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The Papers of John Marshall: Volume I

Correspondence and Papers, November 10, 1775--June 23, 1788: Account Book, September 1783--June 1788

Herbert A. Johson, Editor
Charles T. Cullen, Associate Editor
Nancy G. Harris, Assistant Editor

Published in 1974 by the University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1233-1

More than three-quarters of the papers presented in this volume have never been printed previously. Every known document signed by or prepared by John Marshall has either been published or calendared with a short synopsis; that is everything from th e time of his birth to June 30, 1788. The material covers Marshall's life from his entry into military service in the Culpeper Minutemen Battalion to the end of the Virginia ratifying convention.

The early documents show Marshall as a militia officer and company grade officer in the Continental Line, where he performed extra duties as a deputy judge advocate. Marshall participated in many major events of the War for Independence, including the deadly winter encampment at Valley Forge. Upon his discharge, Marshall began his long involvement with the legal profession. His law notes demonstrate his method of commonplacing as he studied at the The College of William and Mary in 1780, the same year that he gained admission to the bar. Papers from the following years reveal Marshall's growing stature as a legal practitioner; the publication of his legal arguments, as recorded by St. George Tucker and preserved in Tucker's notes, is further evidence of his proficiency in legal study and practice.

The thirteen years of public service covered by the documents in Volume I were clearly a time of growth and maturation for both the future chief justice and the political and judicial life of Virginia. Approaching the age of thirty- three Marshall could look back upon a career of notable achievement and forward to an active and prosperous future in the years ahead.