James William Marshall

James William Marshall (August 14, 1822 – February 5, 1910) was a United States Postmaster General under President Ulysses S. Grant, a government administrator in several capacities for Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes, and, as a member of the Democratic Party representing Virginia, a one-term participant in the legislative process. He was the third-to-last surviving cabinet member of the Grant administration. Known for his integrity, he was not associated with the scandals that marred Grant’s presidency, and his reputation as a public servant remained intact. During Reconstruction, he worked under Postmaster General John A. J. Creswell, who implemented the racial integration of African Americans into the U.S. postal system.

Marshall was born in Clarke County, Virginia, then a slave state, on August 14, 1822. His mother was Susan Oreah Marshall and his father was James Pede, and his grandfather was Rush Marshall. He spent his early years in Clarke and Fauquier Counties, where he attended local schools until 1837. In that year he moved to Mount Sterling, Kentucky, also a slave state, where he was engaged in business as a young man. These formative experiences in the Upper South preceded his later relocation to the North and his long association with higher education and the federal government.

Seeking advanced education, Marshall enrolled at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, a prominent liberal arts institution. He graduated from Dickinson in 1848. Immediately upon graduation he joined the faculty of his alma mater, serving as adjunct professor of ancient languages from 1848 to 1850. In 1850 he married Jane Stephenson of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, further cementing his ties to the community. That same year he was elevated to the full professorship and became chair of the department of ancient languages, a position he held from 1850 to 1862. By the time of the 1860 U.S. Census, Marshall resided in Carlisle with a household of six persons. Listed as a professor of languages, he reported property worth $13,000 (approximately $314,000 in 2020 dollars), and he was recorded as married with three children. While on the Dickinson faculty, he also took part in student discipline; on March 4, 1861, he was involved in punishing two students, William De Vecmom (Class of 1863) and Henry Sherwood (Class of 1864), for misconduct involving a pistol, an incident that illustrated the tensions of the era on the eve of the Civil War.

Marshall’s academic career at Dickinson coincided with the turbulent years leading up to and including the early Civil War period, and his reputation as a capable educator and administrator helped prepare him for later federal service. Over time he moved from the academic world into government work, serving in various administrative capacities under Presidents Lincoln, Grant, and Hayes. His experience in managing institutional affairs and dealing with complex personnel and disciplinary matters at Dickinson translated into skills valued in the expanding federal bureaucracy of the mid-nineteenth century.

As a member of the Democratic Party representing Virginia, Marshall contributed to the legislative process during one term in office. His service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history, when the nation was grappling with the aftermath of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the redefinition of federal and state authority. In this role he participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his Virginia constituents, bringing to legislative deliberations the perspective of a Southerner who had spent much of his professional life in the North and in federal service.

Marshall’s most prominent national role came in the postal service during the Grant administration. He rose within the Post Office Department and ultimately served as United States Postmaster General under President Ulysses S. Grant. Working closely with Postmaster General John A. J. Creswell, under whom he had earlier served, Marshall was part of the leadership that oversaw the racial integration of African Americans into the U.S. postal system during the Reconstruction era. This policy, encouraged by the Grant administration, expanded employment opportunities for Black Americans in a major federal agency at a time when the federal government was seeking to enforce civil rights and reconstruct Southern society. Throughout his tenure in the Post Office Department and in the cabinet, Marshall remained free of association with the corruption scandals that affected other officials, and his administrative record was regarded as honorable and efficient.

In his later years, Marshall lived to see the close of the nineteenth century and the emergence of the United States as an industrial and international power. Having outlived most of his cabinet colleagues from the Grant administration, he was, at the time of his death, the third-to-last surviving member of that cabinet. James William Marshall died on February 5, 1910. His long life spanned from the antebellum era through the Civil War, Reconstruction, and into the Progressive Era, and his career reflected the trajectory of a nineteenth-century American who moved from the slaveholding South into national service, combining academic distinction, legislative participation, and high federal office.