Brion McClanahan on how John Marshall believed in an "aggressive central authority"

[John] Marshall distrusted the people's capacity to govern and believed that liberty was best secured by an aggressive central authority and not by local or state governments.  John Randolph of Roanoke, a friend and bitter rival, agreed with Marshall on the dangers of democracy, or "King Numbers" as he called it.  Marshall truly believed the Constitution was, as Madison argued in Federalist No. 10, the only safeguard against the "demagoguery" of Patrick Henry and other state factions.  But, he unknowingly set the stage for the rapid growth of the central government in the twentieth century.  His goal was a conservative one - but in the end he only established the precedents for an over-mighty central government that was as subject to demagogues as any state or local faction.

~ Brion McClanahan, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Founding Fathers, pp. 293-294