Yet there is no doubt that his natural abilities were what most distinguished [John] Marshal from other lawyers and jurists. His head,
said Senator Rufus King, is the best organized of anyone I have known.
Marshal could grasp a subject in its whole and yet simultaneously analyze it parts and relate them to the whole. He could move progressively and efficiently from premise to conclusion in a logical and rigorous manner and extract the essence of the law from the mass of particulars. In the words of Justice Story, he had the remarkable ability to seize, as it were by intuition, the very spirit of juridical doctrines.
Even Jefferson acknowledged Marshall’s talent, but he scarcely respected it. Jefferson told Story that when conversing with Marshall, I never admit anything. So sure as you admit any position to be good, no matter how remote from the conclusion he seeks to establish, you are gone. So great is his sophistry you must never give him an affirmative answer, or you will be forced to grant his conclusion. Why, if he were to ask me whether it were daylight or not, I’d reply,
Sir, I don’t know, I can’t tell.
Place | City | |
---|---|---|
Charles Carroll House | Annapolis | Charles Carroll of Carrollton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The house was begun in 1725 by his father and expanded several times through 1790. |
Crypt of John Paul Jones | Annapolis | Completed in 1913, the remains of John Paul Jones are interred in a marble sarcophagus in a crypt located in the U.S. Naval Academy Chapel. |
Hammond-Harwood House | Annapolis | Brick house in the Georgian style begun in 1774; now a museum with period furnishings and fine arts. |
Maryland State House | Annapolis | Built 1772—79, it served as the U.S Capitol 1783—84, and is the site where George Washington resigned his commission. |
St. John’s College | Annapolis | Established in 1696 as King William’s School, it is the third oldest college in the U.S.; includes a monument to French troops who died in the war. |
William Paca House and Garden | Annapolis | Built 1763—65 by William Paca, lawyer, patriot, and delegate to Continental Congress. The 37 room house has been restored to it's eighteenth century appearance. |
Fort Frederick State Park | Big Pool | Completed in 1756 to protect the colonists during the French and Indian War. The Fort's stone wall and two barracks have been restored to their 1758 appearance. |
Thomas Stone National Historic Site | Port Tobacco | Five-part mansion completed in 1773 called Haberdeventure. Thomas Stone was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. |
Smallwood State Park | Rison | Named for General William Smallwood, fourth governor of Maryland. The 628-acre park includes Smallwood's retreat house, fully restored. |
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 (2009)