Published in 2002. by the University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-2724-7 

Publication of this volume has been assisted by grants from the  National Endowment for the Humanities,  National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation.

Volume XI, like volumes 6-10, blends correspondence with selected judicial opinions. Approximately 140 letters survive for this period. Eleven are to Joseph Story, who takes the place of Bushrod Washington (who dies in 1829) as principal correspondent. These letters are rich in commentary on the 1828 election, the policies of the Jackson administration, the Virginia constitutional convention, the breakdown of the Court’s consensus, and nullification. Two dozen family letters survive, nine of which are to Mrs. Marshall (“Polly”), the others to his sons. Marshall also wrote to persons who sent him pamphlets, speeches, lectures or other publications. His responses were more than polite acknowledgments but often extended reflections on the subject at hand–for example, popular education and democracy, slavery and the slave trade, legal codification, the mode of electing the president, agriculture, and government policy towards the Indians.

Particularly noteworthy is a long autobiographical letter Marshall drew up in 1827 for Story, who used it for a sketch of the chief justice that was published in the North American Review. The editors extensively annotate this letter and assign a more precise date to it than was done in a 1937 publication of the letter. Also included is a holograph will drawn by Marshall in 1827 (later revoked) and here published for the first time. Marshall played a major role in the Convention on Internal Improvements held in Charlottesville in July 1828. The editors have identified him as the probable author of the memorial and resolutions adopted by the convention. The volume also presents a dozen speeches or reports generated by Marshall at the Virginia Convention of 1829-30. In several notable speeches he eloquently defended the principle of judicial independence.

Six Supreme Court opinions are published in full, including four for which the original manuscript survives. In two cases (Willson v. The Black Bird Marsh Company and Providence Bank v. Billings) the chief justice upheld state laws that were challenged under the commerce and contract clauses. In another (Craig v. Missouri) he struck down a state law as violating the Constitution’s prohibition on the states to emit bills of credit. In addition, the volume presents eight circuit court opinions that survive for this period. Appendices include a calendar of all Supreme Court opinions Marshall delivered from 1828 through 1830 and a calendar of miscellaneous papers and letters not found.