Gibbons V. Ogden, Law, and Society in the Early Republic by Cox Thomas H.;

Author:Cox, Thomas H.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ohio University Press

Preparing for Opening Arguments

Against this backdrop of hostility toward the Supreme Court, Thomas Gibbons pushed his case forward. In New York, Charles Rhind remarked, “I have no doubt but Messrs. Emmet and Oakley would do real justice to that cause, and I have ever been sanguine that the decision would be in our favor.” He nevertheless cautioned that “the oppositionists will use every exertion out of doors to bias the [Supreme Court] Members.’37 John Townsend likewise noted, “The great cause will of course come on for trial. I saw Colden today, he is less than sanguine.”38 William Wirt confided in his colleague Judge Dabney Carr, “Tomorrow begin my toils in the Supreme Court, and about tomorrow week will come on the great Steamboat question from New York. Emmet on one side, Webster and myself on the other.” He urged Carr to hear the case, stressing the tempting prospect of watching Emmet in action: “Emmett’s whole soul is in the cause and he will stretch out all his powers.” Wirt also drew from Greek and Roman history to describe the high-profile attorneys involved with the case. He compared Thomas Oakley to Phocion, a Greek statesman who, in the sixth century BCE, had tried to warn his fellow Athenians of the dangers of decadence and remind them of the need for frugal living. Thomas Addis Emmet took on the role of Themistocles, a shrewd general who had convinced the Greeks to build a navy and engage the Persians at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. Not surprisingly, Wirt described Daniel Webster as “ambitious as Caesar” and insisted, “He will not be outdone by any man, if it is within the compass of his power to avoid it.”39

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