at whose most earnest insistence he entered the Cabinet
as Secretary of State, though he had previously declined to become
Secretary of War. The presidential campaign was the engrossing interest
of the year, and as it spread its "havoc of virulence" throughout the
country, Federalists of both factions seemed to turn to Marshall in the
hope that, by some miracle of conciliation, he could save the day. The
hope proved groundless, however, and all that was ultimately left the
party which had founded the Government was to choose a President from
the rival leaders of the opposition. Of these Marshall preferred Burr,
because, as he explained, he knew Jefferson's principles better. Besides
having foreign prejudices, Mr. Jefferson, he continued, "appears to me
to be a man who will embody himself with the House of Representatives,
and by weakening the office of President, he will increase his personal
power." Better political prophecy has, indeed, rarely been penned.
Deferring nevertheless to Hamilton's insistence--and, as events were to
prove, to his superior wisdom--Marshall kept aloof from the fight in the
House, and his implacable foe was elected.

Marshall was already one of the eminent men of the country when Adams,
without consulting him, nominated him for Chief Justice. He stood at the
head of the Virginia bar; he was the most generally trusted leader of
his party; he already had a national reputation as an interpreter of
the Constitution. Yet his appointment as Chief Justice aroused criticism
even among his party friends. Their doubt did not touch his intellectual
attainments, but in their opinion his political moderation, his
essential democracy, his personal amiability, all counted against him.
"He is," wrote Sedgwick, "a man of very affectionate disposition,
of great simplicity of manners, and honest and honorable in all his
conduct. He is attached to pleasures, with convivial habits strongly
fixed. He is indolent therefore. He has a strong attachment to
popularity but is indisposed to sacrifice to it his integrity; hence he
is disposed on all popular subjects to feel the public pulse, and hence
results indecision and AN EXPRESSION of doubt." *

* Op. cit.

It was perhaps fortunate for the Federal Judiciary, of which he was now
to take command, that John Marshall was on occasion "disposed... to feel
the public pulse." A headstrong pilot might speedily have dashed his
craft on the rocks; a timid, one would have