Marbury\u27s Travail: Federalist Politics and William Marbury\u27s Appointment as Justice of the Peace

Abstract

This Article describes how Marbury, the youngest son of an impoverished remnant of a well-known family, elbowed his way to wealth and influence among the Maryland gentry. Further, this Article illuminates Marbury\u27s choice between the two wings of the Federalist party in Maryland - the Hamiltonian elite and the Adams\u27 loyalists - and how Marbury\u27s partisan service brought him to a position earning Thomas Jefferson\u27s disdain and rebuff. In the end, Marbury\u27s appointment and rejection derived from the very different characters of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson