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just what he pleases, but it consists of an equal right to all citizens to have and enjoy and do in peace, security and without moles tation, whatever the equal and constitutional laws of the country admit to be consistent with the public good." With regard to his peculiar qualifications for the Chief Justiceship, I am constrained to quote the valuable and judicious enconium of Judge Cooley: "When the duty was devolved upon Washington to organize a government under the Constitution, no appointments he was called upon to make were more im portant to the country than those of the Justices of the Supreme Court. Especially was that of Chief Justice of first importance. An error in this regard might have brought into the Federal system mischiefs that in a little time would have become inveterate and irremediable. . . . Vhen the time is considered, .and the circumstances under which the duty of authoritative construction must be entered upon, one cannot fail to be impressed that peculiar qualifications were essential in the person who should preside over the body to whom that duty would be intrusted, and who would give direction to its thought. He ought certainly to be a learned and able lawyer; but he might be this and still fail to grasp the full significance of his task. ... It required a statesman to understand its full significance as an instru ment of government, instinct with life and authority. No other man prominent in the public councils, and generally known to the country, possessed in so eminent a degree the varied qualifications essential to the task

as did John Jay. . . . He was thus in a true sense a broad as well as an experienced statesman, jurist and diplomatist; and in no other position in the government were his great and varied attainments calculated for such eminent usefulness." That a man of Jay's temperament should have remained, against his inclination, so long in the public service seems to show the greatness of his patriotism. Happy in his home life, of domestic tastes, retiring and self-contained, inde pendent and courageous, with a calm and clear judgment, endowed with the happy faculty of seeing things as they are, and of absolute integrity both mental and moral, Jay apparently deserves a greater popularity with posterity than his name has attained. Not brilliant like Hamilton, or deep like Franklin, or cunning like Jefferson, and strangely devoid of all sense of humor, in character and in attainments he more re sembled Washington than any other public man of his time. The mingled blood of his Dutch and Huguenot ancestry flowed strong in his veins for the true liberty of the citi zen, a principle to which he unswervingly devoted the whole strength of his manhood. Yet much of his influence was due, no doubt, to the fortunate circumstances and time of his birth; associated, as he was, by strong social ties with the powerful New York families who, by their position and wealth and force of character, assumed the leader ship in the Revolutionary agitations, and retained that leadership to build a stable government upon the cornerstone of the Constitution.