prospect which the Revolution in America and
the establishment of our free governments had opened to the votaries
of liberty throughout the globe. I fear, and there is no opinion more
degrading to the dignity of man, that those have truth on their side who
say that man is incapable of governing himself."

Marshall accordingly championed the adoption of the Constitution of 1787
quite as much because of its provisions for diminishing the legislative
powers of the States in the interest of private rights as because of
its provisions for augmenting the powers of the General Government. His
attitude is revealed, for instance, in the opening words of his first
speech on the floor of the Virginia Convention, to which he had been
chosen a member from Richmond: "Mr. Chairman, I conceive that the object
of the discussion now before us is whether democracy or despotism be
most eligible.... The supporters of the Constitution claim the title of
being firm friends of liberty and the rights of man ....We prefer this
system because we think it a well-regulated democracy.... What are the
favorite maxims of democracy? A strict observance of justice and public
faith.... Would to Heaven that these principles had been observed under
the present government. Had this been the case the friends of liberty
would not be willing now to part with it." The point of view which
Marshall here assumed was obviously the same as that from which Madison,
Hamilton, Wilson, and others on the floor of the Federal Convention had
freely predicted that republican liberty must disappear from the
earth unless the abuses of it practiced in many of the States could be
eliminated.

Marshall's services in behalf of the Constitution in the closely fought
battle for ratification which took place in the Virginia Convention
are only partially disclosed in the pages of Elliot's "Debates." He was
already coming to be regarded as one excellent in council as well as in
formal discussion, and his democratic manners and personal popularity
with all classes were a pronounced asset for any cause he chose to
espouse. Marshall's part on the floor of the Convention was, of course,
much less conspicuous than that of either Madison or Randolph, but in
the second rank of the Constitution's defenders, including men like
Corbin, Nicholas, and Pendleton, he stood foremost. His remarks were
naturally shaped first of all to meet the immediate necessities of the
occasion, but now and then t