Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/229

Rh Secretary of State (John Marshall himself), carried to the President for signature, and returned to the Act^ ing Secretary of State who had affixed to them the seal of the United States,^ Of these commissions, however, at least four had not been delivered when President Adams' term of office expired at midnight on March 3, 1801; and President Jefferson on coming into office at once ordered that these commissions should be with- held. "The nominations crowded in by Mr. Adams after he knew he was not appointing for himself," he wrote, "I treat as mere nullities. His best friends do not disapprove of this " ; and again he denounced these "new appointments which Mr. A. crowded in with whip and spur from the 12th of Dec. when the event of the election was known . . . until 8 o'clock of the night at 12 o'clock of which he was to go out of office. This outrage on decency should not have its effect, except on the life appointments which are ir- revocable.*' * While a large number of the justices chosen by Adams received reappointments from Jef- ferson, four of those who were not so favored determined to test his legal right to withhold theb commissions,

^ A letter from a Republican Congressman in the Aurora, Dec. 80, 1801, states: "The commissions had been made out in bknk, and subscribed by Mr. Adams before the nominations were made to the Senate. The Senate, however, agreed to the nominations, but the third of March was not long enough to allow the commissions to be entered on record in the office of the Secretary of State or to be forwarded to the nominees.'*

It is a singular fact that Marshall acted as Secretary of State for President Jefferson at the Utter's request See letters of March 2, 4, 1801, PoUHeal and Economic Doctrines qf John Mar$haU (1914), by John R. Oster.


 * Jefferson, IX, letters in 1801 of March 28, to W. B. Giles, March 24, to W. B. Giles, March 24, to W. Findley, March 24, to Benjamin Rush, March 27, to Henry Knox, March 20, to Elbridge Grerry, March 20, to Gideon Granger. Jefferson wrote to Mrs. John Adams, June 18, 1804 : " I can say with truth that one act of Mr. Adams* life, and one only, ever gave me a moment's personal displeasure. I did consider his last appointments to office as personally unkind. They were from my most ardent political enemies. ... It seemed but common justice to leave a successor free to act by instruments of his own choice.** See also especially History qf the Office qf Justice qf the Peace in the District qf Columbia, by Charles S. Binney, Columbia Historical Society Records (1902), V. J^erson's generosity in reappointing •o many of Adams* choice was praised in the National Intelligencer, March 28, 1801.