The book John Marshall: Definer of a Nation is written by Jean Edward Smith. Oliver Wendell Holmes said that “if American law were represented by a single figure, skeptics and worshipers alike would agree that the figure could be one, and that, John Marshall.” Felix Frankfurter stated that “John Marshall’s decisive claim to distinction as a great statesman is as a judge. And he is the only judge who has that distinction.” Joseph Story said, “His proudest epitaph may be written in a single line: ‘Here lies the exponent of the Constitution.'”
It is my hope that this modest effort can bring to a new generation of Americans the wisdom and humanity of one of the nation’s greatest statesmen. Biographers are prone to mold their subjects to fit their own predilections. As Cardinal Newman said, “biographers varnish, assign motifs, conjecture sentiments. But contemporary lyrics are facts.” Consequently, I have allowed Marshall to speak for himself. I have not put words in his mouth; I have not speculated on his intentions; I have not assumed his sentiments unless the evidence was clear.
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Overview of John Marshall: Definer of a Nation
It was at the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835 that the Liberty Bell cracked, never to ring again. A fitting symbol of the man who shaped both court and country, whose life “reads like an early history of the United States,” as the Wall Street Journal noted, adding: Jean Edward Smith “does an excellent job of telling the details of Marshall’s life without losing the dramatic scope of the story it encompassed”.
Drawing from primary sources, Jean Edward Smith has drawn an elegant portrait of an extraordinary man. Lawyer, jurist, scholar; soldier, comrade, friend; and, very especially, a lover of good Madeira, good food, and lively after-meals: the Marshal that emerges from these pages stand out both for his very human qualities and for his penetrating intellect and, perhaps most extraordinary, for his gifts of Leader. of men and shaper of consensus. A man of many faces and a true son of the Enlightenment, John Marshall did a lot for his country, and John Marshall: Definer of a Nation proves it on every page.
Description:
| Book Name | John Marshall: Definer of a Nation |
| Author of Book | Jean Edward Smith |
| Edition | N/A |
| Language | English |
| Format | |
| Category | Law Books |
