Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive SketchesVarious
History
Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches
Various
Historic buildings -- United States; Statesmen -- United States; United States -- Biography
and whatever more there might have been of merely intellectual power,
would not have enabled him to lay the foundations of our national and
constitutional jurisprudence with the depth, breadth, and firmness,
which all attacks upon them have, as yet, only made more apparent, if it
had not been for his moral character. Here lay the inmost secret of his
power. Men felt, and the nation felt, his incorruptibility; meaning by
this, not merely the absence of that baser and more obvious selfishness,
which most men of decent self-respect overcome or suppress; but his
perfect and manifest freedom from all motives and all influences
whatever, which could tend to cloud or warp his understanding, or
qualify the utterance of his wisdom. He did not stand before us a man of
living ice, perfectly safe because perfectly cold; for he was
affectionate and gentle as a child; excitable even to enthusiasm, when
that kind heart was touched; listening, not only with an equal strength
to the strongest, but with a perfect sympathy to the eloquent, and with
a charming courtesy to all. There he stood, and no one ever saw him and
heard him, and did not know that his one wish was to do his great duty;
and that his admirable intellect came to its daily tasks, and did them,
wholly free from all possible distortion or disturbance, not because he
was strong enough to repel all the influences of party, or passion, or
prejudice, or interest, or personal favor, but because none of these
things could come near enough to him to be repelled. By the happy
constitution of his nature, there was no flaw in him to give entrance to
any thing which, could draw him one hair's breadth aside from the
straight course of truth and justice, and of the law, which in his mind
was but their embodiment and voice. Of this good and great man there is
as yet no adequate memorial; and it would require a strong hand, and if
not an equal, at least a sympathizing mind and heart, to construct one
which shall indeed be adequate. But I indulge the hope that it will be
given to us before the generation which knew him shall pass wholly away.
And you, I am sure, will pardon me for using this opportunity to render
to his cherished memory this slight and evanescent tribute. I do but
indulge myself in saying a part of what I have frequent occasion to say
to the many students to whom it is my official duty to teach the law of
their country as well as I can, and therefore to speak often of
Marshall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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