ABSTRACT
A strong, resourceful, honest, capable man was John Marshall. Unlike John Taylor of Caroline, whose fame lies buried with his cause, the reputation of John Marshall has taken on immense proportions with the later triumph of his principles. John Marshall was the leader of a small remnant of Virginians who followed Washington through the fierce extremes of party conflict. John Marshall stoutly upheld the principle of minority rule as the only practical agency of stable and orderly government. Like his kinsman Jefferson, Marshall was bred on the Virginia frontier, and to the end of his life he retained the easy and careless democracy of dress and manners that marked his early environment. The bitter hostility which Marshall's decisions aroused in his native commonwealth reveals how far the Virginia of Jefferson had traveled from the Federalism of the commercial North. Concerning the wisdom of John Marshall judicial statesmanship it is idle to expect Federalist and Democrat to agree.
