ution and were in
full sympathy with its main purpose.

It is true that Washington in the winter of 1795-6 offered the Chief
Justiceship of the United States Supreme Court to Patrick Henry, who had
been the ablest and most conspicuous opponent of the Constitution in the
Virginia convention. Henry had, however, as Presidential elector voted
for Washington for President in 1789 and had in the meantime become
reconciled to the Constitution. Moreover, while he had been opposed to
many features of the Constitution, he was from the first in full
sympathy with the judicial veto. He thought the Constitution was
defective in that it contained no assurance that such a power would be
exercised by the courts. In his argument against the ratification of the
Constitution in the Virginia convention he said:

"The honorable gentleman did our judiciary honor in saying that they had
firmness to counteract the legislature in some cases. Yes, sir, our
judges opposed the acts of the legislature. We have this landmark to
guide us. They had fortitude to declare that they were the judiciary,
and would oppose unconstitutional acts. Are you sure that your Federal
judiciary will act thus? Is that judiciary as well constructed, and as
independent of the other branches, as our state judiciary? Where are
your landmarks in this government? I will be bold to say that you can
not find any in it. I take it as the highest encomium on this country,
that the acts of the legislature, if unconstitutional, are liable to be
opposed by the judiciary."[84]

The fact that only those who were in sympathy with the Constitution were
recognized in these appointments becomes the more significant when we
remember that several of the leading states ratified it by very slender
majorities. In New York, Massachusetts, and Virginia the supporters of
the Constitution barely carried the day; yet they alone were recognized
in the five appointments to the Supreme bench from these states made
during the period above mentioned. The opponents of the Constitution
represented, moreover, not only in these states, but in the country at
large, a majority of the people. Nevertheless, true to the purpose of
those who founded our Federal government, the popular majority was
entirely ignored and the Supreme Court so constituted as to make it
represent the minority. Through these appointments the Federalists
secured an interpretation of the Constitution in harmony with their
political th