new Chief Justice, however, did not share in Adams'
view in 1801; and they little comprehended Marshall's
breadth of vision or constructive power as a jurist
and statesman. Thus Oliver Wolcott had written to
Fisher Ames, in December, 1799, that Marshall was
"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 Constitution as if it were a penal statute, and will sometimes be
embarrassed with doubts, of which his friends will not
perceive the importance"; George Cabot had written
to Timothy Pickering, in 1798: "Mr. Marshall, I
know, has much to learn on the subject of a practicable
system of free government for the United States. I
believe, however, he is a man of so much good sense,
that, with honest principles, he cannot fail to discern
and pursue a right course, and therefore that he will
eventually prove a great acquisition", and in 1800,
he wrote of his "great talents and, I believe, great virtues. But I fear he is not yet a politician and has much
to learn on the subject of practicable theories of free
government."[1] Theodore Sedgwick wrote of Marshall,
less than a year before his appointment: "He is a man
of a very affectionate disposition, of great simplicity
of manner, and honest and honorable in all his conduct.
He is attached to pleasures, with convivial habits
strongly fixed. He is indolent therefore and indisposed
to take part in the common business of the house. He
has a strong attachment to popularity but indisposed
to sacrifice to it his integrity; hence it is that he is
disposed on all popular subjects to feel the public
- ↑ Life and Letters of George Cabot (1877), by Henry Cabot Lodge, letter of Cabot to Pickering, Oct. 81, 1798, letter of Cabot to Gore, Jan. 21, 1800.
terity, I would proudly claim it of both for these acts as due to my father and my- self."
