Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/503

Rh Judges lived for the most part in the same lodgings their intercourse was necessarily of the closest kind, off as well as on the bench, and Judge Story, writing, March 8, 1812, said that: "It is certainly true, that Judges here live with perfect harmony, and as agree- ably as absence from friends and from families could make our residence. Our intercourse is perfectly famiUar and unconstrained, and our social hours, when imdisturbed with the labors of law, are passed in gay and frank conversation, which at once enUvens and instructs. Abroad, our rank claims and obtains the public respect; and scarcely a day passes in Court, in which parties of ladies do not occasionally come in and hear, for a while, the arguments of learned coun- sel. On two occasions, our room has been crowded with ladies to hear Mr. Pinkney, the present Attorney- General." ^

Mr. Adams (the Secretary of State) gives a great dinner once a week, and llrs. Adams a great ball once a fortnight. . . . Calhoun's, however, was the pleasant- est of the ministerial dinners, because he invited ladies, and is the most agreeable person in conversation at Washington — I mean of the Cabinet. . . . The truth is, that at Washington society is the business of life. . . . People have nothing but one another to amuse theD^selves with ; and as it is thus obviously for every man's interest to be agreeable, you may be sure very few fail.'* Ticknor, I, 849.

^ The mention in this letter of the presence of ladies in the Court-room recalls the fact that their attendance was very common at that date, and influenced the argument of counsel — particularly of Pinkney. An amusing example was given by William Wirt in a letter to F. W. Gilmer, April 1, 1816, regarding the argument of Jones el oLy. Shore's Ex*ors, 1 Wheat. 462, in which he spoke of Pinkney : "At the Bar, he is despotic, and cares as little for his colleagues or adversaries as if they were men of wood. ... In the cause in which we were engaged against each other, there never was a case more hopeless of eloquence since the world began. It was a mere question between the representatives of a dead collector and a living one, as to the distribution of the penalty of an embargo bond — whether the representatives of the deceased collector, who had performed all the duties and recovered the judgment, or the living collector, who came in about the time the money was paid by the defendant into Court, and had, therefore, done none of the duties, was entitled to the award. I was for the representatives of the deceased collector — Pinkney for the living one. You perceive that his client was a mere harpy who had no merits to plead. There were ladies present — and Pinkney was expected to be eloquent at all events. So the mode he adopted was to get into his tragical tone, in discussing the construction of an Act of Congress. Closing his speech in this solemn tone, he took his seat, saying to me, with a smiley 'that will do for the ladies.'" Wirt, I, 404; Marshall, IV, 1S3, 184, 140.