of President Adams's action in handing over to the British
authorities, in conformity with the twenty-seventh article of the Jay
treaty, Jonathan Robins, who was alleged to be a fugitive from justice.
Adams's critics charged him with having usurped a judicial function.
"The President," said Marshall in reply, "is sole organ of the nation
in its external relations, and its sole representative with foreign
nations. Of consequence, the demand of a foreign nation can only be made
on him. He possesses the whole executive power. He holds and directs
the force of the nation. Of consequence, any act to be performed by the
force of the nation is to be performed through him. He is charged to
execute the laws. A treaty is declared to be a law. He must then execute
a treaty where he, and he alone, possesses the means of executing it."
This is one of the few speeches ever uttered on the floor of Congress
which demonstrably made votes. Gallatin, who had been set to answer
Marshall, threw up his brief; and the resolutions against the President
were defeated by a House hostile to him.

Marshall's course in Congress was characterized throughout by
independence of character, moderation of views, and level good sense,
of which his various congressional activities afford abundant evidence.
Though he had himself been one of the "X.Y.Z." mission, Marshall now
warmly supported Adams's policy of renewing diplomatic relations with
France. He took his political life in his hands to register a vote
against the Sedition Act, a proposal to repeal which was brought before
the House. He foiled a scheme which his party associates had devised,
in view of the approaching presidential election, to transfer to a
congressional committee the final authority in canvassing the electoral
vote--a plan all too likely to precipitate civil war. His Federalist
brethren of the extreme Hamiltonian type quite resented the frequency
with which he was wont to kick over the party traces. "He is disposed,"
wrote Sedgwick, the Speaker, "to express great respect for the sovereign
people and to quote their opinions as an evidence of truth," which "is
of all things the most destructive of personal independence and of that
weight of character which a great man ought to possess." *

* Letter from Sedgwick to King, May 11, 1800. "Life and
Correspondence of Rufus King," vol. III, pp. 236-7.

Marshall had now come to be practically indispensable to the isolated
President,