In 1822, Justice William Johnson gave Thomas Jefferson a brief description of his colleagues from his early years on the Supreme Court.1 After dismissing almost all of them as “incompetent,” “slow,” or unable to “think or write,” Justice Johnson told Jefferson that Chief Justice John Marshall and Justice Bushrod Washington “are commonly estimated as one judge.”2 One way of understanding Johnson's comment is that he thought that Justice Washington simply followed Chief Justice Marshall's lead, which is consistent with the idea that Marshall dominated his Supreme Court unlike any previous or subsequent Chief Justice. In researching my forthcoming biography of Bushrod Washington, I instead reached the conclusion that Justice Johnson called Washington and Marshall “one judge” because they were close collaborators.3 Indeed, the Marshall Court is best understood as a partnership created by these two remarkable Virginians.
My claim challenges three cliches about the Marshall Court. The first is that Justice Washington was, in the words of Albert Beveridge, “slow-thinking” and dim-witted.4 The second is that Associate Justice Joseph Story was Chief Justice Marshall's principal ally during Story's entire tenure on the Court.5 While Story was an important member of the Marshall Court and was the Chief Justice's right-hand-man after Justice Washington's death in 1829, he was not the linchpin of that institution while Washington was on the bench. The third is that Chief Justice Marshall alone was the Marshall Court. Nobody thinks Earl Warren did everything on the Warren Court. Instead, we recognize that Chief Justice Warren worked with many other talented colleagues to fashion the jurisprudence of that era.6 The same is true for John Marshall, and his alter ego was Bushrod Washington.
Washington and Marshall's working relationship began well before they reached the Supreme Court. They first met in 1780 at the College of William and Mary, where they attended Professor George Wythe's law lectures and engaged in debates as members of Phi Beta Kappa.7 In 1787, they were reunited as members of the Virginia House of Burgesses when Washington was elected to the legislature.8 A year later, they both were chosen as delegates to Virginia's ratifying convention for the Constitution, where they strongly supported ratification.9 But Washington and Marshall did not become close until Washington moved his legal practice to Richmond in 1792. Soon thereafter they were frequently arguing cases as a team or against each other in the Virginia Court of Appeals (Virginia's highest court).10 They also served together on the Richmond City Council from 1794 to 1795, including a committee about local police reform.11 When Marshall returned from his diplomatic mission in France now known of the “XYZ Affair,” Washington welcomed him home with a rousing
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：