Patrick Henry broke his voice
down in this case, and never again could speak with his old force.
Marshall surpassed them all in the cogency of his reasoning. At that
time he was thought to be rather lazy. He went into the State
Legislature in 1782, just before he married. His personal influence was
such in Richmond that, although he was constantly in the minority, he
was always elected. His principal amusement was pitching the quoit,
which he did to the end of his days, and could ring the meg, it is said,
at a distance of sixty feet frequently. He arose early in the morning
and went to market without a servant, and brought back his chickens in
one hand and his market basket on the other arm. He never took offense,
and once when a dude stopped him on the street and asked him where there
was a fellow to take home his marketing, Marshall inquired where he
lived, and said, "I will take it for you." After he got home with the
other man's marketing, the dude was much distressed to find that Mr.
Marshall had been his supposed servant.
INTELLECTUAL POWER.
Nevertheless, the intellectual existence of the man was decided. From
the beginning of his life he took the view that while Virginia was the
State of his birth, his country was America; that all he and his
neighbors could accomplish on this planet would be under the great
government which comprehends all, and, true to this one idea, he never
wavered in his life. Mr. Jefferson, who was much his senior, he
distrusted profoundly, regarding him as a man of cunning, lacking in
large faith, and constitutionally biased in mind.
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