[580] Buchanan was the Episcopal clergyman in Richmond at the time. (Meade, i, 29, 140.)
[581] The races at Richmond, held bi-annually, were the great social events of Virginia. (Mordecai, 178 et seq.)
[582] This fixes the equivalent in State dollars for Virginia pounds and shillings.
[583] He already owned one tithable negro in Fauquier County in 1783. (Fauquier County Tithable Book, 1783-84; MS., Va. St. Lib. See supra.)
[584] Marshall to Monroe, Feb. 24, 1784; MS., N.Y. Pub. Lib. Compare with Jefferson's sentimental letters at the same age. Very few of Marshall's letters during this period are extant. This one to Monroe is conspicuously noticeable for unrestraint and joyousness. As unreserved as he always was in verbal conversation, Marshall's correspondence soon began to show great caution, unlike that of Jefferson, which increased, with time, in spontaneity. Thus Marshall's letters became more guarded and less engaging; while Jefferson's pen used ever more highly colored ink and progressively wrote more entertaining if less trustworthy matter.
[585] Gallatin to Maxwell, Feb. 15, 1848; Gallatin's Writings: Adams, ii, 659. Also see Mordecai, 94-95.
[586] His father must have kept, for the time being, the Blackstone purchased in 1772, although the volume later turned up in Marshall's possession.
[587] This book, with the others named, bears the signature of Marshall at this period of his life. They are the only books in existence which certainly were bought by Marshall at that time, all other volumes he is positively known to have had in his library being published at a later date. All except one of those named, with others hereafter mentioned, are in the possession of Judge J. K. M. Norton, Alexandria, Virginia. The Lex Mercatoria is, of course, in English. It is a large book containing seven hundred seventy-five pages, seven by eight inches, firmly bound in calf. It is "compiled from many standard authorities." While it is an encyclopædia of law and business containing items such as a comparison of the values of money of all lands, it is very readable and entertaining. It is just the kind of book from which Marshall could have derived information without being wearied by research. John Adams also had a copy of Malynes's Lex Mercatoria, which seems to have been a common possession of commercial lawyers throughout the country.
[588] This book is now in the possession of Hon. William Marshall Bullitt, of Louisville, Kentucky.
[589] The numerous entries of this kind occurring throughout Marshall's Account Book must not be misunderstood. At that time and for many decades afterward, the habitual use of whiskey, wine, rum, brandy, etc., was the universal custom. They were bought in quantities and consumed much as ordinary table waters now are. The common people, especially those in the South, distilled their own stimulants. The people of New England relied on the great distilleries of Boston and vicinity for rum, of which they consumed enormous quantities. (See infra, chap. VII; also chap. II, vol. II, of this work.)