[955] May 3, 1802, U.S. Statutes at Large. This act, together with a supplementary act (May 4, 1812, ib.), is a vivid portrayal of a phase of the life of the National Capital at that period. See especially Section vi.
[956] Lotteries had long been a favorite method of raising funds for public purposes. As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Marshall had voted for many lottery bills. (See vol. ii, footnote 1, to 56, of this work.) For decades after the Constitution was adopted, lotteries were considered to be both moral and useful.
[957] Effective January 21, 1820.
[958] 6 Wheaton, 266-67.
[959] Ib. 268-90.
[960] William Pinkney was at this time probably the highest paid lawyer in America. Five years before he argued the case of Cohens vs. Virginia, his professional income was $21,000 annually (Story to White, Feb. 26, 1816, Story, i, 278), more than four times as much as Marshall ever received when leader of the Richmond bar (see vol. ii, 201, of this work). David B. Ogden, the other counsel for the Cohens, was one of the most prominent and successful lawyers of New York. See Warren, 303-04.
Another interesting fact in this celebrated case is that the Norfolk Court fined the Cohens the minimum allowed by the Virginia statute. They could have been fined at least $800, $100 for each offense—perhaps should have been fined that amount had the law been strictly observed. Indeed, the Virginia Act permitted a fine to the extent of "the whole sum of money proposed to be raised by such lottery." (6 Wheaton, 268.)
[961] Barbour declined a large fee offered him by the State. (Grigsby: Virginia Convention of 1829-30.)
[962] 6 Wheaton, 344.
[963] Ib. 347.