Virginians dominate the early history of the United States, with
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Patrick Henry, George
Mason, George Wythe, and John Marshall figuring prominently in that
narrative. Fellow Virginian Spencer Roane (1762-1822), an
influential jurist and political thinker, was in many ways their
equal. Roane is nonetheless mostly absent in accounts of early
America. The lack of interest in Roane is remarkable since he was
the philosophical leader of the Jeffersonians, architect of states'
rights doctrine, a legislator, essayist, and, for twenty-seven
years, justice of the Virginia Supreme Court. He was the son-in-law
of Henry, a confidant of Jefferson, founder of the influential
Richmond Enquirer, and head of the ""Richmond Junto."" Roane's
opinions established judicial review of legislative acts ten years
before Supreme Court Chief Justice Marshall did the same in Marbury
v. Madison. Roane also brought down Virginia's state-sponsored
church. His descent into historical twilight is even more curious
given his fierce criticism-both from the bench and in the Richmond
Enquirer-of Marshall's nationalistic decisions. Indeed, the debate
between these two judges is perhaps the most comprehensive
discussion of federalism outside of the arguments that raged over
the ratification of the United States Constitution. In
Irreconcilable Founders, David Johnson uses Roane's long-lasting
conflict with Marshall as ballast for the first-ever biography of
this highly influential but largely forgotten justice and political
theorist. Because Roane's legal opinions gave way to those of
Marshall, historians have tended to either dismiss him or cast him
as little more than an annoying gadfly. Equally to blame for his
obscurity is the comparative inaccessibility of Roane's life: no
single archive houses his papers, no scholars have systematically
reviewed his legal opinions, and no one has methodically examined
his essays. Bringing these and other disparate sources together for
the first time, Johnson precisely limns Roane's career,
personality, and philosophy. He also synthesizes the judge's
wide-ranging jurisprudence and analyzes his predictions about the
dangers of unchecked federal power and an activist Supreme Court.
Although contemporary jurists and politicians disregarded Roane's
opinions, many in today's political and legal arenas are
unknowingly echoing his views with increasing frequency, making
this reappraisal of his life and reassessment of his opinions
timely and relevant.
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