preview

John Marshall: The Great Chief Justice Essay

Decent Essays

John Marshall: The Great Chief Justice

John Marshall was born in Fauquier County, Virginia on September 4, 1755.
He was the first son of Thomas Marshall and Mary Randolph Keith. His role in
American history is undoubtedly a very important one. As a boy, Marshall was educated by his father. He learned to read and write, along with some lessons in history and poetry. At the age of fourteen, he was sent away to school, and a year later he returned home to be tutored by a Scottish pastor who lived with the Marshall family.
As a young college student, John Marshall was particularly impressed by the lectures of professor George Wythe. Wythe was a lawyer, judge, and a signer of the …show more content…

His reasoning for taking the job in France was partly because it was only a temporary mission and also because he wanted to be of service to his country, aiding in peaceful relations with France. When he found out that France expected to be paid, he was outraged and believed they were soliciting bribery. Although the mission to France was a failure, he returned to the US a hero.
Marshall was appointed to the position of secretary of state by John
Adams in 1800. He was put in charge of foreign affairs and was often left in charge of the government when Adams was gone. Then, later that year, he was appointed to be chief justice of the US by Adams before Thomas Jefferson took over the presidency.
Thomas Jefferson soon took office and John Marshall was now chief justice. Although the two were distant cousins, they held very different positions and belonged to opposing political parties. Jefferson believed that the constitution should be interpreted strictly to keep the government's power relatively low. In the article, Mr. McGinty sums up Marshall's views of what government should be: "Marshall believed in a strong central government, in the
Constitution as the key to the laws of the land, and in courts as the supreme custodians of those laws—views that would influence his shaping of the Supreme
Court." Marshall believed that the Constitution should

Get Access