Marshall, John (1755–1835)

John Marshall was the longest serving and arguably greatest chief justice of the United States (1801–1835). Marshall was born on September 24, 1755, in what is now Fauquier County, Virginia. As a young man, Marshall fought in the Revolutionary War and served with George Washington at Valley Forge in 1777–1778. During 1780, when the fighting had subsided, he studied law under George Wythe at the College of William & Mary. Following the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in October 1781, Marshall was elected to the Virginia General Assembly. He also began a law practice in Richmond, the new capital of Virginia. He was a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention for the Constitution in 1788 and distinguished himself with a speech defending the proposed federal ...