[1318] Statement of Marshall. (Ib. 872.)
[1319] Debates, Va. Conv. 33.
[1320] See supra, 146, 147.
[1321] See Giles's speech, Debates, Va. Conv. 604-05.
[1322] See Ambler: Sectionalism in Virginia, 139.
[1323] See vol. ii, 62-69, of this work.
[1324] Serious abuses sprang up, however. In the convention, William Naylor of Hampshire County charged that the office of sheriff was sold to the highest bidder, sometimes at public auction. (Debates, Va. Conv. 486; and see Anderson, 229.)
[1325] See Marshall's defense of the County Court system, infra, 491.
[1326] See vol. i, 302, of this work.
[1327] For example, Thomas R. Joynes of Accomack County, who earnestly opposed Marshall in the Judiciary debate, said that no man felt "more respect" than he for Marshall's opinions which are justly esteemed "not only in this Convention, but throughout the United States." (Debates, Va. Conv. 505.) Randolph spoke of "the very great weight" which Marshall had in the convention, in Virginia, and throughout the Nation. (Ib. 500.) Thomas M. Bayly of Accomack County, while utterly disagreeing with the Chief Justice on the County Court system, declared that Marshall, "as a lawyer and Judge, is without a rival." (Ib. 510.) Richard H. Henderson of Loudoun County called the Chief Justice his "political father" whose lessons he delighted to follow, and upon whose "wisdom, ... virtue, ... prudence" he implicitly relied. (Henderson's statement as repeated by Benjamin W. Leigh, ib. 544.) Charles F. Mercer of the same county "expressed toward Judge Marshall a filial respect and veneration not surpassed by the ties which had bound him to a natural parent." (Ib. 563.) Such are examples of the expressions toward Marshall throughout the prolonged sessions of the convention.