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THE GREEN BAG
to show that he ever contemplated any thing more than a rigid adherence to the Constitution, a view which he had held all his life. In the summer or spring of 1864 his house was burnt and his papers destroyed. Admiring friends built him another, into which he moved before it was completed. In September he was taken sick with an affection of the heart and lungs which baffled the skill of his physicians. Shortly before his death, Mrs. Cox, a kind neighbor, brought him over some delicacies. Coming into the room where he lay on a couch she asked him how he felt. "Ah, madam," he replied, "what a life I have lived, and what a death I am dying." He expired on September 22, (1864). The press of the entire country paid glow ing tributes to his genius as an orator, coupled with regrets for his unfortunate habit. The following is the notice by Prentice in the Journal; "The people seemed to think, and so did he, that his greatest powers were wit, humor, fancy, poetry, and eloquence. He had all these, but his chief power was none of these. It was argu ment — logic — stern, inexorable, cast-steel logic. His other powers, great as they were, served but as adornments of the limbs of his giant logic. Xo orator had greater resources in debate. They were inexhaustible, and rendered him uncon querable. Men think of him and muse upon him as he appeared in the long past
and they fancy themselves gazing upon a bright star seen through a golden haze." A duelling pistol, which he owned, and which had been used in the Burr-Hamilton duel, is still preserved by his nephew, Mr. Lewis Marshall, (a son of the famous Ed. L. Marshall), of Versailles, Ky. While it was in his possession Marshall had it changed from flintlock to percussion cap and used it in some of his own duels. Before his death he had indicated that he wished to be buried in the open country under the spreading branches of two great trees. "I have been cramped all my life," he said, "and I want to be buried where I shall have plenty of room." His remains were laid where he desired. It is an idyllic spot, which strikes one as being the fit place for the grave of a poet or other genius — a type to which Marshall belonged. A man of many virtues and few faults, it has been truly said that he might have passed for a better man had he been in reality a worse. It was not a part of his nature to hide his faults. With him all was open and above board. Intemperance alone prevented him from attaining all the honors to which his genius entitled him. As a practical man seeking the temporary honors and offices of the day his life was a failure; but as an orator of soul-stirring power, an advocate of unsurpassed ability he was an eminent success. Lexington, Ky., June, 1907.
