y deserves the appellation the Great Chief Justice. He dominated the court equally by his personality and his ability, and his achievements were made in spite of strong disagreements with Jefferson and later Presidents. He made incontrovertible the previously uncertain right of the Supreme Court to review Federal and state laws and to pronounce final judgment on their constitutionality. He viewed the Constitution on the one hand as a precise document setting forth specific powers and on the other hand as a living instrument that should be broadly interpreted so as to give the Federal government the means to act effectively within its limited sphere. His opinion in the Dartmouth College Case was the most famous of those that dealt with the constitutional requirement of the inviolability of contract, another favorite theme with Marshall. His interpretation of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, most notably in Gibbons v. Ogden, made it a powerful extension of Federal power at the expense of the states. The sometimes undignified quarrel with Jefferson reached a high point in the trial of Aaron Burr for treason. Marshall presided as circuit judge and interpreted the clause in the Constitution requiring proof of an overt act for conviction of treason so that Burr escaped conviction because he had engaged only in a conspiracy. Marshall's difficulties with President Jackson reached their peak when Marshall declared against Georgia in the matter of expelling the Cherokee, a decision that the state flouted. Marshall in his manners combined the unceremonious heartiness of the frontier with the leisurely grace of the Virginia aristocracy. So great was his winning charm and so absolute his integrity that he gained the admiration of his enemies and the unbounded affection of his friends.The great orator Henry Clay played a major role in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1810 Clay was elected to the U.S. House of Representati...
