The third president of the United States and its fourth Chief Justice were cousins, were slaveholders, were both Virginians, and both took office within a few months of each other in 1801. That is where any similarity between the two men ends.
In domestic policy, foreign diplomacy, and political philosophy, they were bitter enemies; in personality and temperament, complete opposites. Mr. Jefferson was the aristocratic democrat, favoring France, Congress, and the power of the states, but annoying friends and enemies alike with his intellectual hauteur and Machiavellian approach to politics. Mr. Marshall was the democratic aristocrat, favoring England, the judiciary, and the power of the federal government, enraging enemies with his decisions but winning the admiration of almost everyone for his down-to-earth ways.
