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美國100位歷史名人榜(7)：John Marshall約翰·馬歇爾

John Marshall (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was an American statesman and jurist who shaped A

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John Marshall (September 24, 1755 – July 6, 1835) was an American statesman and jurist who shaped American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court a center of power. Marshall was Chief Justice of the United States, serving from January 31, 1801, until his death in 1835. He served in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1799, to June 7, 1800, and was Secretary of State under President John Adams from June 6, 1800, to March 4, 1801. Marshall was from the Commonwealth of Virginia and a leader of the Federalist Party.

The longest serving Chief Justice in Supreme Court history, Marshall dominated the Court for over three decades (a term outliving his own Federalist Party) and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. Most notably, he established that the courts are entitled to exercise judicial review, the power to strike down laws that violate the Constitution. Thus, Marshall has been credited with cementing the position of the judiciary as an independent and influential branch of government. Furthermore, the Marshall Court made several important decisions relating to federalism, shaping the balance of power between the federal government and the states during the early years of the republic. In particular, he repeatedly confirmed the supremacy of federal law over state law and supported an expansive reading of the enumerated powers.

State political career
In 1782, Marshall won a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, in which he served until 1789 and again from 1795 to 1796. The Virginia General Assembly elected him to serve on the Council of State later in the same year. In 1785, Marshall took up the additional office of Recorder of the Richmond City Hustings Court.

In 1788, Marshall was selected as a delegate to the Virginia convention responsible for ratifying or rejecting the United States Constitution, which had been proposed by the Philadelphia Convention a year earlier. Together with James Madison and Edmund Randolph, Marshall led the fight for ratification. He was especially active in defense of Article III, which provides for the Federal judiciary. His most prominent opponent at the ratification convention was Anti-Federalist leader Patrick Henry. Ultimately, the convention approved the Constitution by a vote of 89-79. Marshall identified with the new Federalist Party (which supported a strong national government and commercial interests), rather than Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party (which advocated states' rights and idealized the yeoman farmer and the French Revolution).

Biography of Washington
Marshall greatly admired George Washington, and wrote a highly influential biography. Between 1805 and 1807, he published a five-volume biography; his Life of Washington was based on records and papers provided him by the president's family. The first volume was reissued in 1824 separately as A History of the American Colonies. The work reflected Marshall's Federalist principles. His revised and condensed two-volume Life of Washington was published in 1832.[10] Vol 1. Vol 2. Historians have often praised its accuracy and well-reasoned judgments, while noting his frequent paraphrases of published sources such as William Gordon's 1801 history of the Revolution and the British Annual Register. After completing the revision to his biography of Washington, Marshall prepared an abridgment. In 1833 he wrote, "I have at length completed an abridgment of the Life of Washington for the use of schools. I have endeavored to compress it as much as possible. . . . After striking out every thing which in my judgment could be properly excluded the volume will contain at least 400 pages." Cary & Lea did publish the abridgment, but only in 1838, three years after Marshall died.

Marbury v. Madison
Marbury v. Madison, decided in 1803, ruled for the government (that is, Madison), by deciding a minor law passed by Congress was unconstitutional. Ironically what was unconstitutional was Congress' granting a certain power to the Supreme Court itself. The case allowed Marshall to proclaim the doctrine of judicial review, which reserves to the Supreme Court final authority to judge whether or not actions of the president or of the Congress are within the powers granted to them by the Constitution. The Constitution itself is the supreme law, and when the Court believes that a specific law or action is in violation of it, the Court must uphold the Constitution and set aside that other law or action.

The Constitution does not explicitly give judicial review to the Court, and Jefferson was very angry with Marshall's position, for he wanted the president to decide whether his acts were constitutional or not. Historians mostly agree that the Founding Fathers Constitution did plan for the Supreme Court to have some sort of judicial review; what Marshall did was make operational their goals. Judicial review was not new and Marshall himself mentioned it in the Virginia ratifying convention of 1788. Marshall's opinion expressed and fixed in the American tradition and legal system a more basic theory—government under law. That is, judicial review means a government in which no person (not even the president) and no institution (not even Congress), nor even a majority of voters, may freely work their will in violation of the written Constitution. Marshall himself never declared another act of Congress or of a president unconstitutional.

Other work, later life, legacy
Marshall loved his home, built in 1790, in Richmond, Virginia, and spent as much time there as possible in quiet contentment. While in Richmond he attended St. John's Church in Church Hill until 1814 when he led the movement to hire Robert Mills as architect of Monumental Church, which commemorated the death of 72 Virginians. The Marshall family occupied pew No. 23 at Monumental Church and entertained the Marquis de Lafayette there during his visit to Richmond in 1824. For approximately three months each year, however, he would be away in Washington for the Court's annual term; he would also be away for several weeks to serve on the circuit court in Raleigh, North Carolina.
In 1823, he became first president of the Richmond branch of the American Colonization Society, which was dedicated to resettling freed American slaves in Liberia, on the West coast of Africa. In 1828, he presided over a convention to promote internal improvements in Virginia.
In 1829, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention, where he was again joined by fellow American statesman and loyal Virginians, James Madison and James Monroe, although all were quite old by that time. Marshall mainly spoke at this convention to promote the necessity of an independent judiciary.
On December 25, 1831, Mary, his beloved wife of some 49 years, died. Most who knew Marshall agreed that after Mary's death, he was never quite the same.
On returning from Washington in the spring of 1835, he suffered severe contusions resulting from an accident to the stage coach in which he was riding.His health, which had not been good for several years, now rapidly declined, and in June he journeyed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for medical attendance. There he died on July 6, at the age of 79, having served as Chief Justice for over 34 years. He also was the last surviving member of John Adams's Cabinet and the second to last surviving Founding Father, the last being James Madison.
Two days before his death, he enjoined his friends to place only a plain slab over his and his wife's graves, and he wrote the simple inscription himself. His body, which was taken to Richmond, lies in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in a well kept grave.

約翰·馬歇爾（1755年9月24日-1835年9月24日）是美國政治家、法學家。1799年至1800年為美國眾議員，1800年6月6日至1801年3月4日出任美國國務卿，1801年至1835年擔任美國最高法院第4任首席大法官，在任期內曾做出著名的馬伯裡訴麥迪森案的判決，奠定了美國法院對國會法律的司法審查權的基礎。

約翰·馬歇爾-馬伯裡訴麥迪森案
1803年在“馬伯裡訴麥迪森”一案中確立起來的聯邦司法審查制度，是當時美國統治階級內部兩大派矛盾鬥爭的產物。1800年大選結果，聯邦黨人約翰·亞當斯總統落選，民主黨候選人湯瑪斯·傑弗遜當選。　　

面臨大選失敗的聯邦黨當然不甘心。他們在失去行政和立法主導權力的情況下，將眼光自然放在了司法權的爭奪上。1800年12月，亞當斯總統任命國務卿馬歇爾為首席大法官；與此同時，仍由聯邦黨人控制的國會也趕在其任職終了前匆忙通過了兩部關於聯邦法院組織的法律：《巡迴法院法》和《哥倫比亞特區組織法》。前者將巡迴法院的數量從三個增加到六個，新增16名法官；又在華盛頓特區增加了五個地區法院，每個地區還增加一名檢察官和一名聯邦執法官。後者在人口稀少但臨近首都的各縣設立42名治安法官。前者設立的官職都已由忠誠的聯邦党人順利赴任；後者設立的42名治安法官由於時間緊迫直到3月3日，即亞當斯總統任期的最後一天才予以任命。按照規定，這些任命必須在當天午夜前經參議院同意、總統簽署、國務卿蓋章後才能生效。馬歇爾國務卿在這天夜裡忙得團團轉，才最終確認42名法官都已蓋章完成了任命手續。但由於時間倉促，直到第二天仍有17份任命狀未及送出。　　

第二天，傑弗遜就任美國第三屆總統。以他為首的民主共和黨對於聯邦黨人在離任前的做法十分痛恨。因此一旦權力到手，立即開始回擊。首先，傑弗遜立即命令他的國務卿麥迪森扣押尚未送出的17份委任狀，將它們像垃圾一樣的處理了。接著，新一屆國會於1802年3月8日成功地廢除了《巡迴法院法案》，以此削弱聯邦司法權。最後，為了防止馬歇爾控制的最高法院的對抗，新國會以法令的形式迫使最高法院從1801年12月至1803年2月關閉了14個月之久。