Humphrey Marshall (1760 – July 3, 1841) was a politician from the U.S. states of Virginia and Kentucky. He served in the state legislatures of both states and represented Kentucky in the United States Senate from 1795 to 1801. He was a member of the Marshall political family which included his cousins Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall, federal judge James Markham Marshall, and noted educator Louis Marshall. All the prominent members of this family were Federalists. Marshall was also the father of Congressman Thomas Alexander Marshall and the grandfather of Congressman and Confederate General Humphrey Marshall.
During the Revolutionary War, Marshall served with the Virginia State Regiment of Artillery. After the war, he moved to the Kentucky District of Virginia where he became extremely wealthy as a farmer and surveyor. He was a delegate to two of the ten Kentucky statehood conventions and was one of only three delegates from the Kentucky District to vote in favor of ratifying the U.S. Constitution at the 1788 Virginia Ratifying Convention. After Kentucky gained statehood in 1792, Marshall was elected to the state legislature despite the fact that he was a Federalist and zealously antireligious – both of which made him unpopular with many Kentuckians. The Federalist cause received a slight boost when federal forces were successful in quashing the Whiskey Rebellion and ending the Indian threat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. As a result, the General Assembly elected Marshall to the U.S. Senate in 1794. As a senator, Marshall clung to Federalist principles, supporting the Alien and Sedition Acts and voting to ratify the Jay Treaty. For the latter action, his constituents stoned him and tried to throw him in the Kentucky River. In 1801, he was defeated for reelection by John Breckinridge. He would once again be elected to the state legislature in 1807, 1808, and 1823. During the 1809 legislative session, a disagreement between him and Henry Clay led to a duel between the two men in which both were slightly wounded.
As early as 1786, Marshall had been implicating several prominent Kentucky politicians in a scheme to take Kentucky out of the Union and into alliance with Spain. After the expiration of his Senate term, he resumed these charges through the pages of the Western World newspaper. His allegations resulted in a legislative investigation of Kentucky Court of Appeals judge Benjamin Sebastian, who was found to be receiving a pension from Spain and resigned from the bench. Federal judge Harry Innes was also a target of Marshall's allegations, and the two became embroiled in a legal battle that lasted almost a decade. Innes hired William Littell to write and publish a book giving Innes' version of his dealings with Spain. Marshall countered by publishing his History of Kentucky in 1812. Although blatantly partisan, it became the most widely read history of the state at the time. Marshall and Innes ended their legal battle with an agreement, signed in 1815, that neither would publish anything negative about the other again. Innes upheld his part of the agreement, but in 1824, years after Innes' death, Marshall published an updated edition of his History of Kentucky which was just as vitriolic as the previous version had been. Marshall faded from public life during his later years. He died at the home of his son in Lexington, Kentucky on July 3, 1841.
Early life Humphrey Marshall was born in Orlean, Virginia in 1760."Marshall, Humphrey". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress He was the son of John and Mary (Quisenberry) Marshall and apparently named in honor of his maternal grandfather, Humphrey Quisenberry.Quisenberry, p. 9 Marshall's father was a man of meager means despite being a member of a prominent Virginia family."Humphrey Marshall". Dictionary of American Biography Little is known of Marshall's early years, but one tradition holds that he had no formal education during his childhood and that his cousin Mary (later, his wife) taught him to read.Quisenberry, p. 10 Eventually, John sent Humphrey to live with his brother, Thomas Marshall, and to be educated by the same Scottish tutors that educated Thomas' children.Quisenberry, p. 11 Among Thomas' children (Humphrey's cousins) were John Marshall, future Chief Justice of the United States; James Markham Marshall, future federal judge; and Louis Marshall, a noted educator. In addition, one of Thomas' daughters, Nancy Marshall, married Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, a future U.S. Attorney. After receiving his education, Marshall became a surveyor.
On January 4, 1778, Marshall enlisted as a cadet for a three-year term in the Virginia State Regiment of Artillery for service in the Revolutionary War.Quisenberry, p. 12 The unit was under the command of his uncle Thomas, who held the rank of colonel. Marshall was assigned to the company of Captain Elisha Edwards. Most of his service records have been lost, but according to his pension application, he held the rank of third lieutenant later in 1778, first lieutenant in 1779, and on December 18, 1789, he was promoted to the rank of captain lieutenant. When the three-year commitment of Marshall and his fellow soldiers expired, their unit was disbanded; on February 6, 1781, Marshall was designated a supernumerary officer.Quisenberry, pp. 12–13 He ended his military service in 1782, and was rewarded with of land on the western frontier.Tachau, p. 609
In 1782, Marshall moved to present-day Kentucky and became deputy surveyor of Fayette County, again serving under his uncle Thomas. Settling in Lexington, he purchased a lot in 1783.Quisenberry, p. 16 On September 18, 1784, he married his cousin, Anna Maria ("Mary") Marshall, Thomas' daughter, . The couple had two sons, Thomas Alexander Marshall, who became a US Congressman; and John Jay Marshall, father of Congressman and Confederate general Humphrey Marshall. They also had a daughter who was killed in infancy by lightning.Biographical Cyclopedia, p. 280
Shortly after the creation of Woodford County, Marshall moved within its borders and was appointed county surveyor by Virginia Governor Beverley Randolph.Quisenberry, p. 54 In this capacity, he surveyed and claimed significant additional tracts of land, becoming one of Kentucky's most wealthy citizens. According to tradition, Marshall was known to boast that he could ride from Frankfort to Versailles, a distance of some , and never enter a tract of land that he didn't own. He was also supposed to have boasted that he measured his silver coinage by the peck, not having time to count the individual coins.
Marshall did not believe in rule by the masses, frequently expressing his disdain for the common people. His sharp wit and lack of tact in writing did little to endear him to his neighbors. Like most of the members of his family, he subscribed to Federalist principles, although the majority of Kentuckians were affiliated with the Democratic-Republicans. He was also ostracized by many of his neighbors for being zealously antireligious.Tachau, p. 610 He wrote pamphlets denouncing religion of all kinds and published them at his own expense.Quisenberry, p. 19 His later descendants were so embarrassed of his anti-religious writings that they had his personal papers burned.
Early political career A 1788 letter in the Kentucky Gazette indicated that Marshall had unsuccessfully sought election to the Virginia General Assembly, although the year of the contest is not given.Quisenberry, p. 22 The letter continued that the defeat convinced Marshall that he could not win elected office in Fayette County and that he subsequently lobbied for the creation of Bourbon County, hoping that he might gain an office in that new county. When the county was created in 1785, he immediately applied to become the county lieutenant, but that office had apparently already been promised to someone else. Marshall applied for appointment as deputy lieutenant, and received the appointment.
Although it is not known when Marshall began studying law, nor who his tutor was, he was practicing as early as 1785.Quisenberry, p. 20 In that year, he discovered a flaw in the original 1774 survey of the town of Frankfort. Due to the flaw, several choice acres of land in the northern part of Frankfort remained unclaimed, and Marshall quickly entered claims for them at the land office. Marshall also gained membership in the Kentucky Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, a Danville-based society dedicated to disseminating information to farmers, mechanics, and other common citizens.Quisenberry, p. 23 He apparently was not accepted for membership in the Danville Political Club, although some sources report that he was accepted as a member after initially being rejected.Quisenberry, p. 24
Around 1786, Marshall gained public attention by expressing his suspicions about James Wilkinson's negotiations with Spain for free use of the Mississippi River and the possibility of Kentucky's secession from the United States to affiliate with Spanish possessions. For the remainder of his life, he vigorously opposed Wilkinson and anyone else he suspected of being involved with the Spanish Conspiracy.
Marshall was a delegate to a 1787 convention in Danville to consider separating Kentucky from Virginia. There were, at that time, two primary positions with regard to the question of separation.Quisenberry, p. 46 The first favored an immediate separation with or without Virginia's consent, while the other favored waiting for legal approval from Virginia and the U.S. Congress. Marshall was among the latter group, and his uncle Thomas was the primary spokesman for this position. Biographer Anderson Chenault Quisenberry notes, "As to Humphrey Marshall's prominence in the Danville convention, or as to what notable part he acted there, nothing is said by the historians."
In 1788, Marshall announced his candidacy to be a delegate to the Virginia Ratifying Convention.Quisenberry, p. 30 The proposed constitution was very unpopular in all parts of Kentucky except Jefferson County, but Marshall openly favored its ratification. Hoping to wreck Marshall's candidacy, a man named Jordan Harris charged that Marshall had, in a letter to John Crittenden, Sr., acknowledged himself to be a liar.Quisenberry, p. 31 In the pages of the Kentucky Gazette, Marshall called on Harris to publish the letter. Harris was so insulted by Marshall's demand that he threatened to cane him. At their next meeting, Harris fired two pistols at Marshall.Quisenberry, p. 32 Neither shot injured Marshall, who retaliated by beating Harris with a stick severely enough to force his retreat from the encounter.
Despite his favorable position toward the proposed federal constitution, Marshall was chosen as a delegate to the convention from Fayette County. On June 25, 1788, he joined Jefferson County delegates Robert Breckinridge and Rice Bullock in voting for ratification.Quisenberry, p. 25 Ten other Kentucky delegates opposed ratification and one abstained.Harrison and Klotter, p. 59 The final convention vote was 89–79 in favor of ratification. It was reported that even the Jefferson County delegates were beginning to waver in their commitment to the proposed constitution, but that Marshall steeled their resolve and also influenced several delegates from other parts of Virginia to favor it.