tration, and probably no other act was more bitterly resented by Jefferson.*

Owing to ill health, Justice Ellsworth decided to remain in France and resigned the chief justiceship of the Supreme Court. President Adams offered the vacant post to Governor Jay, of New York, who declined. The post was then tendered to John Marshall, who accepted and on January 27, 1801, was appointed Chief Justice.† On this matter, Mr. C. F. Adams says:

"These appointments excited dissatisfaction on both sides. The ultra Federalists murmured at the nomination of Jay as useless, and complained that Patterson had been overlooked in order to reward a favorite; the opposition, that the strongest opponent of their chief in Virginia had been set as a check over him. But looking back upon the events of the first half of this century,

* Gouverneur Morris had heartily championed this measure and in a letter stated his reasons for

so doing. "The new judiciary bill may have,

and doubtless has, many little faults, but it answers the double purpose of bringing justice near to men's doors, and of giving additional fibre to the root of government. You must not, my friend, judge of other states by your own. De. pend on it, that in some parts of this Union, justice cannot be obtained in the state courts.

*

That the leaders of the Federal party may use this opportunity to provide for friends and adherents, is, I think, probable; and if they were my enemies, I should blame them for it. Whether I should do the same thing myself is another question. They are about to experience a heavy gale of adverse wind; can they be blamed for casting many anchors to hold their ship through the storm?" As Mr. Roosevelt says, they most assuredly should be blamed for casting this particular kind of anchor, for it was a gross outrage to "provide for friends and adherents" in such a manner. See Roosevelt, Gouverneur Morris, pp. 332-333.

† John Adams, Works, vol. ix., p. 96; Schouler, United States, vol. i., pp. 491-492; Magruder, Life of Marshall, p. 155 et seq.; Thayer, Life of Marshall, p. 38.

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and upon the combination of qualities requisite to fill that most responsible and difficult post in such a manner as to consolidate instead of weakening the Union, it is scarcely possible for the most prejudiced man to deny, that the selection by John Adams of John Marshall to be chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, was, for its political consequences, second in importance only to that virtually made by the same individual, twenty-five years earlier, of George Washington as commander-in-chief of their armies."

After Jefferson and Burr had been elected by Congress, Adams had before him for the balance of his term, what has been termed little better than a "dreary pageant." His power was virtually gone and little attention was paid to his actions. The last few weeks of his administration were passed in comparative solitude and were of little interest. Early on the morning of his last day in office, Adams abruptly departed for home,† unwilling or unable to witness the triumph of his successful rival. Mr. C. F. Adams says:

"His presidency had been one long and severe trial, in the course of which it was his lot to have his firmness and independence of spirit put to the test for the fourth time in his career, under

John Adams, Works, vol. i., p. 597. For a review of Marshall's work, see the lecture before the University of Michigan by Henry Hitchcock, Constitutional Development in the United States as Influenced by Chief-Justice Marshall, reprinted in Thomas M. Cooley, Constitutional History of the United States as Seen in the Development of American Law, pp. 55-120.

Bassett, Federalist System, p. 295. Morse says that C. F. Adams tries to throw a cloak of fine language over this act of childish spite and folly, but to no purpose. "It was the worst possible manifestation of all those petty faults which formed such vexatious blemishes in Adams' singularly compounded character."— John Adams, p. 322.

472

circumstances more appalling than ever before. For the first time his own popularity sunk completely under the shock. He retired disgraced in the popular estimation, and his name became a by-word of odium for many years. But he had fully redeemed the pledge into which he had entered with himself at the commencement of his career, to act a fearless, intrepid, undaunted part,' though not forgetting likewise to act a prudent, cautious, and considerate part.' And never was a union of these qualities more exemplified than during this administration, in the course of which his inflexible courage had saved the neutral policy, and had removed the obstacles which threatened the prosperity of the nation at the moment that he took the helm."

Gibbs, on the other hand, writing with a strong Federalist bias, is rather severe on what he terms the "insane jealousy and suspiciousness, the morbid irritability, the egregious vanity and egotism, the obstinacy and vacillation," of John Adams, who he says, "had the doubtful satisfaction of gratifying his revenge upon Hamilton at the cost of his own ruin and that of those who supported him."†

In speaking of the work of the Federalists in general during their man

stitutional government deserves, and from an impartial posterity will receive, the admiration and respect of our country. In those days there were giants in the land. Dignified and elevated as was the character of Washington, pre-eminent as he stood amongst the great and illustrious personages of history, there were around him and with him, upon the stage of public action, others, who at any time would have been, who even then were, conspicuous as monuments amidst their race; men who are found only in revolutions; who, in times of fat and prosperous security, remain inert and obscure; who appear only with the storms of state; whose ardor and patriotism are roused in proportion to the danger; whose self-reliance increases with peril, and whose resources are fertile in the same degree that they are taxed. Such were the great representatives of the federal party; the men whose names are household words, examples for the imitation of those that come after. Blot those names from our records, and what indeed would remain!

"The tone of their government was in accordance with the character of its administrators: they had considered official station, not as a reward of partisanship, but as a trust confided by the nation to those who had marked themselves worthy of the trust; they had inculcated maxims of reverence for the laws as the true loyalty of republicans; their foreign policy was distinguished by a pure and undeviating love of country, their domestic, alike by ability, integrity, and foresight. Firm, prudent, and honest, they indulged in no levity of resentment to other nations, nor wavered at the apprehension of danger from them. With the single object of the public good, they never

"With the exception of the errors of Mr. Adams, an exception springing from an abandonment of federal policy, the first twelve years of our con

*John Adams, Works, vol. i., pp. 597-598. †See, however, Schouler's opinion, United States, vol. i., p. 505 et seq.

sentation. Their power was, however, taken from them. The confidence of the people, shaken less by open assaults than by secret undermining, was withdrawn, and the government passed into the hands of its early and steadfast opponents. Then came a new race into the management of affairs.” *

* Gibbs, Administrations of Washington and Adams, vol. ii., pp. 513-514.

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During the first session of the sixth Congress, which convened December 2, 1799, the House turned its attention to the condition of public domain. As mentioned before, cessions of western lands had been made from time to time by the various States. On February 19, 1780, New York surrendered the country lying between the sources of the Great Lakes and the Cumberland mountains. In January of 1781, Virginia ceded the territory northwest of the Ohio, the deed of cession being executed March 1, 1784. A strip of land included in this Virginia cession, running 80 miles north of latitude 42° 2′ and stretching from the Mississippi to New York, had been claimed by Massachusetts and was ceded to the United States in 1784. South of this lay another strip, which was claimed by Connecticut and ceded in 1786. South Carolina soon followed suit, ceding a strip of land 14 miles wide south of north latitude 35° and running from her western boundary line to the Mississippi.* The ordi

*William A. Mowry, The Territorial Growth of The United States, chap. ii.

1800) ceded to the United States and by the latter to Ohio.* Virginia had set apart a tract of 150,000 acres in what is now Indiana for the use of General Clark and his men. The Virginia Military District of 4,200,000 acres lay along the north bank of the Ohio, from the Scioto to the Little Miami.

South of the Carolina cession were the lands claimed by Georgia. Formerly South Carolina had claimed lands lying on the Mississippi, regardless of the fact that Georgia lay between the territory claimed and that

*King, Ohio, p. 280. See also E. E. Sparks, The Expansion of the American People, p. 114.