emove the obstructions placed by France in the way of
American commerce. The Envoys were unsuccessful, but a correspondence
took place between Marshall and Talleyrand, which was a source of great
satisfaction to American publicists, and raised Marshall still higher
in their esteem and confidence. Upon his return home in 1798, he was
given a public reception in New York by the citizens, and a public
dinner by the two Houses of Congress, "as an evidence of affection for
his person, and of their grateful approbation of the patriotic firmness
with which he had sustained the dignity of his country during his
important mission." He subsequently took a prominent part in support of
the measures of retaliation directed against France by the
Administration, which were sharply assailed by the opposition. He
resumed his practice in Richmond, but was again drawn from it by a
message from Washington, who requested him to visit him at Mt. Vernon.
He did so, and the result was that he yielded to the solicitations of
his old chieftain, and consented to accept a seat in Congress. He was
elected to the Lower House of that body in 1799. During the canvass,
President Adams offered him a seat in the Supreme Court of the United
States, but he declined it.

His career in Congress was brief, but brilliant. The Federalist party
was hard pressed by the Republicans, and he promptly arrayed himself on
the side of the former, as the champion of the Administration of John
Adams. The excitement over the "Alien and Sedition Laws" was intense,
but he boldly and triumphantly defended the course of the
Administration. Mr. Binney says of him that, in the debates on the great
constitutional questions, "he was confessedly the first man in the
House. When he discussed them, he exhausted them; nothing more remained
to be said; and the impression of his argument effaced that of every one
else."

His great triumph was his speech in the Jonathan Robbins affair. Robbins
had committed a murder on board an English ship-of-war, and had sought
refuge from punishment in the United States. In accordance with one of
the provisions of Jay's Treaty, his surrender had been demanded by the
British Minister, on the ground that he was a British subject, and he
had been surrendered by President Adams. The opposition in Congress made
this act a pretext for a famous assault upon the Administration, and a
resolution was introduced into the House of Representatives by Mr.
Livings