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132 measures are hurt by Mr, Rutledge's appointment and are unable to account for it," wrote Chauncey Good- rich, "but impute it to want of information of his hostil- ity to the Government, or some hidden cause which justified the measure. We shall be loth to find faction is to be coiu*ted at so great a sacrifice of consistency/' Oliver Ellsworth (then a Senator, and soon to become Rutledge's successor) wrote more temperately to Wol- cott, that "if the evil is without remedy, we must, as in others, make the best of it." Stephen Higginson wrote to Timothy Pickering : "I presmne he never will receive a commission. It would be an unfortunate thing for the public, as well as for himself, since with the present public opinion as to his conduct and charac- ter, he can never have the confidence of the people, nor be confirmed by the President and Senate at the next session of Congress." " No man in the habit of thinking well, either of Mr. Rutledge's head or heart but must have felt at reading the passages of his speech, which have been published, pain, surprise and mortification," wrote Alexander Hamilton. The sensation which the address created testified very strongly to the importance which the country attached to Rutledge's opinion ; but the Federalist resentment was further increased by the false and exaggerated reports which were given wide currency in the newspapers. The leading Federalist paper, the Columbian Centinel of Boston, published a long and virulent attack on Rutledge (which was widely republished), stating that he could not pay his debts, assailing his private character as well as his political views, and lamenting that " though the President's mo- tives, however, cannot be questioned ; everyone knows and confesses his integrity and zeal to do right, but he can- not know every man in the United States and the infor- mation he got from others cannot always be relied J