Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/71

Rh returned from the Senate where the Judges "had been approved", and that they had been "chosen from among the most eminent and distinguished characters in America, and I do not believe that any Judiciary in the world is better filled." John Brown, a Congressman from Kentucky, after reciting the nominations, wrote: "Our public affairs in every department go on so smoothly and with such propriety that I entertain sanguine hopes that the present Government will answer all the reasonable expectation of its friends. Judgment, impartiality and decision are conspicuous in every transaction of the President, and from the appointments which he has made there is every reason to expect that the departments will be conducted with justice and ability." Moreover, with great wisdom, the President had deemed it advisable to call to the high function of interpreting the Constitution men who had been instrumental in making it; for Rutledge, Wilson and Blair had been members of the Federal Convention of 1787, and signers of the Constitution; while Jay, Iredell, Wilson and Cushing had been leaders in their respective State Conventions in aiding ratification of the Constitution. Of the high dignity and importance of the positions which these men were to fill, Washington's full comprehension was again shown in the formal official letter which he addressed to each. "I experience peculiar pleasure in giving you notice of your appointment to the office of an Associate Judge in the Supreme Court of the United States,"