The Papers of John Marshall, Vol. 11: Correspondence, Papers, and Selected Judicial Opinions, April 1827-December 1830.

The Papers of John Marshall. Volume XI: Correspondence, Papers, and Selected Judicial Opinions, April 1827-December 1830. Edited by Charles F. Hobson, Susan Holbrook Perdue, and Joan S. Lovelace. (Chapel Hill and London: Published by the University of North Carolina Press for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, c. 2002. Pp. xlii, 432. $70.00, ISBN 0-8078-2748-7.)

While John Marshall's constitutional opinions presented in this volume do not rank with some of the more celebrated of previous volumes, they nonetheless prove significant. In Providence Bank v. Billings and Pitman (1830), the Supreme Court refused to imply tax immunity in a corporate charter and thus paved the way for the Roger Brooke Taney Court's ruling in the 1837 Charles River Bridge case. Marshall for the Court in Willson v. Blackbird Creek Marsh Company (1829) ignored a hint in Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) that Congress had exclusive power over interstate commerce, recognized state authority over such commerce in the absence of a federal statute, and ignored the fact that such a statute seemed to apply to the case. In American Insurance Company v. Canter (1828), Marshall declared for broad Congressional authority over territory acquired after 1789, an opinion that Chief Justice Taney unpersuasively tried to circumvent in the 1857 Dred Scott case and upon which perceptive dissenters effectively elaborated. In Craig v. Missouri (1830), Marshall broadly interpreted the Constitution's prohibition against state-emitted bills of credit, a decision that the Taney Court strained to distinguish in Briscoe v. President and Directors of Bank of Kentucky (1837). In Foster and Elam v. Neilson (1829), Marshall for the Court implicitly recognized the constitutionality of the Louisiana Purchase, the validity of which Jefferson himself had doubted. The Willson opinion might reflect Marshall's diminishing influence on the Court, which was increasingly populated by Jacksonian Democrats. Indeed, in a letter to Joseph Story, Marshall predicted that a majority of the Court would repeal by judicial nullification the tribunal's appellate jurisdiction over state courts (a prediction that proved erroneous).

As with the previous volumes, Marshall's extant opinions in federal circuit court constitute some of the most valuable documents in this book. The editing of these opinions continues to be definitive, an improvement over the previous edition published in 1837 that revised some of Marshall's language deemed awkward. These opinions, mostly from Virginia (few of the North Carolina opinions survived), often deal with equity matters and continue to reveal Marshall's superior knowledge of the law (in a rare instance when he felt insecure about a commercial issue he consulted his colleague, Story, whose expertise was widely acknowledged).

Marshall's speeches and reports highlight his service as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-1830, where he fought successfully to preserve life tenure for judges and opposed broadening manhood suffrage (a lengthy editorial note accompanies these documents). Although he opposed Andrew Jackson's presidential candidacy in 1828, he denied published reports that he had predicted the dissolution of the Union should the general be elected (Marshall's "quotation" proved to be a fabrication). He likewise denounced in private correspondence South Carolina's threats of nullification and Jefferson's charges in his published letters that the Federalists had favored a revival of the monarchy. Jefferson's call for periodic revolutions also prompted criticism from the chief justice.

Family correspondence manifests distress over a profligate son's chronic indebtedness (some of which Marshall assumed) and concern about his wife's delicate health. At his wife's request Marshall wrote a neighbor asking that the man stop his dog from barking throughout the night. This volume also includes Marshall's will that placed in trust the property bequeathed to his spendthrift son.

Additional subjects of the papers of this volume include Marshall's tenure as delegate to a Virginia convention on internal improvements, his role as an absentee farmer and landlord, and his revisions of his biography of George Washington. Masterfully edited with informative but not intrusive footnoting and with editorial notes strategically placed, this volume adds to the successful tradition of the project.

ROBERT M. IRELAND

University of Kentucky