Lawrence praised Marshall’s biography, but took issue with a passage in the book regarding the Battle of Long Island, which occurred in August, 1776 and resulted in Washington’s evacuation of his forces to Manhattan, and ultimately out of New York entirely. Lawrence, a New York politician who later served in the state senate. In February 1834, the 79 year old Chief justice received a long letter from John L. The work was so authoritative in its day that fully 27 years after it was published, people were still poring over it to cull information. The biography was successful and influential, remaining the standard work on the life of Washington until surpassed half a century by Washington Irving’s. Marshall was a great admirer of Washington, and he was given access to Washington’s papers by his family. The author was none other than the sitting Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Marshall the final volume came out the same year (1807) as Marshall presided over the treason trial of Aaron Burr. Within eight years of the death of George Washington in 1799, the first major biography of ‘the father of his country’ was written and published in five volumes. If in any instance I have failed to attain this object, the failure is the more lamented if its consequence be the imputation of blame where praise was merited. Accuracy of detail ought to have been, and was, among my primary objects.
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