The Great Chief Justice: John Marshall and the Rule of Law » (1st Edition)

Charles F. Hobson is editor of The Papers of John Marshall at the Institute of Early American History and Culture, College of William and Mary. He has also served as coeditor of The Papers of James Madison and as president of the Association for Documentary Editing.

John Marshall remains one of the towering figures in the landscape of American law. From the Revolution to the age of Jackson, he played a critical role in defining the "province of the judiciary" and the constitutional limits of legislative action. In this masterly study, Charles Hobson clarifies the coherence and thrust of Marshall's jurisprudence while keeping in sight the man as well as the jurist.

Hobson argues that contrary to his critics, Marshall was no ideologue intent upon appropriating the lawmaking powers of Congress. Rather, he was deeply committed to a principled jurisprudence that was based on a steadfast devotion to a "science of law" richly steeped in the common law tradition. As Hobson shows, such jurisprudence governed every aspect of Marshall's legal philosophy and court opinions, including his understanding of judicial review.

The chief justice, Hobson contends, did not invent judicial review (as many have claimed) but consolidated its practice by adapting common law methods to the needs of a new nation. In practice, his use of judicial review was restrained, employed almost exclusively against acts of the state legislatures. Ultimately, he wielded judicial review to prevent the states from undermining the power of a national government still struggling to establish sovereignty at home and respect abroad.

No chief justice and only one associate justice (William Douglas) served longer on the Supreme Court. But, as Hobson clearly shows, Marshall's deserved place in the pantheon of great American jurists rests far more upon principles than longevity. This book better than any other tells us why that's true and worthy of our attention.

Publishers Weekly

This biography of John Marshall's life and thought revises the revisionism. Early biographies of Marshall (chief justice of the Untied States, 1801-1835) tended to be blindly respectful. Then came the four-volume biography by Albert J. Beveridge that appeared between 1916 and 1919. Beveridge popularized Marshall as an intelligent bumpkin, whose willful ignorance of legal precedent allowed him to practice creative jurisprudence. Hobson believes otherwise. The premise of this book is that Marshall had a masterful understanding of precedent. Hobson makes a convincing case, aided by his editorship, beginning in 1979, of Marshall's papers. (To date, eight volumes of those papers have been published.) Hobson gained additional insight into Marshall's times and thought by serving as editor of James Madison's papers. The way Madison's thought illuminates Marshall's thought, and vice versa, is fascinating. At one point, Hobson comments that the vision of a new nation inspiring Madison was the same vision inspiring Marshall as chief justice several decades later. That shared vision meant continuity in American jurisprudence until the presidency of Andrew Jackson, when a communal society began turning into an individualistic quasi-democracy. Hobson's research is impressive and his writing clear. This is not the book to read for an understanding of Marshall's life outside the courtroom. It is the book to read if the goal is understanding the life of Marshall's mind.