groping. Little wonder therefore that at first the business of the Court
was meager and membership in its body seemed less attractive than
membership in the judiciary of a state. Robert Hanson Harrison, one of
President Washington's original appointees to the Supreme bench,
declined to serve, preferring to accept a state judicial office. John
Rutledge, another of the original appointees, resigned after a few
months, preferring the position of Chancellor of his native state to
which he had been chosen. John Jay, the first Chief Justice, resigned to
become Governor of New York, and later declined a reappointment as Chief
Justice in words indicating entire lack of faith in the powers and
future of the Court.

Nevertheless, the first period of the Court was by no means barren of
achievement. A beginning was made. The supremacy of the national
authority under the new Constitution was asserted. So stoutly indeed was
it maintained in the memorable case of _Chisholm v. Georgia_,[1] that
the country was thrown into a ferment. The Court had entertained a suit
against a sovereign state by a private citizen of another state and
rendered a decision in favor of the private citizen. The legislature of
the sovereign state concerned (Georgia) responded by a statute
denouncing the penalty of death against anyone who should presume to
enforce any process upon the judgment within its jurisdiction. The
matter was taken up in Congress and resulted in the proposal, and
subsequent ratification by the states, of a constitutional amendment
designed to prevent such actions in future.[2] It has been the fashion
to speak of this incident as a striking example of the recall of
judicial decisions. Such indeed it was. The decision did not suit the
popular frame of mind and was promptly overruled in the method
prescribed by the Constitution. It went a long way, however, toward
establishing the Supreme Court as a power to be reckoned with on the