under consideration. How many troops would you consider it necessary to have to make a movement hence on Richmond, by the way of Manassas?"

General Totten, as he sat there, with his hands clasped on the table before him and his white head bending over his hands, in serious thought, looked the type of the scientific veteran general. He replied, carefully and deliberately: "General, I do not think it would be wise to undertake such an operation without a force of at least fifty thousand men."

General Scott-"Supposing such a force placed at your disposal, general, how soon could you make the advance?"

General Totten-"I suppose that the Ordnance Department would probably have supplies sufficient for such a force, and the Engineer Department would be ready quickly; the great question of time would depend upon the procurement of transportation and of subsistence stores, etc., etc."

Then came a series of questions and answers concerning the details of advance, almost identical with the questions which had been propounded to me, and to my great relief, General Totten's answers were singularly like those I had already given to similar questions.

The general-in-chief was greatly pleased. He turned to the cabinet ministers present and said: "Really, gentlemen, here is a most extraor dinary unanimity of opinion. I address a certain set of questions to a young colonel, the youngest colonel, perhaps, in the army, in whom one might expect to find a youthful enthusiasm and a too sanguine view of matters, and I receive a certain set of answers. I address the same set of questions to the oldest and most distinguished of our scientific general officers, rich in the experience of two wars, and from him I receive almost identically the same set of answers! How can we explain such unanimity of opinion? Gentlemen, the only way I can explain it to myself is, that it must be of their trade that they have been speaking, and they speak from its principles!" Then, growing more serious, the aged general-in-chief said, impressively: "Gentlemen, this matter has now, unfortunately, gone beyond politics, and has become a military question. Most unfortunately it is so, most unfortunately! and now, soldiers must settle it. Such being the case, since, unfortunately, soldiers must settle it, you must allow the soldiers to do what they know they ought to do; and you must be careful not to force them to do what they know they ought not to do.

"There have now arrived and are in service seventy-five thousand threemonths men. There are rapidly coming in three hundred thousand twoyears and three-years men. What the soldiers know ought to be done is

this: The three-months men should be used to guard the District of Columbia-the whole District of Columbia. The two-years and the threeyears men as they arrive and as they shall arrive, should be placed in large camps of instruction at strategic points along the frontier; say 16,000 men at Fort Washington on the Potomac; an equal force at Annapolis, Maryland; another here in the Capital. Another say at Frederick, Maryland; another at Cumberland, Maryland; perhaps another at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; certainly one at Wheeling, Virginia, and one at Marietta, Ohio; also at Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Cairo, Illinois, and other points on the frontier. There they should drill and drill and drill and discipline, guarding always the frontier. Meantime, our gallant little navy should do all that it can to keep up a blockade of the entire Southern coast.

"By the last days of September, or the first days of October, we can have the gunboats ready on the Ohio River. By the way, Mr. Secretary," said he, turning quickly to Mr. Cameron, "have you ordered for me that naval constructor I asked you for, to go under my orders to the West?"

"No, general, not yet," said Mr. Cameron; "but, general, I can furnish you with as many steamboats as you want on the Ohio River, within seven days by contract."

General Scott said, a little impatiently, "Mr. Secretary, I do not want there even one old rotten contract steamboat. I want gunboats, built to draw just as many feet of water as I say, to carry just as many guns as I say, and of just such caliber as I say. Sir, there is plenty of material for such gunboats on those Western waters; there is plenty of mechanical skill there, and, sir, there is plenty of time!"

Mr. Cameron hastened to say to the chief: "General, you shall have everything you want."

General Scott-"Thanks! Mr. Secretary. Everything I want is all that I want! Thanks! Well, then, I want the best practical naval constructor in the United States sent immediately to Louisville, Kentucky, to design and see constructed gunboats. These boats can easily be finished before the first frost. Our Southern friends, seeing the Government apparently content with guarding the frontier, may not believe they are to be attacked, and may relax in their preparations. In any case, our preparations being made, on sound principles, I would have, by the first day of October next, assembled at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, an army of 150,000 men! not 150,000 armed men! and I would have here another army of 150,000 men. I would send that Western army, accompanied by the gunboats, down to the Gulf of Mexico! At the same time I would send this army of 150,000 men hence to Richmond by the right road!

"If you act thus, if you allow the soldiers to do what they know they ought to do, I will answer for it that the Government of the United States shall have its flag and its authority recognized throughout the land, over every inch of its territory, by the 4th day of next March, or at the latest by the 4th day of July following. If you do not thus act; if you make the soldiers do what they know they ought not to do; if you push these threemonths men into battle just as they are all thinking of going home; if you push the two and three years men into battle just before they shall be organized, you will be beaten in the first general action of this war! You will consolidate what is now an insurrection, and make of it a rebel.lious government-which rebellious government you may be able to put down in two or three years; but I doubt it!"

Such were the words of America's greatest soldier in May, 1861. We all know the result. For the moment, he succeeded in delaying rash movement. But later on, the aged chieftain, worn out by the pressure brought to bear upon him, yielded to those in authority and those who assumed to direct the authorities, and he, in an evil hour, consented to see sound military principles set aside and replaced by ignorant assumption. The three-months men were pushed into battle "just as they were thinking of going home"; the two and three years men were pushed into battle, some of them, before they were fairly organized. We were beaten in the first general action of the war. The insurrection did become a strongly organized rebellious government, which the Government of the United States did not succeed in putting down in two or three years.

Might it not have been otherwise had the soldiers been allowed "to do what they knew they ought to do"?

FLUSHING, Long Island, May, 1884.

CHIEF-JUSTICE JOHN MARSHALL

[Extracts contributed to the Magazine, by the author, from the forthcoming "Life of John Marshall-Captain in the army of the Revolution, Member of the Virginia Legislature, Envoy to France, Member of Congress, Secretary of State, and Third CHIEF JUSTICE of the United States." Compiled from various authors and from private letters, by his great-granddaughter, Sallie Ewing Marshall.]

In 1557, at the siege of Calais there was a captain named John Marshall, who fought bravely under the banner of England. He was descended from the great Earl of Pembroke, the good and sagacious governor of the young king, Henry III. In 1642, this officer's grandson, also named John Marshall, fought at the battle of Edge Hill, and after the death of Charles I. came to Virginia, where his great-grandson, Thomas Marshall, the father of the chief-justice, was born. Col. Thomas Marshall was a brave and talented man, who served in both the French and Revolutionary wars with distinction. He married Mary Isham Keith, a lady of great force of character and strong religious faith, the daughter of Rev. James Keith, of the Episcopal Church-a grandson of William Keith, Earl Marshal of Scotland—and their children numbered fifteen, of whom John was the eldest, born in 1755. With illustrious lineage, as we have seen, the best of home training, a gentle, loving, studious boy-who is said never to have had any petty squabbles with his numerous brothers and sisters—the future jurist made good use of exceptional opportunities in preparing for his eventful career. Two years after his birth his parents removed thirty miles further west, settling in the beautiful region of the Blue Ridge mountains. To this climate and the vigorous exercise taken in his youthful years he attributed the good health he enjoyed through life.

His father directed his early studies, and he afterward received one year's instruction from a clergyman named Campbell, and was one year the pupil of a Mr. Thompson. At the age of twelve he had transcribed the whole of Pope's Essay on Man with some of his moral essays. "My father was a far abler man than any of his sons," he remarked in later years, "and to him I owe the solid foundation of my own success. He superintended the English part of my education, and to his care I am indebted for anything valuable I may have acquired in my youth. He was both a watchful parent and an affectionate, instructive friend." John Marshall continued through life a zealous student, and seems to have thought with

Aristotle, "to become eminent in any profession, study, and practice are necessary as nature." While his mind was being developed his physical education was not overlooked. Like most young men of his day, he served a term at surveying. Before he was twenty the struggle began between England and her colonies, and he was chosen lieutenant of a militia company, of which his father was captain, and in whose absence he diligently drilled the men. He was six feet tall, slender, with dark complexion, black hair and eyes. He walked ten miles, from his father's house to the muster-field, and the same distance in returning home after the drill. He wore "a round black hat, mounted with a buck's tail for a cockade, a purple hunting-shirt, and trousers of the same material fringed with white." He was ever simplicity itself. Through all the changes of his life he remained the same, and as Mr. Van Santvoord aptly says, "The chief-justice of the United States never ceased to be John Marshall." He was on the expedition to Norfolk, at the battle of the Great Bridge, to oppose Lord Dunmore, and there made his first appearance upon the scene of war. In 1776 he received an appointment as first lieutenant in the 11th Regiment of Continental troops, a great honor for so young a man. General Washington had written to Governor Henry, "I would, in the most urgent manner, recommend the utmost care and circumspection in your appointments. The true criterion to judge by when past services do not enter into competition, is to consider whether the candidate for office has a just pretension to the character of a gentleman, a proper sense of honor, and some reputation to lose." Young Marshall displayed great gallantry as a soldier. He was one of the noble band that followed Washington across the Delaware, December 25, 1776, and surprised Col. Rahl at Trenton. He was promoted to the rank of captain, and remained until the close of the year 1779 in active service; was at Brandywine and Germantown, in the terrible six weeks' struggle around Philadelphia. Here he first met Alexander Hamilton, and his admiration soon grew into love. It was one of the strongest evidences of the extreme justice of his character that he could so fairly and honestly sit in judgment upon Aaron Burr, the murderer of this dearly loved friend, as to cause his detractors to say he showed partiality to Burr. A contemporary thus describes John Marshall at Valley Forge: "By his appearance then we supposed him about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age. Even so early in life we recollect that he appeared to us primus inter pares, for amidst the many commissioned officers he was distinguished for superior intelligence. He was often chosen arbiter in differences between the officers." He frequently acted as deputy judge advocate. He was greatly beloved and respected by both