Note 641 — Chapter VI
Reading edition
Hening, xi, 299-306. This statement of Marshall's was grossly incorrect. This session of the Legislature passed several laws of the very greatest public consequence, such as the act to authorize Congress to pass retaliatory trade laws against Great Britain (ib., 313); an immigration and citizenship act (ib., 322-24); an act prohibiting British refugees from coming to Virginia; and a quarantine act (ib., 29-31). It was this session that passed the famous act to authorize Virginia's delegates in Congress to convey to the United States the Northwest Territory (ib., 326-28).
This remarkable oversight of Marshall is hard to account for. An explanation is that this was the year of his marriage; and the year also in which he became a resident of Richmond, started in the practice of the law there, and set up his own home. In addition to these absorbing things, his duty as a member of the Council of State took his attention. Also, of course, it was the year when peace with Great Britain was declared. Still, these things do not excuse Marshall's strange misstatement. Perhaps he underestimated the importance of the work done at this particular session.