Shows how Chief Justice Marshall's childhood, military service, and his experiences as lawyer, legislator, politician, and diplomat shaped his character and influenced his constitutional views and eventual leadership of the Supreme Court.
Widely regarded as America's most important Chief Justice, John Marshall influenced our constitutional, political, and economic development as much as any American. He handed down landmark decisions on judicial review, federal-state relations, contracts, corporations, and commercial regulation during a thirty-four year tenure that encompassed five presidencies, a second war of independence, the demise of the first American party system, and the advent of Jacksonianism and market capitalism. This is the first interpretive study of Marshall's early life that emphasizes the formative influences on him before he joined the Court. By that time his character and attitudes were fully formed through his childhood in the Virginia gentry, his service in the state militia and Continental Army, and his work as a prominent lawyer, a Federalist, and a diplomat.
Drawing heavily on Marshall's own writings, this study views his pre-Supreme Court life as a cumulative experience that formed the identity and value system that he brought to bear on his experiences as Chief Justice. Robarge examines Marshall's social and political education in the unique milieu of late 18th century Virginia for its own intrinsic interest, as well as for its relationship to his profound contribution to the Court. The events and situations that shaped Marshall's personality and attitudes directly influenced his leadership style. They also had a deep impact upon his efforts to establish an independent judiciary, to unify the nation through territorial expansion and a legal common market, and to revive the moribund Federalist party as a balance to the dominant Republicans led by the cousin he detested, Thomas Jefferson.
Prologue: Appointment
Childhood in the Frontier Gentry, 1755-1774
The Revolutionary War Experience, 1774-1781
Lawyer and Lawmaker in the Old Dominion, 1781-1787
Virginia Nationalist, 1787-1791
Southern Federalist (I), 1791-1797
Diplomatic Interlude: The XYZ Mission, 1797-1798
Southern Federalist (II), 1798-1801
Chief Justice, 1801-1835
Bibliography
Reviews
Robarge has provided a valuable service by recounting John Marshall's biography up to the year he became chief justice of the US Supreme Court...Robarge does a superb job.—Choice
Working from the premise that a book focusing of John Marhsall's life before his service on the U.S. Supreme Court fills a gap in the voluminous literature on the man and the court he headed, the author has sought to fill this opening...This is a scholar's book in it's writing style, its historiographical context, and its extensive documentation, and, as such, it is a welcome contribution to the literature.—The Historian
[a] valuable illumination of Marshall as a politician and lawyer in the early Republic--it is also of great significance for understanding the process of choosing Supreme Court nominees.—H-Net Reviews in the Humanities & Social Sciences
This is a book long awaited....unquestionably the best scholarly bioigraphy of the great chief justice yet to be published. As such it demands immediate attention from anyone wishing to understand Marshall or his impact on the Constitution and the U.S. Supreme Court.—The Journal of American History
...the author has produced a richly detailed picture of Marshall's own life and the myriad events and personalities that shaped his world.—Journal of Southern History
