Read Online Legacy by James A. Michener - Free Book Online Page A

justice inclined toward the radical views of Thomas Jefferson character- ized him as 'flabby in both body and mind,' while the keeper of an inn in Washington said: 'His great love is dark brown ale, which he consumes in pro- digious draughts.' Chief Justice John Marshall, the one whose opin- ion counted, wrote of him:
    No matter how contentious the debate became, no r how the general population or the Jeffersonians railed against the Court, I could always depend upon the support of judge Starr. Frequently he could not fully comprehend the intricacies of a case, and sometimes he even got the sides of a question entangled, so that he did not know whether he was supporting the claim- ant or the government, but when I explained the niceties he accepted my analysis and voted in accord with the principles I was endeavouring to establish.
    Starr had not always been obese, or even obtuse. As a slim young Virginia farmer in 1799, he had decided one day ' I want to be a lawyer,' so with- out formal training of any kind, not even working in the office of an established lawyer, he attended court, read a few books, and offered himself as counselor. His good humour and common sense enabled him to prevail in county courthouses, and when he traipsed off to war in 1812 against the British, he left behind a lucrative practice. He joined the Virginia militia in time to take part in
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    three straight American losses, but demonstrated such willingness and courage that he gained pro- motion to captain and then to major. Fighting always in the eastern theatre of this disastrous war, he attracted the attention of James Monroe, the Secretary of War, and when Monroe attained the presidency he appointed Starr to the Supreme Court. I think in some ways he summarizes the Starrs. Always ready to serve the Army. Seldom out in front or showing off in public. And for some strange reason, happiest when we follow the lead of someone more notable than ourselves. Jared, in the arguments that led to the Declaration, said little but followed the lead of Ben Franklin. His son Simon, at the great convention, said never a word but did listen to Hamilton. And his son, the judge, sat through a dozen historic cases without asking a question, but when the Chief Justice needed sup- port, there he was. As for me, I follow Ronald Reagan. He won forty-nine of the fifty states, didn't he? So this huge fellow sat on the Supreme Court, listening and dozing while Marshall and Story picked arguments apart and asked lawyers probing questions. 'He is like a great sleeping walrus,' said one newspaper, 'waiting for a fish to swim by,' and so he appeared in several cartoons of the time, his drooping mustaches converting him into a gross human being topped by a walrus head. In a letter to his wife the judge explained the affinity which had grown up between him and Marshall:
    He finds himself comfortable with me because neither of us ever studied law. We just became
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    lawyers on our own. Then, too, he was never a judge, leapfrogged right into the job of Chief Justice. He told the Court the other day: 'I think and think and make the right decision, then leave it to judge Story here to cite the prec- edents on which it should have been made. He's a scholar, I'm not.'
    In the February term of 1819, judge Starr was privileged to sit through what legal scholars call 'the six most important weeks in the history of any major court,' for, in a series of thunderbolt deci- sions, Chief Justice Marshall and his six asso- ciates hammered into place the rules under which the nation would henceforth be governed: 'At the close of this breathless period, Marshall told me: "Starr, a constitution is a bundle of flabby wishes till the courts give it a backbone." ' The United States would never be the same after these blaz- ing weeks. There was a more fundamental reason why Starr and Marshall functioned so amiably. They both despised Tom Jefferson. Marshall often carried in his pocket that incredible