gentle, cheerful disposition; his habitual self-denial, and boundless generosity towards others; the strength and constancy of his attachments; his kindness to his friends. and neighbors; his exemplary conduct in the relations of son, brother, husband, 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 beloved." Let me add a few words from the address of Mr. William Maxwell before the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society on March 2, 1836, preserved in the Southern Literary Messenger: "He came about amongst us, like a father amongst his children, like a patriarch amongst his people—like that patriarch whom the sacred Scriptures have canonized for our admiration -' when the eye saw him it blessed him; when the ear heard him it gave witness to him; and after his words men spake not again."" The earliest and most lifelike description that we have of his face and figure is one given by the kinsman who was present on the occasion, already mentioned, of his taking command of a militia company in 1775, when not quite twenty years of age: "He was about six feet high, straight and rather slender; of dark complexion, showing little if any rosy red, yet good health; the outline of the face nearly a circle, and, within that, eyes dark to blackness, strong and penetrating, beaming with intelligence and good nature; an upright forehead, rather low, was terminated in a horizontal line by a mass of raven-black hair of unusual thickness and strength; the features of the face were in harmony with this outline, and the temples fully developed; the result of this combination was interesting and very agreeable. The body and limbs indicated agility rather than strength, in which, however, he was by no means deficient.". A few words more may be quoted, completing the picture: "He wore a purple or pale-blue hunting-shirt, and trousers of the same material fringed with white. A round black hat, mounted with the bucks-tail for a cockade, crowned the figure and the man." "This is a portrait to which," adds Mr. Binney, "in everything but the symbols of the youthful soldier, and one or two of those lineaments which the hand of time, however gentle, changes and perhaps improves, he never lost his resemblance. All who knew him well will recognize its truth to nature." Of all the portraits by various artists, that which best accords with the above description, especially in the "eyes dark to blackness, strong and penetrating, beaming with intelligence and good nature," is one by Jarvis (perhaps the best American portrait painter of his time, next to Stuart), which I have had the good fortune to own for thirty years, and of which, before I bought it, Mr. Middleton, then the clerk of the Supreme Court, who had been deputy clerk for eight years under Chief Justice Marshall, wrote me: "It is an admirable likeness; better than the one I have, which has always been considered one of the best." This portrait was taken while his hair was still black, or nearly so; and, as shown by the judicial robe, and by the curtain behind and above the head, was intended to represent him as he sat in court. The most important of the later portraits are those painted by Harding in 1828-30, and by Inman in 1831, with a graver expression of countenance, with the hair quite gray, and with deep lines in the face. Harding's portraits were evidently thought well of, by the subject, as well as by the artist. One of them, afterwards bequeathed by Mr. Justice Story to Harvard College, was sent to him by the Chief Justice in March, 1828, with a letter saying, "I beg you to accept my portrait, for which I sat in Washington to Mr. Harding, to be preserved when I shall sleep with my fathers, as a testimonial of sincere and affectionate friendship; " and in the same letter he gave directions for paying Harding "for the head and shoulders I have bespoke for myself." Harding's principal portrait of Marshall was painted in 1830 for the Boston Athenæum, in whose possession it still is; it has the advantage of being a full length, showing that in his seventy-fifth year he retained the erect and slender figure of his youth; and the artist wrote of it in his autobiography: "I consider it a good picture. I had great pleasure in painting the whole of such a man." Inman's careful portrait, in the possession of the Philadelphia Law Association, has often been engraved, and is perhaps the best known of all. The crayon portrait in profile, drawn by St. Mémin in 1808, which has always remained in the family of the Chief Justice, and been considered by them an excellent likeness, and is now owned by a descendant in Baltimore; the bust by Frazee, bequeathed by Mr. Justice Story to Harvard College, and familiarly known by numerous casts; and that executed by Powers, by order of Congress, soon after the Chief Justice's death, for the Supreme Court room-all show that, while his hair grew rather low on the forehead, his head was high and well shaped, and that, as was then not unusual, he wore his hair in a queue. His dress, as shown in the full-length portrait by Hard ing, and as described by his contemporaries, was a simple and appropriate, but by no means fashionable, suit of black, with knee breeches, long stockings, and low shoes with buckles. You may think, my friends, that I have been led on to spend too much time in endeavoring to bring before you the bodily semblance of the great Chief Justice. Yet you must admit, as he did in his letter to Delaplaine, that portraits of eminent men are "an object of considerable interest." But, after all, it is not the personal aspect of a great man, it is his intellect and his character, that have a lasting influence on mankind. Ut vultus hominum, ita simu lacra vultus imbecilla ac mortalia sunt. Forma mentis æterna; quam tenere et exprimere, non per alienam materiam et artem, sed tuis ipse moribus possis. Brethren of the Bar of the Old Dominion; Fellowcitizens of the United States: To whatsoever professional duty or public office we may any of us be called, we can find, in the long line of eminent judges with whom Almighty Providence has blessed our race, no higher inspiration, no surer guide, than in the example and in the teachings of JOHN MARSHALL. NOTE. The pamphlet edition of the foregoing address contains the following list of SUPREME COURT DECISIONS REFERRED TO BY MR. JUSTICE GRAY. Bank of United States v. Deveaux (1809), 5 Cranch, 61. Boyle v. Zacharie (1832), 6 Peters, 635, 648. Brown v. Maryland (1827), 12 Wheaton, 419. Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), 2 Dallas, 419. Cohens v. Virginia (1821), 6 Wheaton, 264. Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819), 4 Wheaton, 518. Fletcher v. Peck (1810), 6 Cranch, 87. The Genesee Chief (1851), 12 Howard, 443. Hollingsworth v. Virginia (1798), 3 Dallas, 378. Hope Insurance Company v. Boardman (1809), 5 Cranch, 57. Louisville Railroad Company v. Letson (1844), 2 Howard, 497. Marbury v. Madison (1803), 1 Cranch, 137. Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1816), 1 Wheaton, 304. Ogden v. Saunders (1827), 12 Wheaton, 213. Osborn v. Bank of United States (1824), 9 Wheaton, 738. Stuart v. Laird (1803), 1 Cranch, 299. Sturges v. Crowninshield (1819), 4 Wheaton, 122. The Thomas Jefferson (1825), 10 Wheaton, 428. United States v. Peters (1809), 5 Cranch, 115. United States v. Wiltberger (1820), 5 Wheaton, 76. Ware v. Hylton (1796), 3 Dallas, 199 Also the following list of AUTHORITIES CONSULTED OTHER THAN SUPREME COURT DECISIONS. Adams, John. Works, vol. ix. Boston, 1854. Adams, John Quincy. Memoirs, vols. viii, ix. Philadelphia, 1876. Binney, Horace. Eulogy on Marshall. Philadelphia, 1835. Old Bar of Philadelphia. p. 83. Philadelphia, 1859. Bradley, Joseph P. St. Memin's Portrait of Marshall. Century Magazine of September, 1889. New York, 1889. Bryce, James. The American Commonwealth. London, 1888. Butler, Charles. Reminiscences. vol. i (4th ed.), p. 133. London, 1824. Carson, Hampton L. The Supreme Court of the United States. (2d ed.) Philadelphia, 1892. |