The foreboding of the Federalists over the passage
of this "fatal bill" was pessimistic in the extreme.[1]
"The sun of Federalism has set, indeed has fallen like
Lucifer, never to rise again," said the leading Federalist organ.
Another said that "by this vote the Constitution has received a wound it cannot long survive.
The Jacobins exult; the Federalists mourn; our country will weep, perhaps bleed." Another stated that a
mortal blow had been struck at the independence of
the Judiciary, which the Constitution “intended should
be a check on Executive encroachment and on Legislative intemperance and passion"; another said that
it was "part of the systematic plan for the total subversion of the law itself . . operating in its consequence a complete destruction of the independence of
an integral part of the Government, and introducing
a system of corruption into the sanctuary of justice";
another said that "it breaks down almost the only barrier against licentiousness and party tyranny”; another
stated that the Constitution had become a
mere old
woman's story. . . its evanescent authority will soon be
forgotten"; another said that "the die is cast and that
Constitution which Washington framed and the people
adopted has become a dead letter and no better than a last year's almanac,” and that the "judicial system had
received its death warrant." Another stated that the President had “gratified his malice towards the Judges
- ↑ Gazette of the United States, quoted in National Intelligencer, Feb. 3, 17, 1802. New England Palladium, quoted ibid., Feb. 12, 1802; New York Spectator, Jan. 20, 23, 27, 30, Feb. 6, 10, 18, 20, 27, 1802; Washington Federalist, Jan. 19, March 8, 1802; New York Evening Post, Dec. 17, 23, 29, 1801, Jan. 2, Feb. 22, 23, 27, March 2, 3, 19, 20, articles entitled "The Examination", dealing ably with the subject of the Judiciary. Connecticut Courant, Jan. 18, Feb. 15, 22, March 1, 1802, and quoting Gazette of the United States; Farmer's Weekly Museum, March 23, 30, 1802; Salem Gazette, Feb. 2, 12, 19, 26, March 2, 5, 9, 12, 16, 1802; Salem Register, March 11, 18, 1802.
unnecessary aggrandizement of the powers of the general government constitute a few of the features." Salem Register, Feb. 18, 1802.
