executive officer. Washington promptly sent the protests to
Congress, whereupon some extremists raised the cry of
impeachment; but the majority hastened to amend the Act so as to
meet the views of the judges.*** Four years later, in the
Carriage Tax case,**** the only question argued before the Court
was that of the validity of a congressional excise. Yet as late
as 1800 we find Justice Samuel Chase of Maryland, who had
succeeded Blair in 1795, expressing skepticism as to the right of
the Court to disallow acts of Congress on the ground of their
unconstitutionality, though at the same time admitting that the
prevailing opinion among bench and bar supported the claim.

* 2 Dallas, 419.

** Ware vs. Hylton, 3 ib., 199.

*** See 2 Dallas, 409.

**** Hylton vs. United States, 3 Dallas, 171.


The great lack of the Federal Judiciary during these early years,
and it eventually proved well-nigh fatal, was one of leadership.
Jay was a satisfactory magistrate, but he was not a great force
on the Supreme Bench, partly on account of his peculiarities of
temperament and his ill-health, and partly because, even before
he resigned in 1795 to run for Governor in New York, his judicial
career had been cut short by an important diplomatic assignment
to England. His successor, Oliver Ellsworth, also suffered from
ill health, and he too was finally sacrificed on the diplomatic