The excited political situation, however, was such
that irrespective of Rutledge's mental condition his
rejection by the Senate was certain, and it was accomplished by a vote of ten to fourteen, as soon as that body
convened.[1] "This is as it should be," said the Columbian Centinel, "and what he ought to have expected,
after the impudent and virulent attack he made on their
characters. . . . The President, having appointed him
ad interim before he knew of his late proceeding, was
of necessity obliged to put him in nomination. But
since it has been known how passionately he arraigned a measure before he had time to consider,
or perhaps before he read it, he has been judged
(all politicks apart) to be a very unfit person for a
Chief Justice of the United States."[2] "I am pleased
that the Senate of the United States discovered so much
firmness," wrote William Plumer to Jeremiah Smith.
"A man who hastily condemned in a town meeting, in
such opprobrious terms, a treaty with a foreign nation,
ought not to preside in the highest judicial Court of
the Union. . . . The conduct of the Senate will, I hope, teach demagogues that the road to preferment in this enlightened country is not to revile and calumniate government and excite mobs in opposition to their measures." Jefferson, on the other hand, wrote to William B. Giles: "The rejection of Rutledge by the Senate is a bold thing, for they cannot pretend any objection to him but his disapprobation of the treaty. It is, of course, a declaration that they will receive none
- ↑ See New York Daily Advertiser, Dec. 19, 1795. The Boston Gazette, Feb. 22, 1796, published a letter from Philadelphia dated Jan. 9, 1796, stating that: "The Georgia Senators have arrived and are chagrined that the appointment of the Chief Justice had been submitted when their State was unrepresented. The thing looks disrespectful, but may have been accidental."
- ↑ Columbian Centinel, Dec. 26, 1795; Plumer Papers MSS, letter of Plumer to Smith, Jan. 1, 1795; Jefferson, VIII, Dec. 31, 1796; Boston Gazette, Feb. 22, 1796, quoting letter from Philadelphia of Jan. 9, 1796.
