to continue in office under the new Administration.
Among these, John Marshall and Charles Lee are
provided for; Marshall's brother-in-law is also nominated, and I expect some of his Kentucky connections
will be remembered when the nominations are made."
"It is a law which may be considered as the last effort
of the most wicked, insidious and turbulent faction
that ever disgraced our political annals," wrote another
correspondent from Kentucky, "the ne plus ultra of
an expiring faction to enthral the measures likely to
be pursued by the new Administration, and to serve
as one of the principal cogs in the wheel of consolidation."[1] One feature of the statute was regarded by
President-elect Jefferson as aimed directly at himself
and as an intentional diminution of his powers, namely,
the reduction of the number of the Court from six to
five, by providing that when the next vacancy occurred
it should not be filled. As Judge Cushing, who was
an elderly man and in extremely bad health, might
naturally be expected to resign within a short time,
the restriction on his replacement by Jefferson bore,
quite reasonably, the aspect of an attempt to keep the
Court wholly Federalist.
On March 4, 1801 (after twelve years of Federalist administration), political control of the United States passed into the hands of the Anti-Federalist party (now becoming known as Republican). "The Administration of Mr. Jefferson will be that of Reason and Virtue. The time seems to have returned when Republicanism, pure and undefiled, will evince its infinite value to social felicity," wrote Bishop James
- ↑ Breckenridge Papers MSS, letters of Nicholas, April 15, 1801, Mason, Feb. 12, 29, 1801, James Hopkins, Feb. 18, March 27, 1802. Salem Register, Feb. 4, 1812: "This celebrated act was scrambled into the House and hurried out as a law, to the disgrace of its framers."
