posed to detract in a measure from his greatness, it merely proves the general imperfection of all human excellence. If it be true that he was proud and haughty, imperious in manner, and hasty and obstinate in temper-if it be true even, as his enemies insinuated, that he was not entirely exempt from those frailties which social custom in his day tolerated, if it did not encourage,-it affords but another evidence of the fact which all history demonstrates and experience confirms, that mankind furnish few, if any, examples of perfect character. But there was in Rutledge so much of real superiority and genuine greatness, that these imperfections, though perhaps they ought not to be entirely overlooked, may be passed by in silence. To the American people, and especially the people of his own State, he must always appear, as he appeared to General Greene, " one of the first characters" in our annals. Such a distinction he honorably and nobly won, and surely no one better deserves to wear it than he. In the hall of the Supreme Court at the Capitol in Washington may be seen, upon their marble pedestals, the busts of Jay, of Ellsworth, and of Marshall. The eye of the stranger naturally seeks the bust of the distinguished Carolinian also, in that august tribunal over which he too, though for a brief period, presided ;-but it seeks it in vain. No product of the sculptor's chisel, amid that silent but impressive marble group, recalls the memory of John Rutledge. And the thought naturally arises in the mind, why is it that his place is vacant? Surely there might be found at least some niche in the judicial temple by the side of his predecessor, and his successors, on the bench, for the second Chief-Justice of the United States. OLIVER ELLSWORTH. OLIVER ELLSWORTH was a Senator in Congress from the State of Connecticut at the time the Senate refused to confirm Mr. Rutledge in the office of Chief-Justice. As a member of the Federal party he of course contributed to defeat the nomination of his predecessor; but no one has ventured to question the purity of motive which prompted his action on that occasion. From his known reluctance to accept the vacant place, it is probable that he himself was the last member of the Senate who could have anticipated that the judicial robe was about to fall from Judge Rutledge's shoulders on his own. Chief-Justice Ellsworth brought to that high tribunal, over which, for a brief period, he presided, a valuable experience both as a lawyer and a judge. Called to the bar a few years previous to the revolution, he had attained a respectable professional position before his business was interrupted by those great political events which summoned him into the public service; and when, at the close of the revolution, he returned to his native State, it was to take his seat upon the bench of the Connecticut Superior Courts, in which station he continued until the Federal Convention, and the organization of the new government opened to him a wider and more extended field of usefulness. He came to the bench of the Federal Courts, therefore, under the most favorable auspices; for he added the experience of the statesman to that of the advocate and the jurist. He possessed, in a felicitous combination, remarks a very judicious writer, "those qualities which make up a great judge, and which afterwards, through a much longer career, were displayed by his eminent successor. His mind, naturally exact and comprehensive, had been disciplined by severe study and by the exercises of an extended practice. He went into public life just at that period, when the intellect, not yet so settled in the professional mold as to lose its natural malleability, is able to adapt itself to its new and more liberal pursuits with tenacity and precision, but without the stiffness attendant on long service at the bar.” * He remained, it is true, but a few years on the bench of the Supreme Court; but, like his predecessor, Jay, he retired with honor, and left the impress of his mind upon the early history of the federal judiciary. I have not been able to collect materials for any very detailed account of the early years of Mr. Ellsworth's life. In this respect, indeed, he has but little the advantage of the great majority of his brethren of the old Supreme Court, of whom scarcely a notice remains. Nor, perhaps, could this be expected. The life of a plain New England lawyer must have glided on smoothly and quietly enough until broken in upon by the stormy scenes of the revolution; and whatever of local interest may have attached to it, we could scarcely hope, even were it possible to retrace the record, to meet with many of those personal recollections which serve at once to illustrate the character, and to indicate the temper and talents of the future judge. Nor should we expect to find in these earlier years of his life a narrative replete with those striking incidents or great enterprises, which sometimes sparkle on the page of biography, and never fail to attract the public gaze. There is nothing of this in the early history of Oliver Ellsworth. Indeed, that history may be said to commence with his appointment to the Continental Congress in 1777. With little to interest, and nothing to excite previous to this period, we shall, thenceforth, on every hand, encounter interesting traces of the labors and services of the pains-taking and judicious statesman, and the discreet and careful judge, in the various departments of civil life which he filled, legislative, diplomatic, and judicial. From this point then I shall take up the narrative; first, however, presenting the reader with a summary of the earlier years of his life, as it is sketched by the graceful pen of one who seems to have thoroughly understood and appreciated the character of his subject.† * Notes to Wharton's Am. State Trials, p. 37. From an original memoir of Chief-Justice Ellsworth, published in the Ana |