The Life of John Marshall, Volume 3: Conflict and construction, 1800-1815. Beveridge Albert Jeremiah

184

See Grigsby: Virginia Convention of 1788, ii, 260-262.

This was the same Senator who, in violation of the rules of the Senate, gave to the press a copy of the Jay Treaty which the Senate was then considering. The publication of the treaty raised a storm of public wrath against that compact. (See vol. ii, 115, of this work.) Senator Mason's action was the first occurrence in our history of a treaty thus divulged.

185

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 59.

186

In that case Marshall had issued a rule to the Secretary of State to show cause why a writ of mandamus should not be issued by the court ordering him to deliver to Marbury and his associates commissions as justices of the peace, to which offices President Adams had appointed them. (See infra, chap. iii.)

187

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 61.

188

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 63.

189

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 66. The eloquence of the Virginia Senator elicited the admiration of even the rabidly Federalist Columbian Centinel of Boston. See issue of February 6, 1802.

190

Ib. 77.

191

Ib. 83.

192

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 89.

193

Ib. 91-92.

194

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 99.

195

Morris notes in his diary that, on the same day, the Senate resolved "to admit a short-hand writer to their floor. This is the beginning of mischief." (Morris, ii, 416-17.)

196

January 27, 1802.

197

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 149.

198

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 150.

Burr's action was perfectly correct. As an impartial presiding officer, he could not well have done anything else. Alexander J. Dallas, Republican Attorney-General of Pennsylvania, wrote the Vice-President a letter approving his action. (Dallas to Burr, Feb. 3, 1802, Davis: Memoirs of Aaron Burr, ii, 82.) Nathaniel Niles, a rampant Republican, sent Burr a letter thanking him for his vote. As a Republican, he wanted his party to be fair, he said. (Niles to Burr, Feb. 17, 1802, ib. 83-84.) Nevertheless, Burr's vote was seized upon by his enemies as the occasion for beginning those attacks upon him which led to his overthrow and disgrace. (See chaps. vi, vii, viii, and ix of this volume.)

199

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 178-79.

200

See Appendix A to this volume.

201

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 179.

202

Ib. 180.

203

It was five o'clock (ib. 178) when Senator Breckenridge began to speak; it must have been well after six when Senator Morris rose to answer him.

204

Ib. 180.

205

Ib. 180.

206

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 181.

207

Troup to King, April 9, 1802, King, iv, 103.

208

Bayard to Bassett, Jan. 25, 1802, Papers of James A. Bayard: Donnan, 146-47.

209

Except Colhoun of South Carolina, converted by Tracy. See supra, 62.

210

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 183.

211

Ib. 510. A correspondent of the Columbian Centinel, reporting the event, declared that "the stand which the Federal Senators have made to preserve the Constitution, has been manly and glorious. They have immortalized their names, while those of their opposers will be execrated as the assassins of the Constitution." (Columbian Centinel, Feb. 17, 1802.)

212

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 518-19.

213

Ib. 521-22.

214

See vol. ii, 532, 541.

215

Washington Federalist, Feb. 13, 1802.

216

Henderson in North Carolina Booklet, xvii, 66.

217

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 529-30.

218

See infra, chap. iv.

219

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 531.

220

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 552-53.

221

Ib. 554.

222

Ib. 558.

223

See infra, chap. iv.

224

See, for example, the speeches of Thomas Morris of New York (Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 565-68); Calvin Goddard of Connecticut (ib. 727-34); John Stanley of North Carolina (ib. 569-78); Roger Griswold of Connecticut (ib. 768-69).

225

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 579.

226

Anderson, 83. Grigsby says that "Mr. Jefferson pronounced him (Giles) the ablest debater of the age." His speech on the Repeal Act, Grigsby declares to have been "by far his most brilliant display." (Grigsby: Virginia Convention of 1829-30, 23, 29.)

227

Anderson, 76-82.

228

See supra, 72.

229

This statement, coming from the Virginia radical, reveals the profound concern of the Republicans, for Giles thus declared that the Judiciary debate was of greater consequence than those historic controversies over Assumption, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Bank, Neutrality, the Jay Treaty, the French complication, the army, and other vital subjects. In most of those encounters Giles had taken a leading and sometimes violent part.

230

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 512.

231

Story's description of Giles six years later: Story to Fay, Feb. 13, 1808, Story, i, 158-59. Also see Anderson, frontispiece and 238.

Giles was thirty-nine years of age. He had been elected to the House in 1790, and from the day he entered Congress had exasperated the Federalists. It is an interesting though trivial incident that Giles bore to Madison a letter of introduction from Marshall. Evidently the circumspect Richmond attorney was not well impressed with Giles, for the letter is cautious in the extreme. (See Anderson, 10; also Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 581.)

232

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 580-81.

233

Annals, 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 582.

234

Ib.