542 by Mr. Jay. These two arguments made him famous throughout the country, and his reputation became national. About this period President Washington offered him the office of Attorney-General of the United States, but he declined the honor. Upon the recall of Mr. Monroe, as minister to France, Washington earnestly solicited Mr. Marshall to accept the appointment as his successor; this office he also declined, and General Pinckney of South Carolina was ap pointed in his stead. The French govern ment refused to receive Mr. Pinckney; and Mr. Adams (who had then succeeded to the presidency), in 1797, appointed Mr. Mar shall, General Pinckney, and Mr. Gerry en voys extraordinary to the court of France. Mr. Marshall accepted the appointment; and while, as is known, the mission was unsuc cessful, Marshall won universal admiration for the consummate skill with which he pre pared the official papers addressed to that government on that occasion. On his return home he resumed his pro fessional practice; but he was again diverted from it by a personal appeal from General Washington, who earnestly insisted that he should become a candidate for Congress. Reluctantly yielding to the wishes of Wash ington, Mr. Marshall became a candidate, was elected, and took his seat in Congress in December, 1799. While he was yet a candidate, President Adams offered him the seat on the bench of the Supreme Court then vacant by. the death of Mr. Justice Iredell. He at once declined it. In the memorable session of Congress, 1 799-1 800, Mr. Marshall took his full share
in the debates, and was received with a dis tinction proportioned to his merits. In May, 1800, without seeking the office, he was ap pointed Secretary of War; but before he was called upon to enter upon the duties of the office, the rupture between the President and Colonel Pickering took place, and Mr. Mar shall was appointed Secretary of State in the stead of the latter. The affairs of this de partment he managed with great ability and success. On the resignation of Chief-Justice Ellsworth, Mr. Marshall was appointed in his place, and having been unanimously con firmed by the Senate, he was on the 31st of January, 1801, commissioned as Chief-Justice of the United States. He was then only fortyfive years of age. From this time until his death, in 1835, he remained in this high office. Of the work of Marshall upon the bench volumes might be written; but his decisions need no encomium, they speak for them selves. Hon. E. T. Phelps, in an address delivered before the American Bar Associa tion, fittingly says of the judgments of Mar shall : " Time has demonstrated their wisdom. They have remained unchanged, unques tioned, unchallenged. All the subsequent labors of that high tribunal on the subject of constitutional law have been founded on, and have at least professed and attempted to follow them. There they remain. They will always remain. They will stand as long as the Constitution stands; and if that should perish, they would still remain to display to the world the principles upon which it rose, and by the disregard of which it fell."
