John Marshall: Definer of a Nation by Jean Edward Smith (review)

Book Reviews 183 Book Reviews Jean Edward Smith. John Marshall:Definer of a Nation. New York, Henry Holt and Qirpany, 1996. Pp. 736. Albert J. Beveridge, in his life of John Marshall, says that somebody, either Marshall or Henry clay wrote a couplet which ran this way: It was in bluegrass Kentucky that a paradox was born. The corn was full of kernels, and the Colonels full of corn. It was actually Marshall who evidently wrote it on the flyleaf of a book some girl gave him for an autograph. Another tale of a cognate character states that one of the Supreme Court justices, probably Marshall kept a store of liquor in the court's rooms and the rule was that when the justices lunched together , if it was a rainy day they would break out the bottles of wine, and if the day was sunny, they would keep these bottles of wine in the closet. But the chief had a way of going to the window, looking around to contemplate the national jurisdiction, and concluding that somewhere in the United States today it is certainly raining. "Bring out the wine!" What emerges in the pages of this comprehensive new biography of the great Chief Justice and some-time lawyer, soldier, scholar, diplomat, Federalist statesman, husband and father is a very human personage, a good liver, lover of fine Madeira, good food, and lively dinner conversation. In Jean Edward Smith's biographical treatment, the law and legal aspects of Marshall's career as Chief Justice are subordinated to the man, and to the equally interesting phases of his private life. More than three hundred pages of the book cover in loving detail the pre-Court years, not as mere prologue to what followed but as formative years focusing on the experiences, especially during his service with the Virginia Rifles during the American Revolution that made Marshall an ardent nationalist. 184 Canadian Review of American Studies Revue canadienne d'etudes americaznes It is almost inpossible to extricate Marshall's political views from the judicial philosophy inherent in his magisterial Supreme Court rulings. Four of them establish the basis for his reputation as "Definer of a Nation, 11 the subtitle of this biography: his unshakable belief in a strong national government , as opposed to a loose confederation of states, the supremacy of the Constitution, the necessity for an independent judiciary, and the unalienable right of citizens to possess, enjoy, and augment private property. Marshall did not believe in judicial supremacy, but some of his principles would later take the Supreme Court in the direction of establishing it. One of the main reasons he supported adoption of the Constitution so vigorously was his belief that an independent judiciary was a basic tenet of the new governmental systan, a sine qua non with him. Throughout his long career as Chief Justice and in the battle to protect the liberties of the indvidual, Marshall regarded an independent judiciary as the first line of defense. His greatest contribution in his long tenure from 1801 to 1835, during which five presidents came and went, was his assertion of the authority of the Supreme Court to interpret the Constitution (not recognized universally in the United States at the time), and to declare laws passed by Congress and the state legislatures unconstitutional. The power is not expressly or explicitly given to the court in Article III of the Constitution. In his most famous opinion, Marbury v. Madison (1803), he established that the Constitution is the supreme law, an inportant legal document to be interpreted by the courts. He treated the Constitution simultaneously as a political document, utilizing it to define how the nation is governed. Thus in writing his landmark opinion in Marbury, Marshall established the power of judicial review, a unique feature of the U.S. constitutional systen, which meant that in matters of law and interpretation of the Constitution, decisions by the Supreme Court are final. These were far-reaching concepts for their time, establishing the Supreme Court as a constitutional body. In addition, Marshall made the Constitution a binding contract on the American people, no mere compact among sovereign states, as some of the antifederalists would...