MARSHALL, UMPIIREY ( 1 756-1841 ). An American politician. cousin of Chief Justice John Marshall, horn in Westmoreland County, Va. lie received very little schooling, entered the Conti nental Army during the Revolution. and attained the rank of captain. Before the close of the war lie removed to Kentucky, and he settled in 1780 near Lexington, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1787 he was a delegate to the convention held at Danville to consider the question of separating Kentucky from Virginia. and strongly opposed that project. He soon be came known as one of the strongest Federalist leaders in the Kentucky region. In 1788 he was a delegate to the Virginia convention that ratified the Constitution. He had an inborn dislike for Wilkinson, whom he seems to have suspected from the first, and for a decade or more occupied the position of a sort of 'watch-clog' of Federal interests in Kentucky and was active in oppos ing and exposing the nu BICr011ti Spanish intrigues.
and plans for attacking the Spanish or French at New Orleans. He opposed the plan of George lingers Clark for an expedition against the Span iards in 1793, declaring it was a part of the scheme of Genet (q.v.), and would only have the effect of embroiling the country with a friendly Power. From 1795 to 1801 he was a United States Senator from Kentucky. Ilis let ters to the Western Wor/d. signed 'Observer,' in which he clearly pointed out the existence of the Burr conspiracy (q.v.), led to Federal action and the thwarting of Burr's plans of empire. While a member of the State Legislature in 1809 he fought a duel with Henry Clay in which both were wounded. He published a history of Ken tucky (1812; enlarged. 1824). which is in re ality a curious and partisan piece of autobiog raphy, but contains much of value in regard to early politics in the West.