American Sanctuary by A. Roger Ekirch

Author:A. Roger Ekirch [Ekirch, A. Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2017-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

Cephas Thompson, John Marshall, 1809–1810 Credit 34

It was a masterful defense, brimming with erudition, in which Marshall repeatedly chided Republicans and more than once mocked their claims. “The gentleman from New York [Livingston] has asked, triumphantly asked,” he declared, “what power exists in our courts to deliver up an individual to a foreign government? Permit me, but not triumphantly, to retort the question.” Not until the end of the day did Marshall conclude, putting off a final House vote on Livingston’s resolution to Saturday morning, following concluding words from Nicholas. The tally was not close, ending in just 35 votes for censure and 61 in opposition. Federalist ranks held firm, joined by five Republicans, of whom one, Davis of Kentucky, later professed his reluctance to express “a want of confidence in our Chief Magistrate” on the eve of treaty negotiations with France. “We have taken the final question on Livingston’s impudent resolutions, which are rejected,” Harrison Gray Otis wrote his wife. That night, heavy snow blanketed the city, as if to smother any smoldering embers of opposition.48

The speech has justly been hailed as the greatest of Marshall’s short political career. According to an anecdote repeated years later by Henry Adams, the great-grandson of John, Gallatin, when asked immediately afterward how he would respond, tartly replied, “Answer it yourselves.” Criticisms contained in Gallatin’s notes cast doubt on the story’s credibility, but even Jefferson wrote that “Livingston, Nicholas & Gallatin distinguished themselves on one side & J. Marshall greatly on the other.” “A very luminous argument,” Timothy Pickering enthused to Rufus King. All this was true enough, but contrary to standard accounts, Marshall’s speech did not rescue Adams from the House’s censure. The tide, far from being turned, was already flowing in the president’s favor, with Federalists predisposed to vote overwhelmingly against the Republicans’ resolution. The tally on March 8 was nearly identical to the vote taken by the House in its capacity as a committee of the whole two days earlier. Proponents of censure gained one vote, whereas their adversaries picked up three. The most that might be said is that Marshall’s eloquence deterred a few representatives from having been swayed by Gallatin’s oratory.49

Adams’s triumph in the House was bittersweet. As Jefferson had predicted, two days later, in the wake of the censure vote, Bayard moved to withdraw his resolution of approbation, fearing the reticence of moderate Federalists. With regard to more orthodox members of the party, despite their growing skepticism toward the president, there is no evidence that on this of all issues they intended to embarrass Adams or Secretary Pickering, one of their own, by voting against the resolution. Though a follower of Hamilton, Speaker Sedgwick, for one, had consistently demonstrated his loyalty to the administration during the debate over Robbins. Republicans, hopeful of defeating Bayard’s measure, insisted that its withdrawal be put to a vote. The tally revealed a clear, albeit unorthodox, fault line. On Bayard’s motion to kill the measure prior to a vote on its merits, as many as 62 representatives voted yea to 35 nays.

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