National University - Docket Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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stitution to prevent such suits. A threat of war between the United States and Great Britain arising, Jay, while still Chief Justice, was sent to London and the famous Jay treaty was the result. So unpopular and unsatisfac- tory was this treaty that there was a great outburst of public indignation and the Chief Justice was burned in effigy in several communities. But the young republic was unprepared for a foreign war and the treaty was reluc- tantly accepted by Washington and confirmed by the Senate as containing the best terms obtainable at the time. Upon his return from England, Jay found that he had been elected Governor of New ork and he then did something that seems odd to us in this day — he resigned as Chief Justice to become Governor of his State! He was a brother of Sir James Jay, an eminent physician, who was knighted by George III and who was suspected of disloyalty to the United States after the Revolution, being practically disowned by the Chief Justice. To succeed Jay President Washington selected a distinguished South Carolinian, John Rutledge (1739-1800), who had served as an Associate Justice from 1789 to 1791 and who resigned from the Court to become chief justice of his State. He was a brother of Edward Rutledge, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the father of John Rutledge, Jr., who represented a South Carolina district in Congress from 1797 to 1803. Rutledge assumed his duties as Chief Justice in 1795 and presided over the Court during the August term, but in the following December the Senate refused to confirm his nomination. I he position was next offered to Caleb Cushing, the senior Associate Justice, who declined the honor. Washington now turned to Connecticut and his third choice met with the approval of the Senate. Oliver Ellsworth was born in 1 745 the same year in which Jay was born. He was of English ancestry and was edu- cated for the ministry at Yale and Princeton. There has always been con- siderable mystery as to just why Ellsworth suddenly quit Yale in 1764. In

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that year President Clapp wrote in his journal: “Oliver Ellsworth and Waightstill Avery, at the desire of their respective parents, were dismissed from being members of this college.’’ Apparently there was no hard feel- ing, though, for Ellsworth sent all his sons to Yale for their education. Young Ellsworth wanted to be a lawyer, not a preacher, and because of his stubborn persistence in this course his father cut off his allowance. Unable to buy a horse, he frequently walked from Windsor to court in Hart- ford and back, a distance of twenty miles, in a day. His practice increased rapidly and he soon removed to Hartford, where he took his place at the head of the Connecticut bar and amassed a considerable fortune. For six years he served in the Continental Congress, and in the Constitutional Con- vention of 1787 he was the chief advocate of the “Connecticut Com- promise,’’ which adjusted some of the differences between the large and the small States. Upon the organization of the new Federal Government he became one of Connecticut’s first two Senators. He was the chief author of the bill organizing the Federal judiciary and John Adams referred to him as “the firmest pillar of Washington’s administration.’’ In those days the Chief Justice, as well as the Associate Justices, had to ride the circuit and Ells- worth found the task a severe strain on his constitution. His talents and temperament fitted him for the work of the advocate and legislator rather than for purely judicial business. A great lawyer rather than a great judge, what fame he was entitled to was eclipsed by the luster of his great suc- cessor. Chief Justice Ellsworth had several peculiar personal habits. Ad- dicted to snuff, his one vice, he would often become so absorbed in a task that he would unconsciously take out the powdered tobacco and instead of putting it in his nose place it in tiny cone-shaped piles on the floor around his chair. He regularly talked to himself, even in the presence of others.