Immediately afterward, his body was sent by boat to Richmond. The bench, bar, and hundreds of citizens of Philadelphia accompanied the funeral party to the vessel. During the voyage a transfer was made to another craft.[1571] A committee, consisting of Major-General Winfield Scott, of the United States Army, Henry Baldwin, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Richard Peters, formerly Judge for the District of Pennsylvania, John Sergeant, Edward D. Ingraham, and William Rawle, of the Philadelphia bar, went to Richmond.
In the late afternoon of July 9, 1835, the steamboat Kentucky, bearing Marshall's body, drew up at the Richmond wharf. Throughout the day the bells had been tolling, the stores were closed, and, as the vessel came within sight, a salute of three guns was fired. All Richmond assembled at the landing. An immense procession marched to Marshall's house,[1572] where he had requested that his body be first taken, and then to the "New Burying Ground," on Shockoe Hill. There Bishop Richard Channing Moore of the Episcopal Church read the funeral service, and John Marshall was buried by the side of his wife.
When his ancient enemy and antagonist, the Richmond Enquirer, published the news of Marshall's death, it expressed briefly its true estimate of the man. It would be impossible, said the Enquirer, to over-praise Marshall's "brilliant talents." It would be "a more grateful incense" to his memory to say "that he was as much beloved as he was respected.... There was about him so little of 'the insolence of office,' and so much of the benignity of the man, that his presence always produced ... the most delightful impressions. There was something irresistibly winning about him." Strangers could hardly be persuaded that "in the plain, unpretending
... man who told his anecdote and enjoyed
the jest—they had been introduced to the Chief Justice of the United States, whose splendid powers had filled such a large space in the eye of mankind."[1573]
The Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser said that "no man has lived or died in this country, save its father George Washington alone, who united such a warmth of affection for his person, with so deep and unaffected a respect for his character, and admiration for his great abilities. No man ever bore public honors with so meek a dignity ... It is hard
... to conceive of a more perfect character than his,
for who can point to a vice, scarcely to a defect—or who can name a virtue that did not shine conspicuously in his life and conduct?"[1574]
The day after the funeral the citizens of Richmond gathered at and about the Capitol, again to honor the memory of their beloved neighbor and friend. The resolutions, offered by Benjamin Watkins Leigh, declared that the people of Richmond knew "better than any other community can know" Marshall's private and public "virtues," his "wisdom," "simplicity," "self-denial," "unbounded charity," and "warm benevolence towards all men." Since nothing they can say can do justice to "such a man," the people of Richmond "most confidently trust, to History alone, to render due honors to his memory, by a faithful and immortal record of his wisdom, his virtues and his services."[1575]
All over the country similar meetings were held, similar resolutions adopted. Since the death of Washington no such universal public expressions of appreciation and sorrow had been witnessed.[1576] The press of the country bore laudatory editorials and articles. Even Hezekiah Niles, than whom no man had attacked Marshall's Nationalist opinions more savagely, lamented his death, and avowed himself unequal to the task of writing a tribute to Marshall that would be worthy of the subject. "'A great man has fallen in Israel,'" said Niles's Register. "Next to Washington, only, did he possess the reverence and homage of the heart of the American people."[1577]
One of the few hostile criticisms of Marshall's services appeared in the New York Evening Post over the name of "Atlantic."[1578] This paper had, by now, departed from the policy of its Hamiltonian founder. "Atlantic" said that Marshall's "political doctrines ... were of the ultra federal or aristocratic kind.... With Hamilton" he "distrusted the virtue and intelligence of the people, and was in favor of a strong and vigorous General Government, at the expense of the rights of the States and of the people." While he was "sincere" in his beliefs and "a good and exemplary man" who "truly loved his country ... he has been, all his life long, a stumbling block ... in the way of democratic principles.... His situation ... at the head of an important tribunal, constituted in utter defiance of the very first principles of democracy, has always been ... an occasion of lively regret. That he is at length removed from that station is a source of satisfaction."[1579]
The most intimate and impressive tributes came, of course, from Virginia. Scarcely a town in the State that did not hold meetings, hear orations, adopt resolutions. For thirty days the people of Lynchburg wore crape on the arm.[1580] Petersburg honored "the Soldier, the Orator, the Patriot, the Statesman, the Jurist, and above all, the good and virtuous man."[1581] Norfolk testified to his "transcendent ability, perfect integrity and pure patriotism."[1582] For weeks the Virginia demonstrations continued. That at Alexandria was held five weeks after his death. "The flags at the public square and on the shipping were displayed at half mast; the bells were tolled ... during the day, and minute guns fired by the Artillery"; there was a parade of military companies, societies and citizens, and an oration by Edgar Snowden.[1583]
The keenest grief of all, however, was felt by Marshall's intimates of the Quoit Club of Richmond. Benjamin Watkins Leigh proposed, and the club resolved, that, as to the vacancy caused by Marshall's death, "there should be no attempt to fill it ever; but that the number of the club should remain one less than it was before his death."[1584]
