jurisdictionem_.'"

Yet as late as 1800 the federal judiciary had pronounced none of those
decisions which were to make it so powerful a factor in the assertion
and maintenance of national sovereignty. In declining an appointment as
Chief Justice, John Jay wrote to President Adams that he had "left the
bench perfectly convinced that under a system so defective, it would not
obtain the energy, weight, and dignity, which were essential to its
affording due support to the National Government; nor acquire the
public confidence and respect which, as the last resort of the justice
of the Nation, it should possess."

The uncertainty of the law was in large part responsible for this lack
of prestige. "Too great inattention," complained a Boston lawyer, in the
_Columbian Centinel_ in 1801, "has hitherto prevailed as to the
preservation of the decisions of our courts of law. We have neither
authorized nor voluntary reporters. Hence we are compelled to the loose
and interested recollections of counsel, or to depend wholly on British
decisions." The first systematic attempt to secure records of opinions
was made by Connecticut in 1785. Four years later, Ephraim Kirby, a
printer in Litchfield, issued "the first regular printed law reports in
America." This example was followed in other States; and in 1798 the
first volume of United States Supreme Court Reports was published by
Dallas.

The great period in the history of the Supreme Court coincides with the
thirty-four years during which John Marshall held the office of Chief
Justice. President John Adams rendered no more lasting service to the
Federalist cause than when he appointed this great Virginian to the
bench, for Marshall, if not a Federalist of the strictest sect, was a
thoroughgoing nationalist. Down to his appointment only six decisions
involving constitutional questions of any moment had been handed down;
between 1801 and 1835, sixty-two were rendered, of which Marshall wrote
thirty-six. The decisions of the court during "the reign of Marshall"
fill thirty volumes of the Reports. Seven hundred and fifty-three cases
were taken on appeal to the Supreme Court from the lower federal courts,
and in nearly one half of these cases the decisions were reversed.

An American constitutional law did not exist when Marshall took office.
Few precedents were available. In some of his important cases Marshall
did not cite a single judicial decision. He reached his conclusions by
t