John Marshall
While John Marshall’s portrait currently hangs on the wall in the Library at Sagamore Hill, there's no evidence it was there when TR was alive. Its not on the wall in photographs taken of the Library in 1905 and it wasn't on display in 1953 when the house was first open to the pbuck (Sunday June 14th).
Roosevelt admired Marshall’s role in shaping the Constitution, but criticizing him for what he saw as an overreach of judicial power through judicial review.
TR believed a Supreme Court justice should be a "party man" and "constructive statesman" who works to advance the principles of the nation, rather than striking down laws.
Marshall was the 4th Justice of the Supreme Court and sat on the court for 34 years (1801 – 1835). He was the choice of John Adams. He was September 24, 1755, in Farquhar County Virginia which at that time was considered at the edge of the frontier.
He joined the Continental Army and fought at Brandywine, Germantown and Monmouth. Thomas Jefferson was his second cousin once removed, and the first cousin three times removed of World War II General of the Army George C. Marshall.
Before Marshall the Supreme Court was practically ignored. In 1798, Vice President Thomas Jefferson arguably committed treason in writing the Kentucky Resolution that urged nullification. That view ultimately led to the principles of 98.
Marshall believed federal law trumped state sovereignty. In doing so he turned the court into an equal branch of government.
His decisions were routinely 8,000 words long. He wrote a 25,000-word opinion at the close of the Arron Burr Treason Trial. It took him 3 hours to read every word. Burr’s attorney was Abraham Lincoln’s hero, Henry Clay. Marshall unapologetically owned upwards of 300 slaves.
The Marshall Trilogy - Native American tribes are domestic dependent nations" with limited sovereignty, subject to federal authority and not state law
1823: Johnson vs. McIntosh - Marshall established that only the federal government could acquire Native American land, not individuals or states.
1831: Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia - Marshall defined tribes as "domestic dependent nations," not foreign nations with the standing to sue a state directly, but also affirmed that state laws could not apply to tribal lands.
1832: Worcester vs. Georgia - Marshall ruled that Georgia's laws were invalid within Cherokee territory because the Cherokee Nation was a distinct political community and state laws could not be enforced there.
Jackson said to John Marshall. “You rendered the decision, now enforce it.”
John Marshall's portrait is currently on display in the Library next to Washington. It is missing in this 1905 photograph