On the west side of the Capitol at Washington, midway between the staircases that ascend from the garden to the great building, and a little in advance, there is a colossal bronze figure of Marshall by the sculptor Story, the son of the great man’s colleague and friend,--placed there in 1884. It is a very noble work of art, worthy of the subject and the place. The Chief Justice is sitting, clothed in his judicial robe, in the easy attitude of one engaged in expounding a subject of which he is master. The figure is leaning back in the chair with the head slightly inclining forward; the right arm rests on the arm of the chair, with the hand open and extended; the left hand, holding a scroll, lies easily on the other arm of the chair. The crossed legs are covered by the gown, while low shoes and buckles, and hair gathered in a queue, speak of lifelong habits. The solid and beautiful head, and the grave and collected dignity of the features and the whole composition are very noble, satisfactory, and ideally true. The figure, standing, would be ten feet high. It sits seven feet high, and is raised upon a suitable pedestal, decorated with marble bas-reliefs of classical designs. These, if the truth were told, might well be spared, but the statue itself will fitly commemorate for many ages one of the greatest, noblest and most engaging characters in American history. The Riverside Press _Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co._ _Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._ FOOTNOTES: [1] The Chief Justice seems to have inherited and accumulated a considerable estate. By his will he gave to each of his grandsons named John a thousand acres of land. _The Green Bag_, viii. 4. He also had been a surveyor. _Ib._ 480. [2] Hammond’s Blackstone, vol. i., pp. viii. xxv. [3] Marshall’s eyes are often spoken of as black. In fact, they were brown. [4] It may be added that Thomas Marshall, father of the Chief Justice, was the son of John Marshall, called “of the Forest,” from the name of his place in Westmoreland County. Of this John it is said, in a little autobiography of the Chief Justice of some five hundred words, preserved in Mr. Justice Gray’s valuable oration at Richmond, on February 4, 1901, that his “parents migrated from Wales and settled in the county of Westmoreland in Virginia.” The will of “Thomas Marshall carpenter,” proved May 31, 1704, describing himself as of Westmoreland County, is printed in the _Virginia Magazine of History_, ii. 343, 344; and it is there stated in a note that this Thomas “was the first of his race in America.” On the other hand, we are told by an intelligent writer in Appleton’s _Cyclopædia of American Biography_, and elsewhere, that the father of “John of the Forest” was Thomas, born in Virginia in 1655, who died in 1704; and that it was his father, John, a captain of cavalry in the service of Charles I., who emigrated to Virginia about 1650.