decided. A good Judiciary is highly useful."[1] To
the Bench, the appointinent was evidently not so satisfactory; and Judge Iredell wrote that he thought it
would cause Judge Wilson to resign. "The kind
expectations of my friends that I might be appointed
Chief Justice were too flattering. Whatever other
chance I might have had, there could have been no
propriety in passing by Judge Wilson to come at me.
The gentleman appointed, I believe, will fill the office
extremely well. He is a man of excellent understanding
and a man of business."
Before the Senate had acted on the Rutledge appointment, another vacancy on the Court occurred through the resignation of John Blair of Virginia in the early summer of 1795. “Why did Judge Blair resign?" wrote William Plumer to Jeremiah Smith. "From the little acquaintance I have had with him, I consider him as a man of good abilities, not indeed a Jay, but far superior to Cushing, a man of firmness, strict integrity and of great candour, qualities essentially necessary to constitute a good Judge."[2] Edmund Randolph who appears to have desired the position,[3] and to whom it was apparently offered by the President in July, 1795, had finally decided not to accept, only a few weeks before his forced resignation as Secretary of State owing to the Fauchet letter scandal. James Innes, the leader of the Virginia Bar, was strongly recommended for the Blair vacancy by John Marshall and by Washington's intimate personal friend, Edward
- ↑ Life of Jeremiah Smith (1845), by John H. Morison, letter of Smith to Samuel
Smith, March 5, 1796; Plumer Papers MSS, letter of Plumer to Smith, March
81, 1796; Iredell, II, letter of March 25, 1796.
Ellsworth was confirmed by the Senate on March 4, 1796, by a vote of twenty-one to one. - ↑ William Plumer Papers MSS, letter of Feb. 19, 1796. Charles Simms, a leading lawyer of Alexandria, Va., was an applicant for appointment in Blair's place; see letter of Dec. 25, 1795. Calendar of Applications (1901), by Gaillard Hunt.
- ↑ Washington Papers MSS, letter to Randolph from Washington, July 7, 1795.
