 Like
many of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Luther
Martin attended the College of New Jersey (later Princeton), from
which he graduated with honors in 1766. Though born in Brunswick,
NJ., in 1748, Martin moved to Maryland after receiving his degree
and taught there for 3 years. He then began to study the law and was
admitted to the Virginia bar in 1771.
Martin was an early advocate of American independence
from Great Britain. In the fall of 1774 he served on the patriot
committee of Somerset County, and in December he attended a
convention of the Province of Maryland in Annapolis, which had been
called to consider the recommendations of the Continental Congress.
Maryland appointed Luther Martin its attorney general in early 1778.
In this capacity, Martin vigorously prosecuted Loyalists, whose
numbers were strong in many areas. Tensions had even led to
insurrection and open warfare in some counties. While still attorney
general, Martin joined the Baltimore Light Dragoons. In July 1781
his unit joined Lafayette's forces near Fredericksburg, VA., but
Martin was recalled by the governor to prosecute a treason trial.
Martin married Maria Cresap on Christmas Day
1783. Of their five children, three daughters lived to adulthood.
His postwar law practice grew to become one of the largest and most
successful in the country. In 1785 Martin was elected to the
Continental Congress, but this appointment was purely honorary. His
numerous public and private duties prevented him from traveling to
Philadelphia.
At the Constitutional Convention Martin opposed
the idea of a strong central government. When he arrived on June 9,
1787, he expressed suspicion of the secrecy rule imposed on the
proceedings. He consistently sided with the small states and voted
against the Virginia Plan. On June 27 Martin spoke for more than 3
hours in opposition to the Virginia Plan's proposal for
proportionate representation in both houses of the legislature.
Martin served on the committee formed to seek a compromise on
representation, where he supported the case for equal numbers of
delegates in at least one house. Before the convention closed, he
and another Maryland delegate, John Francis Mercer, walked out.
In an address to the Maryland House of
Delegates in 1787 and in numerous newspaper articles, Martin
attacked the proposed new form of government and continued to fight
ratification of the Constitution through 1788. He lamented the
ascension of the national government over the states and condemned
what he saw as unequal representation in Congress. Martin opposed
including slaves in determining representation and believed that the
absence of a jury in the Supreme Court gravely endangered freedom.
At the convention, Martin complained, the aggrandizement of
particular states and individuals often had been pursued more avidly
than the welfare of the country. The assumption of the term
"federal" by those who favored a national government also irritated
Martin. Around 1791, however, Martin turned to the Federalist party
because of his animosity toward Thomas Jefferson.
The first years of the 1800s saw Martin as
defense counsel in two controversial national cases. In the first
Martin won an acquittal for his close friend, Supreme Court Justice
Samuel Chase, in his impeachment trial in 1805. Two years later
Martin was one of Aaron Burr's defense lawyers when Burr stood trial
for treason in 1807.
After a record 28 consecutive years as state
attorney general, Luther Martin resigned in December 1805. In 1813
Martin became chief judge of the court of oyer and terminer for the
City and County of Baltimore. He was reappointed attorney general of
Maryland in 1818, and in 1819 he argued Maryland's position in the
landmark Supreme Court case McCulloch v. Maryland. The plaintiff,
represented by Daniel Webster, William Pinckney, and William Wirt,
won the decision, which determined that states could not tax federal
institutions.
Martin's fortunes declined dramatically in his
last years. Heavy drinking, illness, and poverty all took their
toll. Paralysis, which had struck in 1819, forced him to retire as
Maryland's attorney general in 1822. In 1826, at the age of 78,
Luther Martin died in Aaron Burr's home in New York City and was
buried in an unmarked grave in St. John's churchyard. |
