The Council consisted of eight members elected by the Legislature either from the delegates or from the people at large. It was the Governor's official cabinet and a constitutional part of the executive power. The Governor consulted the Council on all important matters coming before him; and he appointed various important officers only upon its advice.[649]
The Constitution of Virginia of 1776 was the basis upon which was built one of the most perfect political machines ever constructed; and this machine in later years came to be Marshall's great antagonist. As a member of the Council of State, Marshall learned by actual experience the possible workings of this mechanism, first run by Patrick Henry, perfected by Thomas Jefferson, and finally developed to its ultimate efficiency by Spencer Roane and Thomas Ritchie.[650] Thus Marshall took part in the appointment of surveyors, justices of the peace, tobacco inspectors, and other officers;[651] and passed on requisitions from other States for the delivery of fugitive criminals.[652]
MARSHALL'S SIGNATURE AS A MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE, 1784
MARSHALL'S SIGNATURE IN 1797
SIGNATURE OF THOMAS MARSHALL AS COLONEL OF THE 3D VIRGINIA REGIMENT
Marshall's signature to the minutes of the Council is totally unlike that of his more mature years, as, indeed, is the chirography of his letters of that period. He signed the Council records in large and dashing hand with flourishes—it is the handwriting of a confident, care-free, rollicking young man with a tinge of the dare-devil in him. These signatures are so strangely dissimilar to his later ones that they deserve particular attention. They denote Marshall's sense of his own importance and his certainty of his present position and future prospects.
The criticisms from the judges—first expressed by Pendleton, before whom Marshall was trying to practice law—of his membership of the Executive Council continued. Because of these objections, Marshall finally resigned and at once sought another election from his native county to the House of Delegates. The accepted version of this incident is that Marshall resigned from the Executive Council because the duties of that position took too much time from his profession; and that, without his request or desire, his old neighbors in Fauquier, from "their natural pride in connecting his rising name with their county, spontaneously elected him to the Legislature."[653]