During the ordeal of Valley Forge General Washington is said once to have inquired, “Where is Jefferson?” Jefferson had, of course, been serving his country in a different way as a member of the Continental Congress. In retrospect it is obvious that he served it better as author of the Declaration of Independence than he might have as a mediocre soldier. Allowances for Jefferson’s military ineptitude are easy to make now in the light of his other great accomplishments; they were not so easily made by those of his contemporaries who had to do the fighting. Whatever prejudices the Revolution may have sparked between the two cousins were fanned into flame by the subsequent events which shaped their careers. Jefferson went to France as American Minister where his theory of the liberty and equality of men pronounced in the Declaration found startling application in the revolution taking place there. Very naturally Jefferson’s sympathy was with the revolutionists. Meanwhile at home the masses of the people were reveling in their new-found freedom, ignoring their responsibilities as citizens, disregarding property rights, refusing to meet their debts, and showing so little willingness to join in united action that many thoughtful men feared for the survival of the new nation. Among the latter was John Marshall. By now he was married to Mary Ambler, daughter of Jacquelin Ambler, state treasurer, who had moved with the capital when in 1779 Governor Jefferson transferred it from Williamsburg to Richmond. The elder Ambler died some years before 1807 but the fashionable quarter of Shockoe Hill was dominated by his children and relatives. The Marshalls occupied a charming brick house which John Marshall built for his wife in 1788. He enjoyed a lucrative law practice, his clients being for the most part the well-to-do merchants and members of the creditor class. Marshall’s interests and his sympathies turned in their direction. He himself came to the conclusion that the country’s only salvation rested in a strong central government. He shared this opinion with Washington and Alexander Hamilton and the other conservatives who sought to replace the loose and ineffective confederation with a compact and articulate union. These men and others with kindred ideas evolved as Federalists.