Charles F. Hobson – författare

From the Revolution to the Age of Jackson, John Marshall played a crucial role in defining the ""province of the judiciary"" and the constitutional limits of legislative action. This book clarifies the coherence of Marshall's jurisprudence, while keeping in sight the man as well as the jurist.

In 1795, the Georgia legislature sold the state's western lands (present-day Alabama and Mississippi) to four private land companies. A year later, amid revelations of bribery, a newly elected legislature revoked the sale. This book tells the story of how the great Yazoo lands sale gave rise to the 1810 case in which the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Marshall, for the first time ruled the action of a state to be in violation of the Constitution, specifically the contract clause.Truly a landmark case, Fletcher v. Peck established judicial review of state legislative proceedings, provided a gloss on the contract clause, and established the preeminent role of the Supreme Court in private law matters. Beneath the case's dry legal proceedings lay a tangle of speculating mania, corruption, and political rivalry, which Charles Hobson unravels with narrative aplomb. As the scene shifts from the frontier to the courtroom, and from Georgia to New England, the cast of characters includes sharp dealers like Robert Morris, hot-headed politicians like James Jackson, and able counsel like John Quincy Adams, along with, of course, John Marshall himself. The improbably dramatic tale opens a window on land transactions, Indian relations, and the politics of the early nation, thereby revealing how the controversy over the Yazoo lands sale reflected a deeper crisis over the meaning of republicanism. Hobson, a leading scholar of the Marshall Court, lays out the details of the litigation with great clarity even as he presents a longer view of the implications and consequences of Fletcher v. Peck.

In 1795, the Georgia legislature sold the state’s western lands (present-day Alabama and Mississippi) to four private land companies. A year later, amid revelations of bribery, a newly elected legislature revoked the sale. This book tells the story of how the great Yazoo lands sale gave rise to the 1810 case in which the Supreme Court, under Chief Justice John Marshall, for the first time ruled the action of a state to be in violation of the Constitution, specifically the contract clause.Truly a landmark case, Fletcher v. Peck established judicial review of state legislative proceedings, provided a gloss on the contract clause, and established the preeminent role of the Supreme Court in private law matters. Beneath the case’s dry legal proceedings lay a tangle of speculating mania, corruption, and political rivalry, which Charles Hobson unravels with narrative aplomb. As the scene shifts from the frontier to the courtroom, and from Georgia to New England, the cast of characters includes sharp dealers like Robert Morris, hot-headed politicians like James Jackson, and able counsel like John Quincy Adams, along with, of course, John Marshall himself. The improbably dramatic tale opens a window on land transactions, Indian relations, and the politics of the early nation, thereby revealing how the controversy over the Yazoo lands sale reflected a deeper crisis over the meaning of republicanism. Hobson, a leading scholar of the Marshall Court, lays out the details of the litigation with great clarity even as he presents a longer view of the implications and consequences of Fletcher v. Peck.

The 1819 term of the Supreme Court stands preeminent in John Marshall's chief justiceship as the year of three major constitutional pronouncements: Dartmouth College v. Woodward, Sturgis v. Crowninshield, and McCulloch v. Maryland. This volume, covering 1814 to 1819, reproduces these and other important Marshall opinions given in the Supreme Court and the U.S. Circuit Court for Virginia. Also included are a series of essays Marshall wrote to answer critics of the McCulloch v. Maryland decision. In addition to papers concerning judicial business, this volume includes personal correspondence that sheds light on Marshall's private interests and family life.

This volume marks the continuation of the first annotated edition of the papers of John Marshall, the great statesman and jurist. The Supreme Court's most celebrated case during these years was Cohens v. Virginia (1821). What began as a prosecution for the sale of lottery tickets eventually brought forth a major statement on the scope and extent of federal judicial power from Chief Justice Marshall. Like McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Cohens decision provoked the wrath of the guardians of states' rights in Virginia. As his correspondence shows, Marshall was deeply concerned that the reaction to Cohens and other nationalizing decisions would translate into proposals to curb the Supreme Court's powers.Besides chronicling Marshall's judicial activities, this volume yields illuminating glimpses into his private interests and family life. When not sitting in court, Marshall was busy revising his Life of Washington and preparing an edition of General Washington's letters.

Collected here are correspondence, papers, and legal documents - including selected judicial opinions - of American jurist John Marshall. Revolutionary officer, congressman, and secretary of state before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Marshall served as the Court's fourth Chief Justice. In this capacity, he helped define the role of the Court and elevate its status, as he interpreted the Constitution from the bench. The documents presented in these volumes - with introductory material and notes - shed light not only on Marshall's life and thought but on the evolution of American jurisprudence as well.

Collected here are correspondence, papers, and legal documents - including selected judicial opinions - of American jurist John Marshall. Revolutionary officer, congressman, and secretary of state before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Marshall served as the Court's fourth Chief Justice. In this capacity, he helped define the role of the Court and elevate its status, as he interpreted the Constitution from the bench. The documents presented in these volumes - with introductory material and notes - shed light not only on Marshall's life and thought but on the evolution of American jurisprudence as well.

Collected here are correspondence, papers, and legal documents - including selected judicial opinions - of American jurist John Marshall. Revolutionary officer, congressman, and secretary of state before his appointment to the Supreme Court, Marshall served as the Court's fourth Chief Justice. In this capacity, he helped define the role of the Court and elevate its status, as he interpreted the Constitution from the bench. The documents presented in these volumes - with introductory material and notes - shed light not only on Marshall's life and thought but on the evolution of American jurisprudence as well.

This volume continues the acclaimed annotated edition of the papers of Chief Justice John Marshall, the great statesman and jurist. The constitutional nationalism of the Marshall Court reached its peak in 1824 with Gibbons v. Ogden, in which Marshall broadly expounded the commerce clause while striking down New York's steamboat monopoly laws. By 1827, however, a crack in the nationalist consensus revealed itself in Ogden v. Saunders, a contract clause case that elicited Marshall's first and only dissent on a question of constitutional law.Marshall's active life outside the courtroom included work on two long-standing projects: revision of his Life of George Washington and preparation of an edition of Washington's correspondence. In his correspondence appearing in this volume, Marshall comments on such topics as the causes of the Revolution, the military history of the war, the social scene in Washington, the abolition of slavery, female education, and the novels of Jane Austen.

At the close of 1830 John Marshall (1755-1835) had completed his third decade as chief justice of the United States. The preceding four years had been among the busiest of his long and active life. Between April 1827 and December 1830, Chief Justice Marshall delivered numerous circuit court opinions as well as six Supreme Court opinions that addressed issues of constitutional law. His travels on judicial business regularly took him from his Richmond home to Washington and to Raleigh. Marshall attended a convention on internal improvements in Charlottesville in July 1828, and he served as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention in Richmond from October 1829 to mid-January 1830. Continuing the acclaimed annotated edition of the papers of John Marshall, this volume sheds light not only on the great statesman and jurist's life and thought but on the evolution of American jurisprudence as well.