the Declaration of Independence. That historic document, except for minor alterations by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin and others made on the floor of Congress, was wholly the work of Jefferson. In 1783 he was again in the Continental Congress where he drafted a plan for a decimal system of coinage based on the dollar and drew up a proposed ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory, which, although not then adopted, was the basis for the very important Ordinance of 1787. Though absent when the Constitution was drafted and adopted, Jefferson gave his support to a stronger central government and to the Constitution, particularly with the addition of the Bill of Rights. Jefferson was the first President inaugurated in Washington, a city he had helped to plan. He believed that the Federal government should be concerned mostly with foreign affairs, leaving the states and local governments free to administer local matters. Despite his contention that the Constitution must be interpreted strictly, he pushed through the Louisiana Purchase, even though such an action was nowhere expressly authorized. His eager interest in the West and in exploration had already led him to plan and organize the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson led a slanderous yet substantial life.John Marshalls brilliant skill in argument made him one of the most esteemed of the many great lawyers of Virginia. A defender of the new U.S. Constitution at the Virginia ratifying convention, Marshall later staunchly supported the Federalist administration. He accepted appointment as one of the commissioners to France in the diplomatic dispute that ended in the XYZ Affair. Marshall's effectiveness there made him a popular figure. In his long service on the bench, Marshall raised the Supreme Court from an anomalous position in the Federal scheme to power and majesty, and he molded the Constitution by the breadth and wisdom of his interpretation; he eminentl...
