year. not required there till the following Supreme Court of Errors, which he soon resigned as incompatible with his seat on the bench of the Superior Court, the comprehensive jurisdiction of which, embracing equity and common law, and an exclusive charge of the more important criminal cases, brought into active use the whole legal armory. His decisions may be read in the "Reports of Kirby and Root." Some of them in the criminal jurisdiction of the court are of curious interest to the general reader, as a picture of the manners of the olden time. He was, immediately on his arrival, placed on the Committee on Marine Affairs, one of those boards of the old Congress charged with mixed legislative and executive duties and calling for shrewd business abilities and tact in the unsettled, and what was even of greater difficulty, the impoverished condition of the country. He was also appointed a member of the Committee of Appeals, a body for the adjudication of admiralty cases, in which his biographer, Mr. Van Santvoord, says, "may be traced distinctly We have now to follow Ellsworth to the very earliest idea of a federal judi- one of the most important scenes of his ciary clothed with appellate powers." public life, the Convention of 1787 for Not only in this court, for such it the formation of the Constitution. really was, but in other committees, Connecticut had shown great reluc especially of finance, where he seconded tance to enter upon the work, and her the enlightened and patriotic views of delegation carried to it strong local Robert Morris, we find him deeply prejudices. Ellsworth, as he had forengaged in the every-day toilsome business of government, less known to the public than other spheres of the service, but not less honorable or less worthy the remembrance and gratitude of posterity. He bore a leading part in the discussion of the important questions of taxation, involving many delicate relations between the governments of the States and of the Confederacy. On the breaking up of Congress in Philadelphia, in 1783, by the incursion of a portion of the army, he served with Hamilton on the Committee of Conference with the authorities, and shortly after finally retired from the old Congress. On his permanent return to his native State, he was enlisted in its judiciary service as a member of the merly done in the Old Congress, represented what may be called a State Right policy. He battled resolutely for the equality of State representation in the Senate, rising to eloquence in his appeals. "What he wanted was domestic happiness. The national government could not descend to the local objects on which this depended. It could only embrace objects of a general nature. He turned his eyes, therefore, for the preservation of their rights to the State governments. From that alone he could derive the greatest happiness he expected in this life. His happiness depended on their existence as much as a new-born infant on its mother for nourishment." Though 'The Madison Papers, cited by Van Santvoord. bearing an important part in the de- honor. In the discriminating language bates, Ellsworth's name does not ap- of the writer in the "Analectic," alpear among the signatures to the final ready frequently cited, "if there was instrument. He was soon called to the any station for which he was peculiarly ratifying Convention in Connecticut, formed by nature, it was that of a one of those separate assemblies to judge. His habits of patient and imwhich the debates were adjourned, and whose decision was watched for with quite as much anxiety as the resolves of the parent body. In Connecticut, however, the issue was not doubtful. Ellsworth took the lead in the discussion, and presented the advantages of the Union to his State so strongly on the score of interest and self-protection, and in so shrewd a manner, that the Constitution was adopted by a large majority. Ellsworth, as one of the foremost men of his State, was chosen, with the excellent President Johnson, of Columbia College, New York, senator to the first Congress. Both were placed on the committee for organizing the judiciary, and it is to Ellsworth, doubtless, that we are greatly indebted, from his peculiar position toward the Constitution, for so ably carrying its provisions into effect. He stood by the side of Hamilton in his financial measures, and gave a zealous support to the administration in the measures represented by Jay's British Treaty. In 1796, Ellsworth received from Washington the appointment of Chief Justice of the United States, as the successor to Jay. It was an unexpected call to a sphere of duty from which he had been of late withdrawn; but having accepted it, he soon placed himself in a position, by laborious application, to discharge its duties with fidelity and partial investigation, his sound and accurate judgment, and his quick perception, all conspired to render him. every way worthy of the station which he filled, and had his appointment been made somewhat earlier in life, his mind more liberalized and adorned in youth by general learning and elegant literature, and in mature age more concentrated towards the single object of legal science, he would doubtless have ranked among the most accomplished and able magistrates of any age or nation." We have now to look upon the Chief Justice in a new relation abroad. Following the precedent of his predecessor Jay, he is sent abroad on a foreign negotiation in 1799, as one of the new commission to negotiate a treaty with France. The reader will call to mind the unhappy course of diplomatic negotiations with this court, which, after many vexations, commencing even with the era of the treaty of peace of 1783, and the ministry of Vergennes, drawn through the devious channels of the Revolution, and the agencies of Genet and his successors, had culminated in the unscrupulous and disre putable demands of the Directory and its crafty agent, Talleyrand. Marshall had turned his back upon the govern ment, at the close of the previous negotiation, with proud contempt, and the American public had adopted his manly spirit. War had succeeded, and the prospect of creditable intercourse with Windsor. He was again, however, our old ally seemed far off, when pre- called into judicial life to serve as a parations for new negotiations were member of the Council and Judge of suddenly made by President Adams the Supreme Court of the State, the in the appointment of this new com- duties of which he performed when he mission. Governor William Richard- was not prevented by illness, to the son Davie, of North Carolina, and Wil- close of the session of 1807. The State liam Vans Murray, then minister at the judiciary system was now remodelled, Hague, were the associates of Ellsworth. and Ellsworth appointed Chief Justice When the appointment was made, the of the State. His repeated attacks of ill Directory was still in power, and it was health, however, forbade his accepting only a strong regard for the interests an office, the duties of which he could of peace which could have encouraged hardly expect to discharge. He was much hope of negotiation. Indeed, the again taken ill, rallied, when his malady commissioners were not to enter Paris returned and proved fatal. He died at unless on proper assurances of sincerity his seat at Windsor, November 26, 1807. and respect. When they arrived at Lisbon, they were met by a change of affairs, in the succession of Bonaparte to the chief power, which materially improved their prospects. He was disposed to negotiate. The envoys were even welcomed to Paris. They had a speedy audience of Napoleon-nothing more of threats and demands for money from Talleyrand-Joseph Bonaparte and the Councillors of State, Fleurien and Roederer, were appointed to confer with them, and a treaty, satisfactory upon the whole, was finally concluded in September, 1800. The portrait of Ellsworth presents a commanding countenance of force and dignity; the eye, of singular penetration, is surmounted by a straight massive forehead. It indicates the character of the man; logical, intellectual, earnest, sincere: of the old Connecticut type. He was a man of few words, and but little of a writer. Even his judicial opinions are marked among such productions by their brevity. He was patient and laborious, kept close to the matter in hand, and as his judgment was sound, obtained great repute as a lawyer and on the bench. His services. as a politician in the old Congress and the new, and as a member of the Federal Convention, were rendered at times, and in a manner to confirm his claim upon the history of his country, in which he holds a high rank as an honest patriot-like Jay and Marshall, living in an atmosphere above detrac Ellsworth did not return immediately to America. An afflictive disease, aggravated by the gout, forbade the hardships of a winter passage. He in consequence resigned the office of Chief Justice, and directed his steps to England, where he was received with consideration. In the spring he crossed the Atlantic, and sought his home at tion. |