THOMAS F. MARSHALL In 1858-1859 he visited various cities and towns in all parts of the country delivering lectures on history "from the earliest times to his own day. These were delivered without notes or other aid to the memory, for he despised, as he said at Cincinnati, to speak "in that hybrid fashion." These lec tures produced a wonderful impression on all who heard them, both because of his familiarity with his subject and of the al most supernatural eloquence with which he described the great characters and scenes of the past. United States Senator James B. McCreary while a student at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., heard Marshall lecture there on Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolution. After the lapse of almost half a century he still says that it was as interesting and eloquent a lecture as he ever heard in his life. In some places he delivered a series of lectures, sometimes as many as twenty. Among the other places he visited are Louisville, Memphis, Cincin nati, New York City, and Yale University. Before becoming a lecturer Marshall had been a judge at Louisville and was much respected for his learning and impartiality, but his experience on the bench does not seem to have prevented him from being occasionally exasperated by an adverse rul ing of the court, if the following anecdote is to be believed. The case against Marshall's client was a strong one, and when by great perseverance and skill he had finally begun to make some headway, the adverse ruling of the judge, coming as it did without apparent reason, thoroughly aroused him. "Sir," he said, "such a ruling has been made by no other court since the days of Pontius Pilate." "Mr. Clerk," said the judge, "fine Mr. Marshall ten dollars for contempt of court." "Sir," retorted the lawyer, "I didn't know it was contempt of court in a Christian country to abuse Pontius Pilate." "Mr. Clerk," again said the imperturbable judge, "fine Mr. Marshall twenty dollars more for contempt of court."
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"Well, your Honor," said Marshall, "as you won the last cent I had in that poker game last night I will ask your Honor for the loan of thirty dollars with which to pay the fine." "Mr. Clerk," said the judge, quickly, "remit the fines against Mr. Marshall. The State can afford to lose that money better than I can." The chief records which have come down to us of Marshall's skill in arguing points of lawi are his written briefs and articles, These productions are entirely different from his popular addresses. They are all analysis and argument, very seldom, indeed, did he ever use sarcasm or humor in such a speech, although on one occasion, involving in some way the discussion of deep finan cial problems, he was constrained to remark of his opponent who had "skimmed over" the question with the assured air of an authority, without even touching the point at issue, that he reminded him of a "swan swimming gallantly and proudly across a deep lake, drawing about two inches of water and all unconscious of the mighty depths that lay beneath." Though a Southern man by birth and training, and proud, too, of his nativity, he was nevertheless intensely national in feel ing. His collisions with Adams and Giddings had no more effect in arousing in him a hatred of the North, than had those with Wise and Botts in arousing a like feeling toward the South. He took no active part in the Civil War. His personal sympathies were with the people of the South, but he believed that they had been deluded. He thought that the rebellion should be put down and the Union restored as it was. He was not an admirer of Lincoln and wrote many articles for the Lexington Observer and Reporter attacking his administration. He was, by the popular voice, however, reputed to have been a secessionist and he did make a speech at the States Rights Con vention at Frankfort in 1862. There is nothing on record, however, as far as the writer can discover, which goes
