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THE MARSHALL COURT AND CULTURAL CHANGE, 1815-1835
famous lawyers, Martin's whole being seemed to be reflected in his per-
formances as a lawyer, whether inside or outside the courtroom. Three
accounts by contemporaries who encountered Martin in his career give
some flavor of the interaction of his personal traits with his professional
activities. The first account is by Story in 1808; the second by Harman
Blennerhassett a year earlier; the third by Roger Taney about the same
time. '" Story wrote that Martin was
a singular compound of strange qualities. With a professional income
of $10,000 a year, he is poor and needy; generous and humane, but
negligent and profuse. ... He is about middle size, a little bald, with
a common forehead, pointed nose, inexpressive eye, large mouth, and
well-formed chin. His dress is slovenly. . . . But every one assures me
that he is profoundly learned, and that though he shines not now in the
lustre of his former days, yet he is at times very great. He never seems
satisfied with a single grasp of his subject; but urges himself to suc-
cessive efforts, until he models and fashions it to his purpose. You
should hear of Luther Martin's fame from those who have known him
long and intimately, but you should not see him.154
A similar impression of Martin's stamina, of his lack of discipline, of the
power of his intellect, and of his tendency toward dissipation was gleaned
by Blennerhassett at the time of the Burr trial. Blennerhassett recalled a
meeting with Martin at a Richmond tavern:
I was too much interested in the little 1 had seen, and the great
things I had heard, of [Martin's] powers and passions, not to improve
the present opportunity to survey him in every light the length of his
visit would permit. I accordingly recommended our brandy as superior,
placing a pint tumbler before him. No ceremonies retarded the libation;
no inquiries solicited him upon any subject. . . . Were I now to mention
only the subjects of law, politics, news, et cetera, on which he des-
canted, I should not be believed when I said his visit did not exceed
thirty-five minutes. Imagine a man capable, in that space of time, to
deliver some account of an entire week's proceedings in the trial, with
extracts from memory of several speeches on both sides; ... to cari-
cature Jefferson; to give a history of his acquaintance with Burr, ex-
patiate on [Burr's] virtues and sufferings, maintain his credit, embellish
his fame . . .—some estimate, with these preparations, may be found
of this man's powers, which are yet shackled by a preternatural secre-
tion or excretion of saliva, which embarrasses his delivery.|SS
153 Taney's account was actually
written in 1854, when he first began his
memoirs, but was based on his impres-
sions of Martin from 1796 to 1822. See
Tyler, Memoir of Taney, 56-69.
236
1S4 J. Story to S. Fay. Feb. 16. 1808,
in W. Story. Life and Letters, I.
163-64.
ls-s Blennerhassett in S afford. Blen-
nerhassett Papers, 377.
Chapter IV: Prominent Lawyers Before the Marshall Court
Taney, who came to know Martin well while Taney was a young lawyer
in Maryland, added some complexity and detail to the portrait:
His dress was a compound of the fine and the coarse, and appeared
never to have felt the brush. He wore ruffles at the wrists, richly edged
with lace—although every other person had long before abandoned
them—and these ruffles, conspicuously broad, were dabbed and soiled,
and showed that they had not been changed for a day or more. His
voice was not musical, and when much excited it cracked. . . . |I]n
his speech ... he seemed to delight in using vulgarisms. ... I have
heard him say he catch him, instead of caught him, and he sot down,
instead of sat down, and many other words and phrases not much better.
He seemed to take pleasure in showing his utter disregard of good taste
and refinement in his dress and language and his mode of argument.
He was as coarse and unseemly at a dinner-table, in his manner of
eating, as he was in everything.
He introduced so much extraneous matter, or dwelt so long on
unimportant points, that the attention was apt to be fatigued and with-
drawn, and the logic and force of his argument lost .... But these
very defects arise in some measure from the fulness of his legal knowl-
edge. He had an iron memory, and forgot nothing that he read, and he
read a great deal on every branch of the law; and took pleasure in
showing it when his case did not require it.|sr'
The impression generated by these comments is that of a man who,
consciously or unconsciously, imposed his will on his surroundings rather
than adapting to them. His indifference to refined speech, notwithstanding
his background and education; his passion for alcohol; his soiled, old-
fashioned clothes; his rambling, digressive arguments; his outspoken crit-
icism; his fierce loyalty to his clients, however unpopular their status;
even his "coarse and unseemly" table manners suggest a person who did
not take pains to temper his passions to the dictates of fashion or con-
vention. Whether Martin's personal style was a deliberate defiance of the
socially conscious public world in which he functioned, or whether it was
the product of drives and appetites that could not be constrained, seems
unimportant: Luther Martin was what he was, take it or leave it. He made
his clients, his adversaries, even his legal arguments part of himself.
The manner in which Martin's personality interacted with his role
as an advocate can be seen in his argument in McCulloch. Martin argued
that case in his capacity as attorney general of Maryland. The same day
he was reappointed to that office the Maryland legislature established a
tax on notes issued by banks that had not been created by "authority
from the state. "|S7 The tax, unmistakably aimed at the Bank of the United
156 Taney in Tyler, Memoir of Ta-
ney, 65-67.
157 Act of Feb. ii. 1818: see 4
Wheat, at 320-22.
237
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