In the sketch Marshall
made of General Washington, he said, and it is believed that he referred
to Jefferson: "He made no pretension to that vivacity which fascinates
or to that wit which dazzles, and frequently imposes on the
understanding. More solid than brilliant; judgment, rather than genius,
constituted the most prominent feature of his character. No man has ever
appeared upon the theater of public action whose integrity was more
incorruptible, or whose principles were more perfectly free from the
contamination of those selfish and unworthy passions which find their
nourishment in the conflicts of party. Having no views which required
concealment, his real and avowed motives were the same, and his whole
correspondence does not furnish a single case from which even an enemy
would infer that he was capable, under any circumstances, of stooping to
the employment of duplicity. No truth can be uttered with more
confidence than that his ends were always upright and his means always
pure. He exhibited the rare example of a politician to whom wiles were
totally unknown, and whose professions to foreign governments, and to
his own countrymen, were always sincere. In him was fully exemplified
the real distinction which found existence between wisdom and cunning,
and the importance, as well as the truth of the maxim, that honesty is
the best policy." It is to be noticed that Marshall's "Life of
Washington," though written by the chief-justice of the United States,
was not a success, and passed through only one edition.
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