Humphrey Marshall (politician) - Later Political Career

Later Political Career

After the expiration of his Senate term in 1801, Marshall returned to his farm and his law practice, seldom acting in the realm of public affairs. In 1806, however, he resumed his attacks on suspected participants in the Spanish Conspiracy. His articles in the newly founded Frankfort Western World newspaper – written under the pseudonym "Observer" – prompted the Kentucky House of Representatives to form a select committee to investigate his charges. The committee found that Benjamin Sebastian had received a pension of $2,000 a year from Spain in return for his involvement in the Conspiracy. Federal judge Harry Innes, himself a frequent object of Marshall's suspicions, testified against Sebastian before the committee. Sebastian resigned his position on the Court, and the House declined to pursue further action against him. Marshall also unsuccessfully lobbied through his brother-in-law, U.S. Attorney Joseph Hamilton Daveiss, for a grand jury to indict Aaron Burr for attempting to enlist Kentuckians to participated in the Burr conspiracy. Marshall's intensified attacks on Judge Harry Innes in the pages of the Western World became so severe that they prompted Innes to sue both Marshall and Western World co-founder Joseph M. Street for libel. Both cases dragged on for several years in the courts.

Buoyed by his involvement in the exposure of Benjamin Sebastian, Marshall again declared his candidacy for a seat in the Kentucky House in 1807. Friends of Innes and others implicated by Marshall in the Spanish Conspiracy recruited Nathaniel Richardson, a lawyer turned farmer, to oppose Marshall. Approximately 1,100 votes were cast, and Marshall was elected by a majority of 11 votes. Marshall's biographer records that "the records of Humphrey Marshall's services in the Legislature at this time are scanty, the journals of the session being not in existence, as it is believed; or, at any rate, extremely rare." He is believed to have introduced a measure that reduced the limitation on ejectments from twenty years to seven.