that Chase would accept and that "he requested me to
tell you 'that he receives your intention to nominate him
to a seat on the Supreme Judicial Bench of the United
States with the utmost gratitude.' He added 'The President shall never have reason to regret the nomination', and I believe it. He agrees to be in Philadelphia
by the first Monday in next month. Thus, Sir, you
see what you have done. You have made an old
veteran very proud and happy, and one not very young
to approach the station you have assigned him with
fear and trembling; for who hereafter may hope to
escape without a wound, whilst there are men to be
found who could aim poisoned arrows at yourself?"
A week later, McHenry wrote that Chase "is extremely
pleased with his appointment, and I have strong hopes
that its good effects as it respects the public will extend
beyond the judicial department. . . . I pray you to
receive him kindly and cordially."[1] In view of the
subsequent career of Chase on the Bench and the fact
that by his arbitrary actions he became the storm
center for the Anti-Federalist attack on the Federal
Judiciary, it must be admitted that McHenry's hopes
and predilections were unjustified, and that Chase's
confidence that "the President shall never have reason
to regret the nomination” was disproved by events.
There were Federalists in Washington's own circle who
gravely doubted the wisdom of the nomination. "I
have but an unworthy opinion of him (Chase)," wrote
Oliver Wolcott; William Plumer wrote that the appointments of Cushing and Chase "do not encrease the
respectability and dignity of the Judiciary"; and
Iredell wrote that: "I have no personal acquaintance
with Mr. Chase, but am not impressed with a very
favorable opinion of his moral character, whatever his
- ↑ Washington Papers MSS, letters of McHenry, Jan. 24, 81, 1796.
