<P> Marshall had charm, humor, a quick intelligence, and the ability to bring men together . His sincerity and presence commanded attention . His opinions were workmanlike but not especially eloquent or subtle . His influence on learned men of the law came from the charismatic force of his personality, and his ability to seize upon the key elements of a case and make highly persuasive arguments . Together with his vision of the future greatness of the nation, these qualities are apparent in his historic decisions and gave him the sobriquet, The Great Chief Justice . </P> <P> Marshall ran a congenial court; there was seldom any bickering . The Court met in Washington only two months a year, from the first Monday in February through the second or third week in March . Six months of the year the justices were doing circuit duty in the various states . Marshall was therefore based in Richmond, his hometown, for most of the year . When the Court was in session in Washington, the justices boarded together in the same rooming house, avoided outside socializing, and discussed each case intently among themselves . Decisions were quickly made usually in a matter of days . Marshall wrote nearly half the decisions during his 33 years in office . Lawyers appearing before the court, including the most brilliant in the United States, typically gave oral arguments and did not present written briefs . The justices did not have clerks, so they listened closely to the oral arguments, and decided among themselves what the decision should be . The court issued only one decision; the occasional dissenter did not issue a separate opinion . </P> <P> While Marshall was very good at listening to the oral briefs, and convincing the other justices of his interpretation of the law, he was not widely read in the law, and seldom cited precedents . After the Court came to a decision, he would usually write it up himself . Often he asked Justice Story, a renowned legal scholar, to do the chores of locating the precedents, saying, "There, Story; that is the law of this case; now go and find the authorities ." </P> <P> In 1836, Marshall was succeeded as Chief Justice by Roger B. Taney, who had a somewhat more limited view of the powers of the federal government . At a time when sectional tensions between the North and South were high, many of the Supreme Court's decisions--particularly those relating to slavery--met with controversy and contention . Most controversial was the Taney Court's decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). Dred Scott, a slave from Missouri, sued for his freedom on the grounds that his master had taken him into Illinois and the territory of Wisconsin, both of which prohibited slavery, for extended periods of time . Taney, however, ruled that members of the African race were not and could never become citizens of the United States . Consequently, he ruled that Scott therefore had no standing to file the lawsuit . Moreover, he held that the Missouri Compromise, under which Congress prohibited slavery in certain territories that formed part of the Louisiana Purchase, was unconstitutional . The controversial decision met with outrage from abolitionists, and contributed to the tensions that led to the Civil War during the next decade . </P>

How many supreme court justices were there in 1803