PREVIEW

The Life of George Washington (A Biography by a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) (Book/ Paperback)

Product Overview

Within eight years of the death of George Washington in 1799, the first major biography of “the father of his country” was written by John Marshall and published in five volumes. Marshall, who later became Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, was induced to the task by the first President’s nephew, Bushrod Washington. Marshall’s own principal biographer, Albert J. Beveridge, has described The Life of George Washington as “to this day the fullest and most trustworthy treatment of that period from the conservative point of view.” In fact, so significant is the biography that Marshall later executed a one-volume abridgment, first published in 1838 and used widely for generations in American schools and colleges. The twentieth and final version of the abridgement, published in 1849, is the text reproduced in the new Liberty Fund edition of what Charles A. Beard has praised as a “great” and “masterly” biography.

The editors’ foreword and notes, together with maps of major battle campaigns not included in the original edition, make this edition especially attractive for classroom use.

The Appendices include:

• Washington’s Speech to the Officers of the Army (15 March 1783)


• Address to Congress on Resigning Commission (23 December 1783)


• Letter to Congress Transmitting Proposed Constitution (17 September
  1787)


• First Inaugural Address (30 April 1789)


• Farewell Address (19 September 1796)

About the Author(s)

John Marshall (1755-1835) was the Chief Justice of the United States (1801-1835) whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches. Previously, Marshall had been a leader of the Federalist Party in Virginia and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1799 to 1800. He was Secretary of State under President John Adams from 1800 to 1801. The longest-serving Chief Justice of the United States, Marshall dominated the Court for over three decades and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. Most notably, he reinforced the principle that federal courts are obligated to exercise judicial review, by disregarding purported laws if they violate the Constitution.