СНАРТER III.

1818.

APPOINTMENT TO THE POST OF ATTORNEY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES. MOTIVES FOR ACCEPTING IT. REMOVAL OF HIS RESIDENCE TO WASHINGTON. POLITICAL AND PERSONAL ASSOCIATIONS OF THE CABINET.- MR. MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. -REPOSE OF PARTY SPIRIT.- DUTIES OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL. REFORMS IN THE OFFICE. -LETTER TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.

MR. WIRT's appointment to the post of Attorney-General of the United States was made in the recess of Congress, on the 13th of November, 1817. The nomination was sent to the Senate and confirmed on the 15th of the following December. Early in January, after this event, he repaired to Washington to enter upon the duties of his office.

His reluctance to embark in public life, which we have seen so frequently expressed in his letters, was an unaffected and matured sentiment. He coveted no political honours. His thoughts were turned towards a life which was to derive its pleasures from the domestic circle, and its fame from private pursuits. His ambition was to earn affluence and leisure from the diligent practice of his profession; and renown from the dedication of these to literary employments. He had consequently repelled every attempt heretofore, to bring him upon the political stage. In 1813, when a rumour prevailed that Mr. Giles, who was then one of the senators of Virginia in Congress, had it in contemplation to resign his seat, a general wish was expressed that Wirt would accept the appointment to the expected vacancy. The expression of this wish was equally rife when Mr. Giles did resign, in 1815. On both occasions, Mr. Wirt discountenanced all expectations on this point, by the refusal to allow his name to be presented to the Legislature for the vacancy.*

* It appears that, in January, 1815, when the Virginia Legislature found itself obliged to elect a senator to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of Richard Brent, Mr. Wirt's friends put him in nomination, in competition

The acceptance by Mr. Rush of the mission to England, unexpect edly opened to Mr. Wirt the appointment to the attorney-generalship He was summoned to this post under circumstances that almost forbade a denial. The President, Mr. Monroe, had many claims upon him. He had been his early friend and patron, at a period when he stood in need of such a relation; he had the highest confidence in Wirt's ability, and a most cordial esteem for his private worth and personal qualities. There was something more, therefore, in this summons to a post in the cabinet than the ordinary and appropriate discharge of an official function. It implied, also, an appeal to a friend for the indulgence of a personal gratification, by which the toils of public administration were to be lightened of some portion of their irksomeness, and cheered by the communion of an intimate and cherished companion.

Wirt did not hesitate to accept. The post he was about to fill had as much of a professional as of a political character. The acceptance of it so far coincided with his plan of life, that it facilitated his purpose of practising in the Supreme Court of the United States, and thus gave him a more commanding access to that theatre which he had already chosen as the most desirable field for the employment of his talents.

The Attorney-General, until within a few years previous to this date, had not been so closely associated with the Cabinet as he has been since. He had not, even, been required to reside at the seat of government; and was regarded more distinctly as a mere adviser on legal questions arising in the course of administration, than as a cabinet councillor, charged with the duties of consultation in matters of general concern. He was, therefore, left at liberty to pursue his practice wherever he found it most convenient, limited only in his choice, in this particular, by the exigency of his duties to the government. Mr. Pinkney, in fact, resided altogether in Baltimore during

with that of Governor Barbour, and that the vote which resulted in the choice of Governor Barbour was a very close one. I presume that this nomination was made without Mr. Wirt's consent, and, most probably, without his knowledge: that, if he had been elected, he would have declined the appointment. I infer this not only from the general tenor of his letters, but from his known refusal to be a candidate upon the resignation of Mr. Giles, which took place in the same year as the above-mentioned proceeding.

the short period of his incumbency, and maintained his post almost without interruption to his private engagements at the bar.

In the first year of Mr. Madison's second term, this question of residence attracted the attention of government. Upon the suggestion of the President himself, it is said, Congress passed an act which required the Attorney General, from that time, to reside in Washington. This led to his complete identification with the Cabinet, gave him a more distinct political character, and rendered him, in equal degree with his colleagues, responsible for the counsels of the administration. He was still, however, left in the full enjoyment of every privilege belonging to his professional position not incompatible with the restrictions as to residence. His relation to the Supreme Court, as the law officer of the government, could not be otherwise than a most effective auxiliary to his professional advancement, which, indeed, would be scarcely less promoted by the influence attached to his political connection with the administration. In every point of view, therefore, the preferment to this post obviously presented to Mr. Wirt a most desirable opportunity for the gratification of his ambition in that career to which he had devoted his studies and his hopes.

The Cabinet, at the period when he became associated with it, was composed of gentlemen eminent for their position at the head of what was then called the Democratic party. Mr. John Quincy Adams held the post of Secretary of State, Mr. Crawford was at the head of the Treasury, Mr. Calhoun of the War Department, Mr. Crowninshield, of the Navy, which post he resigned in a few months after this date, and was succeeded in it by Mr. Smith Thompson of New York. The Post Office was in the hands of Mr. Meigs until the last year of Mr. Monroe's second term, when it was consigned to Mr. John McLean of Ohio, now a Judge of the Supreme Court.

With these gentlemen, the Attorney-General maintained an official and private association, throughout the two presidential terms of Mr.

* The passage of this act, there is reason to believe, caused the resignation of Mr. Pinkney, in 1814. Enjoying a large and profitable practice in Baltimore, as well as in the Supreme Court at Washington, and a professional reputation to which no official position could give additional renown, he prudently declined a sacrifice of these substantial advantages for the less comfortable honour of public station,

Monroe's service; an association which was distinguished, not less by the personal gratifications which flowed from the communion of highly cultivated minds, congenial in their pursuits and influenced by mutual sentiments of the kindest regard, than by their harmonious political action, of which the effects were seen in the increasing prosperity of the country and the universal confidence of the people. The administration of Mr. Monroe has been noted for the happy auspices under which it was begun and conducted to its close. The political strife which had embittered the temper of the two great parties of the Union, through a career of incessant and exasperated contests for sixteen years, had now subsided. Each party had, by common consent, sought a breathing space, "for frighted peace to pant," and, in a calm survey of the field of contention, had found,-what angry disputants will generally find, when they grow cool enough to investigate,—that toleration and mutual forbearance in opinion better speed a good cause, than blows or scolding words. In this abandonment of strife, so happily characteristic of the era of which we speak, the nation came to a sober and just estimate of its duty, and yielded a cordial support to the administration. All men exulted in this peace; and those at the head of affairs enjoyed the rare good fortune of witnessing an honest and patriotic appreciation by the people, of their own honest and patriotic endeavours to advance the public welfare. Party spirit had in a great degree disappeared; faction was disarmed; no venal press was subsidized to conceal truth or stamp a fair seeming upon falsehood. Demagogues, the curse of free government, found no mart wherein to ply their seditious trade. So profound was this peace, so beneficent the spirit of the time, that, in 1821, Mr. Monroe was elected to a second term without an opponent in the field.

Such were the fortunate conditions which attended the entrance of the Attorney-General upon the theatre of public life.

Mr. Wirt's varied attainments, professional skill and enlarged experience were now to be brought to the observation of the whole country. They were to be submitted to that ordeal of public judgment, which seldom errs on the side of leniency towards its object, and not less rarely stamps its approbation upon a spurious fame. If an exception to this reluctance of commendation be sometimes found in the history of men, who have come to renown by those qualities

and accidents which captivate the popular fancy in the blaze of a sudden glory, or by their relation to some exciting topic of admiration or prevailing taste, it is, we may say, never found in the history of those who have built a solid reputation upon the labour of intellect, and earned a title to be remembered in the silent and lonely vigils of persevering study.

The office of the Attorney-General has nothing to commend it to the fancy of an indolent man. The organization of the government does not present a post which requires from him who faithfully discharges its duties, more systematic diligence, more daily and nightly toil, self-possession, equanimity, or more uninterrupted health. The summary of these duties is expressed in the law which established the office, "to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court, in which the United States are concerned, and to give advice and opinions upon questions of law when required by the President, or when requested by the heads of any of the departments, touching matters that may concern their departments."

In the discourse pronounced by Mr. Southard, on the occasion of the death of Mr. Wirt,* he spoke of the duties of the AttorneyGeneral in the following terms: "There is a peculiarity in the responsibility of this officer, which requires the exercise of more than common care in his selection. He does not deal with the ordinary routine of business which inferior intelligence and system can manage; but when doubts and difficulties intervene upon the powers conferred by law, or the rights intended to be secured, the appeal is made to him. His labours are always connected with perplexing subjects; and his opinions, as well as his arguments in court, relate to every variety of questions which can arise under our institutions, or from our connection with the commerce and governments of the world. His opinions, too, are official; not merely persuasive upon the judgment of other officers, but, so far as the construction of the law is concerned, regarded as binding; and if error be committed, the responsibility is, in a great degree, taken from them and cast upon him,

"A discourse on the Professional Character and Virtues of the late William Wirt, delivered in the Hall of the House of Representatives, March 18, 1834, by Samuel L. Southard.”