The Grave of John Marshall
Story composed this "inscription for a cenotaph":
"To Marshall reared—the great, the good, the wise;
Born for all ages, honored in all skies;
His was the fame to mortals rarely given,
Begun on earth, but fixed in aim on heaven.
Genius, and learning, and consummate skill,
Moulding each thought, obedient to the will;
Affections pure, as e'er warmed human breast,
And love, in blessing others, doubly blest;
Virtue unspotted, uncorrupted truth,
Gentle in age, and beautiful in youth;—
These were his bright possessions. These had power
To charm through life and cheer his dying hour.
Are these all perished? No! but snatched from time,
To bloom afresh in yonder sphere sublime.
Kind was the doom (the fruit was ripe) to die,
Mortal is clothed with immortality."[1585]
Upon his tomb, however, were carved only the words he himself wrote for that purpose two days before he died, leaving nothing but the final date to be supplied:
JOHN MARSHALL
The son of Thomas and Mary Marshall
Was born on the 24th of
September, 1755; intermarried
with Mary Willis Ambler
the 3d of January, 1783;
departed this life the 6th day
of July, 1835.
FOOTNOTES:
[1390] Marshall to Story, June 26, 1831, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d Series, xiv, 344-45.
[1391] Same to same, Oct. 12, 1831, ib. 346-48.
[1392] Marshall to Story, Oct. 12, 1831, Proceedings, Mass. Hist. Soc. 2d Series, xiv, 347. A rumor finally got about that Marshall contemplated resigning. (See Niles, xl, 90.)
[1393] The resolutions of the bar had included the same idea, and Marshall emphasized it by reiterating it in his response.