Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/159

Rh upon." ^ On the other hand, a warm defense of Rutledge was made by the So/em Gazette, which termed this attack, "more licentious than anything which the pen of faction bas yet produced" ; and a prominent South Carolinian wrote to the Centinel that its charges were ^'audacious indecencies and untruths." ... "If there is one man in the United States fit for the oflSce of Chief Justice, Mr. Rutledge is that man. His legal abilities are gener- ally admitted by the learned of the Bar to be without superiority in the Union. . . . His integrity is known in Charleston and the State. . . . His private moral character defies the tongue of calumny." *

Meanwhile, amid this storm of objurgation, Rutledge had arrived in Philadelphia and, after taking the oath of office on August 12, 1795, had assumed his seat upon the Court for the Term then just beginning.^ At this session, only two cases were decided. In Talbot v. JanseUj 3 Dallas, 133, elaborately argued by Jared Ingersoll, Alexander J. Dallas and Peter S. Duponceau against Edward Tilghman, John Lewis and Jacob Read of South Carolina, the restitution was awarded of a prize captured by a French privateer illegally fitted out in oiu* ports, and the Court held that no foreign power had a legal right to issue commissions in this country. The complicated question as to right of National expa-

^ Letter of "A Real Republican", in Columbian CenJtind^ Aug. 26, 1795 ; see also Connedicut CourarU, Sept. 2, 14, 1795. The letter stated that the position of Chief Justice is "too important and dignified for a character not very far above mediocrity. To fill that station with advantage to the public, and with reputation to himself, a man must be eminent for his talents and integrity, for a dignified reserve, and a deliberate investigation, before he forms, much less avows, an opinion. He should be conspicuous for his love of justice in his private dealings and in his official conduct ; for if anything can be discovered in either that suggests even a doubt on this point, he must lack the confidence and respect of the people, his usefulness and his reputation are gone forever.*'

> Salem Gazette, Sept. 1, 1795 ; Columbian Centinel, Sept. 12, 1795.

'Judge James Iredell wrote, August 13: "Mr. Rutledge (my old friend) has arrived and yesterday took his seat. . . . Although I lament his intemperate expressions with regard to the Treaty, yet altogether no man would have been personally more agreeable to me."