John Marshall

George Washington may have been the Father of Our Country, but his friend John Marshall defined for the new nation what it meant to be united and to live under the rule of law. Confirmed as the fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court in 1801, Marshall inherited a bench which had yet to make its voice clear. It was considered by many to be a paper tiger, unable to enforce what rulings it issued, and …

…His biographer, Jean Edward Smith, fully aware of the Founding Fathers he alluded to, states that Marshall "possessed the best-organized mind of his generation." Thomas Jefferson too, though often at odds with Marshall, conceded that "you must never give him an affirmative answer or you will be forced to grant his conclusion. Why, if he were to ask me if it were daylight or not, I'd reply, 'Sir, I don't know, I can't tell.'"