Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/145

Rh he was appointed by Washington as Special Ambassador to England to negotiate a treaty of settlement of the controversies then pending. The choice of a member of the Court for such a mission was not received favorably by the Senate; but after a three days’ debate, in the course of which a resolution was offered that "to permit Judges of the Supreme Court to hold at the same time any other oflSce of employment emanating from and holden at the pleasure of the Executive is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution, and as tending to expose them to the influence of the Executive, is mischievous and impolitic", the nomination was finally confirmed by a vote of 18 to 8, on April 19, 1794. A letter from Madison to Jefferson illustrates the animadversions aroused: "The appointment of (Hamilton) as Envoy Extry was likely to produce such a sensation that, to his great mortification, he was laid aside and Jay named in his place. The appointment of the latter would have been difficult in the Senate, but for some adventitious causes. There are 10 votes against him in one form of the opposition, and 8 on the direct question. As a resignation of his Judiciary character might, for anything known to the Senate, have been intended to follow his acceptance of the Ex. trust, the ground of incompatibility could not support the objections, which, since it has appeared that such a resignation was no part of the arrangement, are beginning to be pressed in the newspapers. If animadversions are undertaken by skillful hands, there is no measure of the Ex. administration, perhaps, that will be found more severely vulnerable." The opposition to Jay's appointment was due not merely to his judicial status, but to his supposed English proclivities and to his lukewarm views on American rights in the navigation of the Mississippi River — a sub-