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

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.

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

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.)

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

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

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.

Ib. 77.

Ib. 83.

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

Ib. 91-92.

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

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.)

January 27, 1802.

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

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.)

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

See Appendix A to this volume.

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

Ib. 180.

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.

Ib. 180.

Ib. 180.

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

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

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

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

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

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.)

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

Ib. 521-22.

See vol. ii, 532, 541.

Washington Federalist , Feb. 13, 1802.

Henderson in North Carolina Booklet , xvii, 66.

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

See infra , chap. iv.

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

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

Ib. 554.

Ib. 558.

See infra , chap. iv.

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).

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

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.)

Anderson, 76-82.

See supra , 72.

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.

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

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.)

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

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

Ib. 583.

See supra , chap. i.

Marbury vs. Madison (see infra , chap. iii). For Giles's great speech see Annals , 7th Cong. 1st Sess. 579-602.

Bayard is "a fine, personable man … of strong mental powers… Nature has been liberal to him… He has, in himself, vast resources … a lawyer of high repute … and a man of integrity and honor… He is very fond of pleasure … a married man but fond of wine, women and cards. He drinks more than a bottle of wine each day… He lives too fast to live long… He is very attentive to dress and person." (Senator William Plumer's description of James A. Bayard, March 10, 1803, "Repository," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)