John Marshall Portrait
John Marshall sat on the Supreme Court for 34 years, longer than any other Supreme Court Justice. He served from February 4, 1801 until his death on July 6, 1835.
Marshall was the first person to sleep in the White House. When John Adams went back to Massachusetts before Congress was first schedule to meet, he put John Marshall in charge of running the government except for the military. One night he was there late and asked the workers if they'd mind if he sacked out in the White House. They didn't mind.
Marshall was warm, congenial and welcoming. They said he had a mind the size of the Atlantic while everyone else had a mind the size of a pond.
He hated Jefferson who ignored the court and hated that Marshall favorably presided over the Aaron Burr Treason Trial.
His famous 1803 decision in Marbury vs. Madison set the standard of judicial review over Acts of Congress. The Supreme Court could strike down a law if it was deemed unconstitutional. The constitution was not just a statement of principles. It was a document of law and because it was law it was up to the court to determine constitutionality. It's Marshall who cements the three Branches of government: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The decision established the Supreme Court as the primary interpreter of the Constitution and a co-equal branch of the government.
Marshall's portrait does not appear in any of the contemporary photographs of the library while TR was alive. It was there on the day they opened Sagamore Hill's to the public in 1952. It seems to have first appeared in the 1970s.
It's not a picture you'd expect to see in Roosevelt's Library. TR believes in equality over liberty and above all he believes in moral obligation. Marshall would object to the way TR negotiated the 1902 Coal Strike when he said. “Who cares about the Constitution when Americans are about to freeze.”
TR uses Executive Orders and Executive Agencies to seemingly sidestep the constitution. He'll issue 1,081 Executive Orders during his presidency. Below you can see the empty space where Marshall's portrait hangs today.
