might be explained to him, the reason of his being preferred to the District Court rather than to the Supreme Court; though I have no objection to nominating him to the latter, if it is conceived that his health is competent, and his mental faculties are unimpaired by age."[1] John Blair, whom Washington finally selected, was a man of fifty-seven years of age, and had served ten years on the State Courts of Virginia as Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals and as a Judge of the High Court of Chancery.
From Massachusetts, it had been the general expectation that John Lowell, who had served as Judge of the Court of Appeals under the old Confederation, would receive the appointment; and he had been warmly indorsed by Washington's intimate personal friends. General Benjamin Lincoln had written: "I consider, my dear General, that not only the happiness of the people under the new government, but that the very existence of it depends, in a great measure,
- ↑ Edmund Randolph, writing to Madison as early as July 19, 1789, said that Col. Griffin "had written him July 10, stating that he had had 'a long conversation with our worthy President on the subject of officers of the Judiciary and the customs. He appears very anxious to know whether any of the gentlemen who are now in the Judiciary department in the State of Va., would prefer the Continental establishment and mentioned Mr. Pendleton, Mr. Wythe, Mr. Lyons and Mr. Blair, and asked me whether you had ever intimated a wish to serve in that or any other line under the Federal government. May I ask the favor of you to sound Mr. W(ythe) and Mr. B(lair) on the subject. I have written to Mr. Marshall relative to the wishes of Mr. P(endleton) and Mr. L(ee).'" Omitted Chapters of History Disclosed in the Life and Papers of Edmund Randolph (1888), by Moncure D. Conway, 126.
Similar views as to possible candidates had been expressed by Joseph Jones of Virginia to Madison as early as June 24, 1789, Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc. 2d Series, XV: "Virginia ought to have one. … Of our Judges, Pendleton, Wythe, Blair, would either of them answer well? The first will, I fear, be unable to execute his present office long; the others are qualified and able, if they would act. Among the lawyers, I know of none but Randolph. It is of the first consequence to have your Supreme Court of able lawyers and responsible characters"; see also letters of Washington to Joseph Jones, May 14, 1789, and to Edmund Randolph, Nov. 30, 1789, explaining that the reason for not appointing George Wythe to the Federal Judiciary was Wythe's preference to remain a State Judge; and see report of Randolph to Washington, Dec. 15, 1789: "Wythe sits in a kind of legal monarchy which to him is the highest possible gratification."
