always in a conciliatory spirit, although
