Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/146

120 ject on which the Western Country was deeply aroused, "Will you not hear with surprise that John Jay, Chief Justice of the United States, has received this appointment?" wrote Senator Brown of Kentucky to Jefferson's friend, Judge Harry Innes of the United States District Court. "To you it is unnecessary to remark on the objections arising from the Constitution to an appointment which blends the functions of the Judiciary and Executive, or which renders the Judiciary dependent upon and subservient to the views of the Executive, and which unites in one person offices incompatible with each other. Nor need I observe upon his conduct in relation to Mississippi negotiation, or inform you that, when Secretary of State under the old Government and a Chief Justice under the present, he has expressly committed himself in derogation of the claim of the United States upon the subject of the unexecuted clauses of the Treaty, detention of the Western Posts and interest upon British debts. . . . This appointment gives room for great discontents, especially as his political opinions are adverse to the French Revolution and, as supposed by many, to Republican Government also. All efforts in the Senate to defeat the nomination were ineffectual." "There was opposition to the appointment echoed from one end of the continent to the other,** said an Anti-Federalist Congressman in debate, later. "The example was dangerous, it put the Judges under the influence of the Executive, and although the prospect of an honorary appointment within the gift of the President was remote, yet it might influence and lessen their independence." And a prominent Federalist also said, later: "This was breaking in on a fundamental principle, that is, that you ought to insulate and cut off a Judge from all extraneous inducements and expecta-