w light
on the subject; the listener is kept perpetually in that sweetly
pleasurable vibration with which the mind of man always receives new
truths; the dawn advances with easy but unremitting pace; the subject
opens gradually on the view, until, rising in high relief in all its
native colors and proportions, the argument is consummated by the
conviction of the delighted hearer."

Immediately after the Revolutionary War the State courts were crowded
with business, because of the numerous bankruptcies, arising from war
habits, the changes in the condition of families, repudiation of debts,
false currency, etc. Marshall was one of the first lawyers who rose to
the magnanimity to admit the propriety of a federal judiciary, different
from that of the States. The other lawyers thought it would not do to
take the business away from these courts. They preferred to see the
people hanging around Richmond, with their cases undecided and unheard
on account of the pressure of business, rather than to concede a
national judiciary. All sorts of novel questions were arising at that
time, cases which had no precedents, which the English law-books did not
reach, and where the man of native powers, pushing out like Columbus on
the unknown, soon developed a sturdy strength and self-reliance the mere
popinjay and student of the law could never get. Among the cases he
argued was the British debt case, tried in 1793. The United States now
had its Circuit Court, and Chief-justice Jay presided at Richmond. The
treaty of peace of England provided that the creditors on either side
should meet with no lawful impediment to the recovery of the full value
of all _bona fide_ debts theretofore contracted. The question was
whether debts sequestrated by the Virginia Legislature during the war
came under this treaty. It is said that the Countess of Huntingdon heard
the speeches on this case, and said that every one of the lawyers, if in
England, would have been given a peerage. 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