21 Facts About John Marshall

1. John Marshall was featured on a commemorative silver dollar in 2005.

2. John Marshall used Federalist approaches to build a strong federal government over the opposition of the Jeffersonian Republicans, who wanted stronger state governments.

3. John Marshall left Virginia for several weeks each year to serve on the circuit court in Raleigh, North Carolina.

4. John Marshall loved his Richmond home, built in 1790, and spent as much time there as possible in quiet contentment.

5. John Marshall met Mary "Polly" Ambler, the youngest daughter of state treasurer Jaquelin Ambler, during the Revolutionary War, and soon began courting her.

6. John Marshall engaged in the buying and selling of slaves throughout his life.

7. John Marshall regularly curbed his own viewpoints, preferring to arrive at decisions by consensus.

8. John Marshall was confirmed by the Senate on January 27, 1801 and officially took office on February 4.

9. John Marshall was confirmed by the Senate on May 13 and took office on June 6, 1800.

10. John Marshall defended the government's actions, arguing that nothing in the Constitution prevents the United States from extraditing one of its citizens.

11. John Marshall quickly emerged as a leader of the moderate faction of Federalists in Congress.

12. John Marshall supported most of the measures Congress adopted in the struggle against France, but he disapproved of the Alien and Sedition Acts, four separate laws designed to suppress dissent during the Quasi-War.

13. John Marshall aligned with the Federalists, and at Alexander Hamilton's request, he organized a Federalist movement in Virginia to counter the influence of Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans.

14. John Marshall was elected to the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention, where he worked with James Madison to convince other delegates to ratify the new constitution.

15. John Marshall represented the heirs of Lord Fairfax in Hite v Fairfax, an important case involving a large tract of land in the Northern Neck of Virginia.

16. John Marshall read law under the famous Chancellor George Wythe at the College of William and Mary, and he was admitted to the state bar in 1780.

17. John Marshall was tutored by the Reverend James Thomson, a recently ordained deacon from Glasgow, Scotland, who resided with the Marshall family in return for his room and board.

18. John Marshall died in 1835, and Jackson appointed Roger Taney as his successor.

19. John Marshall was appointed secretary of state in 1800 after a cabinet shake-up, becoming an important figure in the Adams administration.

20. At the request of President Adams, John Marshall traveled to France in 1797 to help bring an end to attacks on American shipping.

21. John Marshall remains the longest-serving chief justice in Supreme Court history, and he is widely regarded as one of the most influential justices to ever sit on the Supreme Court.