The DuPont cavalcade of America starring Robert Taylor. Good evening, this is Robert Taylor. Tonight's cavalcade is called Perfect Union, the story of the great American Chief Justice John Marshall as a young man. How he won a beautiful southern girl and a great political victory. But first here is Bill Hamilton of the DuPont Company. Good evening. Fine floors in your home need the protection and enduring good looks that only a fine varnish can give. DuPont makes varnishes for every purpose. The high quality is assured by the experience of 150 years of varnish making. One of these outstanding DuPont varnishes is Supremis varnish, made especially for giving lasting beauty and protection to your floors. It is pale in color and extremely tough and durable, which means that it can stand the hard use to which floors are exposed. There's real beauty and real economy too in Supremis varnish, another of DuPont's better things for better living through chemistry. Our cavalcade star tonight, Robert Taylor, can currently be seen with Audrey Tauter in the Metro-Golden-Mare thriller, High Wall. Now Perfect Union, starring Robert Taylor as young John Marshall on the DuPont cavalcade of America. This dawn, the morning of May 23rd, 1780, on the playing field of William and Mary College, two young law students prepare to fight a duel to the best with pistols. They stand back to back, awaiting the signal to begin. Mr. Hickman, Mr. Marshall, you'll walk at my count of ten paces, then turn and fire at will. Are you ready? I am. Yeah. Very well. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Oh, it's murder. Nine, ten. Bloody murder. Harry's down. Yeah, yes, but why? John fired in the air. Gentlemen, it appears my principle is indisposed. He's fainted. He's fainted. Ha-ha! Indisposed with waking of the knees. He needs a tonic. You better hoist him down to the tavern if he can't walk there himself. An excellent suggestion, very practical. Mr. Hickman, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Mr. Hickman, I thought you were... Well, I can't say I blame blue Harry much. I wouldn't care to face your woodsman's eye, John. What do you want to go waving pistols around this time of the morning for, anyway? You must have been talking politics again to make him that incensed. We did have quite a set too, and I can see you didn't like my ideas much, but it wasn't until I mentioned a certain young lady I've got my eye on. Ah, now we've reached the heart of it. What young lady? Mary Ambler, the girl I'm going to marry. Now, wait a minute, lad. You haven't even met her. I will, though, at the ball tonight at Yorktown. And you're mad enough to think she'll have you. Why not? What's wrong with me? Well, in Virginia, young ladies of her sort are accustomed to gentle manners, gentle men. Well, then I'll send her a nose gate with perverses in her ear. That I must hear. The woodsman spouting verses to his lady. Back in the Blue Ridge, Charles, we don't have time for racing and gambling and lopsided duels, but we do take time to read. And did you learn to dance by reading of it? He's right, John. She won't favor a man who treads on her toes. Or bores her with talk of national constitutions, political nonsense. I saw her on the street. I fell in love with her. She'll learn to love me, too. You wait and see. I'll wager she'll have none of you. It's a wager. Twenty pounds on it. Wait. You say you'll marry her within a year? I do. And on that twenty pounds, I'll win from you. Agreed? Agreed. All right. And after I meet her at the ball tonight, I say she'll not only marry me, but agree to my political views as well. He's got a duel, Mary. With Harry Hittman. Almost frightened him to death. And he made a wager about you, Mary. What? He didn't. He did. Tom told me. Oh, it's delicious. I think it's absolutely vulgar. Harry Hittman is a charming backwoodsman. How dare he? I've heard he's handsome. But absolutely vulgar. Well, who cares? Did he really send you flowers, Mary? I gave them to Eliza. Oh Mary, it's unfair. You've brought too many admirers now. If we can't discuss some other subject, I'm going out to the ball. Oh, but Mary, he's so romantic. And so absolutely vulgar. There's your future bride, John. Have you been introduced? I have. I even have this dance with her. Excuse me. Don't forget our wait. I believe I have the honor, Miss Ambler. I'm sorry. I have promised this dance, sir. Yes, to me, ma'am. It's written on your program, I think. Why, so it is. I had forgotten to erase it. Why did you want to erase it? Sir, a gentleman does not use a lady's name as subject for a wager. Well, I... And another thing. Our young men here don't spend their time stirring up trouble as I hear you're doing, telling people we ought to have a national government. We do have a national government, but I want to see it strong with a real constitution. It's shameful. Trying to destroy our dignity as the crown of the colonies. Where have you been all this time, Miss Mary? We aren't colonies anymore. We're the United States. We're Virginians, and don't you forget it backwards, ma'am. Ma'am, I came here to dance, not squabble with you. Rumor has it you do not dance. Why not try me and see? Mind you, I'll not be party to your silly wager. They tell me a cat can look at a queen. Your hand, please. Very well. You do dance well. Thank you, ma'am. Your clothes are worn. I'm poor. For a man of taste, there's always credit. For a man in love, there must be savings. You bore me, sir, with talk of that. And you delight me. Do not presume, because your name was written on my program. Will it... will it be written on your heart? So hasty, so presumptuous. Miss Mary, the lad with fairest prospect may be so defeated if, of his lady's glance, he is but one day cheated. What? Good evening, Mr. Marshall. I'd not expected you to call. Miss Mary, is your father here? Oh, then you didn't wish to see me after all. Well, I'll take you to him. Believe me, ma'am, I'd rather talk to you, but I need his attention. But I need his advice. Will you come this way, please? My father's standing. Miss Mary, I really... Papa, Mr. Marshall's here to see you. Oh, come in. Come in, lad. Advise him well, papa. He says he needs it. And I agree. Good evening, sir. Well, son, congratulations. I hear from Mary that you've been admitted to the bar. That's right, sir. I've been dreaming of it for a long time. Now you're a full-fledged lawyer, I dare say you'll have other things on your mind besides arguing with your cronies about national constitutions and such. Well, there is Mary. What was that between you two just now? Not serious differences, I hope. I'm afraid she doesn't think much of my ideas. Frankie, son, neither does the rest of the community. I know. It's easier to forget that we fought beside the other states to form a nation. It's easier just to drift along the way we're doing. Oh, I haven't forgotten, John, but I remember also to be practical. Virginia has her own problems to solve first. Virginia's an important state. If she took the lead in drafting a real workable constitution, the others might follow. Now, look, look, my boy, if you just calm down a little, think of your own state before you speak about a nation, you might stand for the House of Delegates from your native county. Ah, they'd never elect me. Why not? You're well-liked personally, and if your views are different from the others, well, we've tolerance in Virginia. A likable madman, is that it? Uh-uh. There you go. No wonder Mary has the vators every time you call on her. She does. She's never told me so. You know a little about the ladies as you do a practical politics, I think. Mr. Amber, if I were elected, could the state afford to pay, I mean, would there be funds? Does a member of the legislature earn enough to marry on? Treasure, I should know now, shouldn't I? All I can say is even I'm hard put to it to support my family. And unless my daughters marry wealthy men... I see. Well, I bid you good evening, sir. Oh, wait, wait, wait. You misunderstood me, John. Did I? Mr. Amber, I'm neither wealthy nor politically in style, but someday I shall be. Because although this country's young, there's opportunity for each citizen to raise it into manhood. And in the doing, every man who participates will find some measure of success. Have you heard? Martha's being married. To her planter. He's very accomplished. You're all being absolutely vulgar. What about you, Mary? What about me? You'll have to decide sometime. Or resign yourself to be in a maiden ed. I haven't been asked. Oh, what about Major Anderson? And John Marshall? Oh, he's absolutely vulgar. He isn't either. He's very handsome. My child is a gentleman. And very accomplished. Oh, Mary, you have a visitor. I'll see who it is. Maybe it's a young gentleman to join our sewing circle. I hope so. Who is it, Kate? Mr. Marshall wishes to see you, Miss Mary, alone these days. Miss Mary. Oh, good day, John. I have news for you. If you care to brave my sewing circle, you're quite welcome. You can't go into your father's study someplace where we'll be alone. My friends won't eat you up. Mary, please, my news is for your ears alone. All right. We'll go into the study. There. Now, John, what is it? I've been elected from my county to the House of Delegates here in Richmond. By all counts, I have a strong majority. Oh, that's a real honor, John. I'm proud of you. It means that I'll have a regular income. Really? And it means that... Oh, Miss Mary, I've waited so long for you. May I have your hand in marriage? Oh. Your answer, please. But I... I must have time to think. Fine. As it is, I've lost my wager, the conditions being that I'd win you in a year. So we'll start our married life poorer by 20 pounds. Oh, insolent as ever. And you're more beautiful. You... You wish to marry me at once? I do. You haven't even said you love me. I'll say it now. In this way. What? And now, my Mary. Will you? But I... Oh. Oh, John. Yes, I will. John Marshall, the young lawyer from the backwoods, had won not only the girl of his choice, but a place in the Virginia legislature. But in the 1780s, the people of Virginia thought more of their local problems than of the nation they had helped create. John Marshall was meeting strong opposition in his fight for a stronger union of the states. And he was the man who had to make the decision to make the decision to make the decision to make the decision to make the decision to make the decision of the union of the states. May I help you, madam? Why, yes, I'd like to see Bonnie. Certainly. Did you have a particular color in mind? Well, my husband prefers blue. I was to meet him here. Perhaps I'd better wait. Ah, yes, yes, madam, I understand. One pleases one's husband in matters of color, style. Oh, excuse me, please. Yes, sir? Was there something? I, well, I... Why, it's Mr. Patrick Henry. Oh, good morning, Mrs. Marshall. I just came in to... By a Bonnie? How charming. Or perhaps it was something a bit more frivolous for your lady? Well, yes, perhaps. By all rights, I shouldn't offer to help you choose at all. But I shall. Why not? I'd be delighted. The things you say to my husband in the legislature. Really, we should be sworn enemies. Nonsense, Mrs. Marshall. Politics has nothing to do with society. I'm inclined to agree with you, sir, but John says it does. He says we cannot turn an ideal on and off like the spigot in a cagavale. Hmm, that's very pretty. I wish I'd said it myself. Uh, you attend the legislative session? I? Yes. Oh, of course not, but John tells me everything that happens. Oh, you must come to the assembly house one day, judge for yourself who's right. Sir, please don't think me a disloyal wife when I say that John's foolish to pit himself against a great orator like yourself. Madam, if I do speak well, it's because I believe in what I say. Mary. Oh, John. John, look who's here. I'm going to help him choose something very frivolous and very expensive. I see. Uh, good morning, Patrick. Good morning, John. You picked out a bonnet, Mary? Oh, I was waiting for you. Well, hurry and decide, will you? Well, a fine way to treat a lady on her birthday, I must say. Perhaps you would like to try this one on. That would be awful. Come to anything, please. Well, Patrick, you have mentioned... Odd place for us to meet, huh? Betty, are we to act like a pair of stubborn mules forever? Well, that depends on you, sir. I bear you no ill will, but if you persist in trying to rob Virginia of her right... But I'm not. She can be greater by taking the lead in getting a national constitution. The articles of consideration are perfectly adequate. The people don't want a stronger Congress. What possible good is there in giving those idiots more power? Oh, General Washington, an idiot. Benjamin Franklin, James Madison. Certainly not. They want a constitution that will work, that will make us United States in fact, not fiction. And in so doing, Virginia will become a hollow shell of a form of greatness. Whatever we try to do will be stopped by a parcel of New England puritans sitting up there in Philadelphia. Those men have the interests of us all at heart. I don't believe that. And neither do the rest of our citizens. I warn you, John Marshall, if you insist on this undermining of your state's prestige, you will not be elected to the assembly again. There'll always be a way to speak. Gentlemen, really, this is not the legislature. Oh, I'm sorry, Mrs. Marshall. John, you and Mr. Henry are really such good friends. Why do you always have to be fighting? And besides, neither one of you has even gained to notice my new bonnet. Mary, Patrick and I both believe in liberty. He for the state, I in the union of the states. Even if I'm silenced, there are others who will fight. Furthermore, we're very on fighting until bonnet you have on, madam. Oh, yes, indeed it is, Mary, I'm sorry. Well, I'm glad you gentlemen finally agree on something. Well, Mama, do you disapprove that it's ten o'clock and I'm still a bed? Well, sit down. We do have one good comfortable chair. I worry so about you, Mary. You must try, my doctor dear, he's simply wonderful. But he'd be expensive. That's where you're so impractical, you and John. You allow him to buy you ribbons and gloves and furbelows, but you can't afford the leash. John likes to buy me little things. Then his conscience doesn't hurt him quite so much when he denies me big ones. Men are so willful, dear, unless their women choose to direct their ways. Exactly, of course. It's time you learned that. Has he ever cornered you to tell you what he thinks of states' rights versus the national government? You'd forget your methods soon enough. But when it means that you can't afford a doctor... What's money when there's a principle to keep his warm and a dream of glory to feed it? Mary. A constitution upholding individual right and at the same time securing those rights for all. That's what's needed, John says. Why, Mary, I could almost think you believe all this yourself the way you say it. I do. I thought before I didn't care that I was just humoring him. But now, in just the repetition of his words, somehow I begin to understand what John's been seeking all this time. Oh, good day, Marshal. Oh, but of course it's Mary Marshall. Now I've quite forgotten. My goodness, you're looking piqued, dear, but absolutely puny. Really? Well, I've not been feeling quite myself. So sad. My Charles tells me I'm becoming absolutely stout. He much prefers in stout, he says. I'm pleased to know you've made him happy, Marshal. Well, now tell me all about yourself, dear. I hear your husband's in the legislature cavorting like a skittish horse. He's younger than his colleagues, headstrong. Really, I can't say. You look very skittish, though. Now, he's eating you now. Oh, Martha, you haven't changed a bit. Come on, let's go have a cup of tea. I've absolutely hundreds of things to tell you. Well, I was on my way to the assembly house. John's speaking today and I want to hear him. Why don't you come with me, Martha? Maybe he'll be skittish for your benefit. Oh, very well, but politics is so dull. I don't see why you bother. To be truthful, this is the first time I have. And high time. My Charles just wouldn't approve my meddling in his affairs. I have a personal stake in what he says on the floor today. Very personal. I declare you sound so serious, Mary, talking like a man like that. Why, it's absolutely vulgar. You understand, Martha. They're all against him. And if he's voted down, he may not be re-elected. He may never have another chance. Now, Mary, all you need to do is give him a great big smile and tell him that he ought to vote like the other gentlemen do. Oh, you don't know him very well. Well, how do you feel about it? Oh, I don't know, Martha. I wish I did. Well, here we are at the assembly house. You coming in with me? On me, if you'll promise you'll have tea and gossip with me afterward like a human being. Yes, I promise. Let's stand over here. All right. Proceed, Miss Henry. Thank you, sir. I shall not stand by and see the rights, the traditional rights of Virginians trampled underfoot by men who can know nothing of our problems here. Who they're talking. This land, this land is big. How can we hope to draft a set of laws that would apply to Pennsylvania in the same way they apply to Virginia? It's impossible, gentlemen. And I defy anyone to show me how it can be done without diminishing the sacred liberties of our beloved state. Mr. Speaker. It's John Hewitt. Well, yeah, I thought... The gentleman from Coquette County. Mr. Speaker, gentlemen, as you know, I come from the Blue Ridge Mountains. When my neighbors and my brothers and my father and I were called upon to fight for liberty and union, we did so. Men from all the colonies did so for the same reason. If we can fight together for an ideal, can we not solve the problems of the peace together? Will it take attack from a foreign power to unite us again? Our colleague, Mr. Madison, warns us that we'll never have freedom of the seas or commerce or the respect of other nations if we do not become a nation strong and integrated. We must learn to think as a nation in peace as in war. We must give our great leaders a chance to draft a constitution that will ensure our states of their rights, our nation of its sovereignty. We of Virginia must lead the way. Mother, mother, take me out of here. I feel faint. Mary, Mary, what's wrong? Send for John. Oh dear. Did they help somebody quick? It's Mrs. Marshall. She's fainted. Mary, Mary, what's happened? Oh, Mr. Marshall, I'm so absolutely frightened. Bring water, someone, hurry, please. Mary, darling. John. I'm here, darling. What is it? The gentleman from Boca County. My darling. I was suddenly so dizzy. Oh, Johnny, you were convincing. I must have been. They'll just have to reelect you and I'll help you campaign. Oh, I'm so proud of you. Our son will be proud, too. What's that you say? I mean, would you say that again? I said our son will be proud. That's what I... I thought you said that. Oh, Johnny, what's become of all your fine elephant? Mary, for the first time in my life, I'm speechless. Johnny, come here, dear. What do you have, Mary? A pillow punched, a glass of water, some tea? Oh, thank you. I only want to look at you. You can't complain you never see me now. I'm always underfoot. And your thoughts are with the legislature. I know. You should be with them. Not here trying to keep an invalid wife amused. Well, they're going to vote on the proposed new constitution. The worst is over now. Why, I've heard you say the ratifying convention will be the battle of the century. You've got to be there. I won't go off and leave you, Mary. That's final. Johnny, think of General Washington. And Madison, Colbin and Nicholas, they're depending on you. I'm thinking of you. And that Patrick Henry with silver on his tongue, Johnny. If you're not there, he'll win them over. You're tempting me too strongly, Mary. It isn't fair. Since when were a woman's tactics fair? Now come here. Sit beside me. Now, read to me. All right. What'll it be, Shakespeare or poor Richard? The opening words of the new constitution they drew up in Philadelphia. If you please. I know those words without reading. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, to ordain and establish this constitution for the United States of America. John, I'll wager you Virginia turns it down. Mary, what do you mean? What I said. I'll wager you can't turn the vote in favor of adoption. Done. Well, what can you afford? 20 pounds? Well, I put up 20 pounds to win you, so I've been... Wait a minute. I'm not going to the convention. Are you accepting my wager? You've got to go through with it. You've vixen, so that's your game. You must go, John. We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union. Oh, John, that's what you stand for. You must go. All right, my darling, I will. And I'll win this wager. So will you. So will our children. And all the children and their children's children in time to come. Thank you, Robert Taylor. Now, here's Bill Hamilton of the DuPont Company. Old time whaling. The very words bring up a vivid, exciting picture. A trim ship under white sail, roaming from pole to pole in all weathers. And up aloft, high on the foremost, a lookout scanning the blue water far below him for the white double plume from the top of a whale's massive head. Then it was, there she blows, and all hands aloft to make sail, and boats clattering down over the side with strong, willing backs at the oars, a steersman astern. And in the bow, the man upon whose aim and daring and strength everything depended, the harpooner. Today whalers continue to roam the seas, but the business is modernized. It is no longer so romantic, but what it has lost in glamour, it has gained in efficiency. Nowadays, the harpoon is shot from a small cannon. The harpooner has become a gunner. He aims, fires, and the harpoon goes whistling to its target, trailing a thin, strong nylon line behind it. That line is all that holds the whale, and it must not break, no matter how deep he dives, or as a whaler would say, how deep he sounds. Nylon is better than the ordinary rope that used to be lashed to the harpoon. Nylon rope has high strength and outstanding ability to give or stretch and come back. It may be used time after time without fear that constant exposure to salt water and marine organisms will weaken it. Nylon's great strength, combined with resistance to rotting and tearing, makes it ideal for fishing nets, too. Holes snagged in heavily laden nets mean losses in the catch. Nylon nets are helping to add tons of fish to the world's food supply. Even amateur fishermen who fish for sport today use DuPont nylon fishing leaders and nylon lines. Nylon, delicate enough to make the sheerst hosiery, strong enough to hold a hundred-ton whale, is a development of chemical science, one of the DuPont Company's better things for better living through chemistry. Music Next Monday night at the same time, Cabocad will present the distinguished star Helen Hayes in an original radio play, Good Morning Miss Teichmann, a tender story of an American schoolteacher. Be sure to join us. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade Perfect Union was written by Virginia Radcliffe. Featured in tonight's play with Robert Taylor was Patricia Ryan as Mary. Music was composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Bryant. And this is Ted Pearson inviting you to listen next week to Helen Hayes on the Cavalcade of America, brought to you by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. The Cavalcade is presented each week on the stage of the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Applause This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
