of State and, without previously consulting him, on January 20,
1801, sent his name to the Senate. A week later the Senate
ratified the nomination, and on the 4th of February Marshall
accepted the appointment. The task despaired of by Jay and
abandoned by Ellsworth was at last in capable hands.



CHAPTER II. Marshall's Early Years

John Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, in Fauquier County,
Virginia. Though like Jefferson he was descended on his mother's
side from the Randolphs of Turkey Island, colonial grandees who
were also progenitors of John Randolph, Edmund Randolph, and
Robert E. Lee, his father, Thomas Marshall, was "a planter of
narrow fortune" and modest lineage and a pioneer. Fauquier was
then on the frontier, and a few years after John was born the
family moved still farther westward to a place called "The
Hollow," a small depression on the eastern slope of the Blue
Ridge. The external furnishings of the boy's life were extremely
primitive, a fact which Marshall used later to recall by relating
that his mother and sisters used thorns for buttons and that hot
mush flavored with balm leaf was regarded as a very special dish.
Neighbors of course, were few and far between, but society was
not lacking for all that. As the first of fifteen children, all
of whom reached maturity, John found ample opportunity to
cultivate that affectionate helpfulness and gayety of spirit
which in after years even enemies accounted one of his most
notable traits.