nd wish always to
gratify; but the conduct of Mr. King left me no alternative. I was
obliged to give an opinion.... It would, indeed, be the extreme of
weakness in me to expect friendship from Mr. Clinton. I have too many
reasons to believe that he regards me with jealousy and
malevolence.... Some pretend, but none can believe, that I am
prejudiced in his favour. I have not even seen or spoken to him since
January last." This letter had scarcely been delivered when Clinton
appointed him to the Supreme Court, an office which Burr declined,
preferring to remain in the Senate.]

News travelled slowly in those days. There were no telegrams, no
reporters, no regular correspondents, no special editions to tell the
morning reader what had happened the day before; but when it once
became known that John Jay had been counted out, the people of the
State were aroused to the wildest passion of rage, recalling the
famous Tilden-Hayes controversy three-quarters of a century later. A
returning board, it was claimed, had overturned the will of the
people; and to the superheated excitement of the campaign, was added
the fierce anger of an outraged party. Wild menaces were uttered, and
the citizens of Otsego threatened an appeal to arms. "People are
running in continually," wrote Mrs. Jay to her husband, "to vent their
vexation. Senator King says he thinks Clinton as lawfully governor of
Connecticut as of New York, but he knows of no redress."[65] Hamilton
agreed with King, and counselled peaceful submission.

[Footnote 65: _Jay MSS._]

Meantime the Chief Justice was returning home from Vermont by way of
Albany. At Lansingburgh the people met him, and from thence to New
York public addresses and public dinners were followed with the roar
of artillery and the shouts of the populace. "Though abuse of power
may for a time deprive you and the citizens of their right," said one
committee, "we trust the sacred flame of liberty is not so far
extinguished in the bosoms of Americans as tamely to submit to the
shackles of slavery, without at least a struggle to shake them
off."[66] Citizens of New York met him eight miles from the city, and
upon his arrival, "the friends of liberty" condemned the men who would
deprive him of the high office "in contempt of the sacred voice of the
people, in defiance of the Constitution, and in violation of the
uniform practice and settled principles of law."[67]

[Footnote 66: William Jay, _Life of John Jay_