ed.

"The members of the Supreme Court are selected from those in the United
States who are most celebrated for virtue and legal Learning.... The
duties they have to perform lead them necessarily to the most enlarged
and accurate acquaintance with the jurisdiction of the federal and
several State courts together, and with the admirable symmetry of our
government. The tenure of their offices enables them to pronounce the
sound and correct opinions they have formed, without fear, favor or
partiality."

Was it coincidence or something more that during Marshall's incumbency
Virginia paid her one and only tribute to the impartiality of the
Supreme Court while Burr's acquittal was still vivid in the minds
of all? Or was it due to the fact that "the Great Lama of the
Little Mountain"--to use Marshall's disrespectful appellation for
Jefferson--had not yet converted the Virginia Court of Appeals into
the angry oracle of his own unrelenting hatred of the Chief Justice?
Whatever the reason, within five years Virginia's attitude had again
shifted, and she had become once more what she had been in 1798-99, the
rallying point of the forces of Confederation and State Rights.

CHAPTER V. The Tenets Of Nationalism

"John Marshall stands in history as one of that small group of men who
have founded States. He was a nation-maker, a state-builder. His monument
is in the history of the United States and his name is written upon the
Constitution of his country." So spoke Senator Lodge, on John Marshall
Day, February 4, 1901. "I should feel a... doubt," declared Justice
Holmes on the same occasion, "whether, after Hamilton and the
Constitution itself, Marshall's work proved more than a strong
intellect, a good style, personal ascendancy in his court, courage,
justice, and the convictions of his party." Both these divergent
estimates of the great Chief Justice have their value. It is well to
be reminded that Marshall's task lay within the four corners of the
Constitution, whose purposes he did not originate, especially since
no one would have been quicker than himself to disown praise implying
anything different. None the less it was no ordinary skill and courage
which, assisted by great office, gave enduring definition to the
purposes of the Constitution at the very time when the whole trend of
public opinion was setting in most strongly against them. It must not
be forgotten that Hamilton, whose name Justice Holmes invokes in
his so