Albert Beveridge - The Life of John Marshall (Volume 2 of 4)

At first everybody in America heartily approved the French reform movement. Marshall describes for us this unanimous approbation. "A great revolution had commenced in that country," he writes, "the first stage of which was completed by limiting the powers of the monarch, and by the establishment of a popular assembly. In no part of the globe was this revolution hailed with more joy than in America. The influence it would have on the affairs of the world was not then distinctly foreseen; and the philanthropist, without becoming a political partisan, rejoiced in the event. On this subject, therefore, but one sentiment existed." 3 3 Marshall, ii, 155. "The mad harangues of the [French] National Convention were all translated and circulated through the States. The enthusiasm they excited it is impossible for me to describe." (Cobbett in "Summary View"; Cobbett, i, 98.)

Jefferson had written from Paris, a short time before leaving for America: "A complete revolution in this [French] government, has been effected merely by the force of public opinion; … and this revolution has not cost a single life." 4 4 Jefferson to Humphreys, March 18, 1789; Works : Ford, v, 467. So little did his glowing mind then understand the forces which he had helped set in motion. A little later he advises Madison of the danger threatening the reformed French Government, but adds, reassuringly, that though "the lees … of the patriotic party [the French radical party] of wicked principles & desperate fortunes" led by Mirabeau who "is the chief … may produce a temporary confusion … they cannot have success ultimately. The King, the mass of the substantial people of the whole country, the army, and the influential part of the clergy, form a firm phalanx which must prevail." 5 5 Jefferson to Madison, Aug. 28, 1789; ib. , 490.

So, in the beginning, all American newspapers, now more numerous, were exultant. "Liberty will have another feather in her cap… The ensuing winter [1789] will be the commencement of a Golden Age," 6 6 Boston Gazette , Sept. 7 and Nov. 30, 1789; as quoted in Hazen; and see Hazen, 142-43. was the glowing prophecy of an enthusiastic Boston journal. Those two sentences of the New England editor accurately stated the expectation and belief of all America.

But in France itself one American had grave misgivings as to the outcome. "The materials for a revolution in this country are very indifferent. Everybody agrees that there is an utter prostration of morals; but this general position can never convey to an American mind the degree of depravity… A hundred thousand examples are required to show the extreme rottenness… The virtuous … stand forward from a background deeply and darkly shaded… From such crumbling matter … the great edifice of freedom is to be erected here [in France]… [There is] a perfect indifference to the violation of engagements… Inconstancy is mingled in the blood, marrow, and very essence of this people… Consistency is a phenomenon… The great mass of the common people have … no morals but their interest. These are the creatures who, led by drunken curates, are now in the high road à la liberté ." 7 7 Gouverneur Morris to Washington, Paris, April 29, 1789; Cor. Rev. : Sparks, iv, 256. Even Jefferson had doubted French capacity for self-government because of what he described as French light-mindedness. (Jefferson to Mrs. Adams, Feb. 22, 1787; Works : Ford, v, 263; also see vol. i, chap. viii, of this work.) Such was the report sent to Washington by Gouverneur Morris, the first American Minister to France under the Constitution.

Three months later Morris, writing officially, declares that "this country is … as near to anarchy as society can approach without dissolution." 8 8 Morris to Washington, July 31, 1789; Cor. Rev. : Sparks, iv, 270. And yet, a year earlier, Lafayette had lamented the French public's indifference to much needed reforms; "The people … have been so dull that it has made me sick" was Lafayette's doleful account of popular enthusiasm for liberty in the France of 1788. 9 9 Lafayette to Washington, May 25, 1788; Cor. Rev. : Sparks, iv, 216. Lafayette's letters to Washington, from the beginning of the French Revolution down to his humiliating expulsion from France, constitute a thermometer of French temperature, all the more trustworthy because his letters are so naïve. For example, in March, 1790: "Our revolution is getting on as well as it can, with a nation that has swallowed liberty at once, and is still liable to mistake licentiousness for freedom." Or, in August of the same year: "I have lately lost some of my favor with the mob, and displeased the frantic lovers of licentiousness, as I am bent on establishing a legal subordination." Or, six months later: "I still am tossed about in the ocean of factions and commotions of every kind." Or, two months afterwards: "There appears a kind of phenomenon in my situation; all parties against me, and a national popularity which, in spite of every effort, has been unshakable." (Lafayette to Washington, March 17, 1790; ib. , 321; Aug. 28, ib. , 345; March 7, 1791, ib. , 361; May 3, 1791, ib. , 372.)

Gouverneur Morris wrote Robert Morris that a French owner of a quarry demanded damages because so many bodies had been dumped into the quarry that they "choked it up so that he could not get men to work at it." These victims, declared the American Minister, had been "the best people," killed "without form of trial, and their bodies thrown like dead dogs into the first hole that offered." 10 10 G. Morris to R. Morris, Dec. 24, 1792; Morris, ii, 15. Gouverneur Morris's diary abounds in such entries as "[Sept. 2, 1792] the murder of the priests, … murder of prisoners… [Sept. 3] The murdering continues all day… [Sept. 4th]… And still the murders continue." 11 11 Ib. , i, 582-84.

John Marshall was now the attorney of Robert Morris; was closely connected with him in business transactions; and, as will appear, was soon to become his relative by the marriage of Marshall's brother to the daughter of the Philadelphia financier. Gouverneur Morris, while not related to Robert Morris, was "entirely devoted" to and closely associated with him in business; and both were in perfect agreement of opinions. 12 12 Louis Otto to De Montmorin, March 10, 1792; Writings : Conway, iii, 153. Thus the reports of the scarlet and revolting phases of the French Revolution that came to the Virginia lawyer were carried through channels peculiarly personal and intimate.

They came, too, from an observer who was thoroughly aristocratic in temperament and conviction. 13 13 Ib. , 154-56. Little of appreciation or understanding of the basic causes and high purposes of the French Revolution appears in Gouverneur Morris's accounts and comments, while he portrays the horrible in unrelieved ghastliness. 14 14 Morris associated with the nobility in France and accepted the aristocratic view. ( Ib. ; and see A. Esmein, Membre de l'Institut: Gouverneur Morris, un témoin américain de la révolution française , Paris, 1906.)

Such, then, were the direct and first-hand accounts that Marshall received; and the impression made upon him was correspondingly dark, and as lasting as it was somber. Of this, Marshall himself leaves us in no doubt. Writing more than a decade later he gives his estimate of Gouverneur Morris and of his accounts of the French Revolution.

"The private correspondence of Mr. Morris with the president [and, of course, much more so with Robert Morris] exhibits a faithful picture, drawn by the hand of a master, of the shifting revolutionary scenes which with unparalleled rapidity succeeded each other in Paris. With the eye of an intelligent, and of an unimpassioned observer, he marked all passing events, and communicated them with fidelity. He did not mistake despotism for freedom, because it was sanguinary, because it was exercised by those who denominated themselves the people, or because it assumed the name of liberty. Sincerely wishing happiness and a really free government to France, he could not be blind to the obvious truth that the road to those blessings had been mistaken." 15 15 Marshall, ii, note xvi, p. 17.