prospect of creditable intercourse with Windsor. He was again, however, our old ally seemed far off, when pre- called into judicial life to serve as a parations for new negotiations were member of the Council and Judge of suddenly made by President Adams the Supreme Court of the State, the in the appointment of this new com- duties of which he performed when he mission. Governor William Richard was not prevented by illness, to the son Davie, of North Carolina, and Wil- close of the session of 1807. The State liam Vans Murray, then minister at the judiciary system was now remodelled, Hague, were the associates of Ellsworth. and Ellsworth appointed Chief Justice When the appointment was made, the of the State. His repeated attacks of ill Directory was still in power, and it was health, however, forbade his accepting only a strong regard for the interests an office, the duties of which he could of peace which could have encouraged hardly expect to discharge. He was much hope of negotiation. Indeed, the again taken ill, rallied, when his malady commissioners were not to enter Paris returned and proved fatal. He died at unless on proper assurances of sincerity his seat at Windsor, November 26, 1807. and respect. When they arrived at Lisbon, they were met by a change of affairs, in the succession of Bonaparte to the chief power, which materially improved their prospects. He was disposed to negotiate. The envoys were even welcomed to Paris. They had a speedy audience of Napoleon-nothing type. He was a man of few words, more of threats and demands for money from Talleyrand-Joseph Bonaparte and the Councillors of State, Fleurien and Roederer, were appointed to confer with them, and a treaty, satisfactory upon the whole, was finally concluded in September, 1800.

Ellsworth did not return immediately to America. An afflictive disease, aggravated by the gout, forbade the hardships of a winter passage. He in consequence resigned the office of Chief Justice, and directed his steps to England, where he was received with consideration. In the spring he crossed the Atlantic, and sought his home at

The portrait of Ellsworth presents a commanding countenance of force and dignity; the eye, of singular penetration, is surmounted by a straight mas sive forehead. It indicates the character of the man; logical, intellectual, earnest, sincere: of the old Connecticut

and but little of a writer. Even his judicial opinions are marked among such productions by their brevity. He was patient and laborious, kept close to the matter in hand, and as his judgment was sound, obtained great repute as a lawyer and on the bench. His services as a politician in the old Congress and the new, and as a member of the Federal Convention, were rendered at times, and in a manner to confirm his claim upon the history of his country, in which he holds a high rank as an honest patriot-like Jay and Marshall, living in an atmosphere above detrac tion.

Entered according to act of Congress AI Foot by Johnom Pry & Co in the clerks office of the district for the therr dastut. ANY

RUFUS KING.

RUFUS KING, the son of Richard | fleet, of freeing Newport from its King, a wealthy merchant, was born British occupants. In this affair young in 1755, at Scarborough, his father's King acted as aid to the American residence, in the district of Maine. He general. In 1780 he was admitted to received an excellent preparatory edu- the bar, and began the practice of his cation under the direction of Samuel profession at Newburyport. In his Moody, a teacher of repute of the first case, it is said, he had his instrucByfield Academy, in the town of New- tor, Parsons, as his antagonist. Thence bury, from whose hands he passed to he was sent, in 1784, to the Legislature, Harvard College, where his studies or General Court, as it was termed, were interrupted by the opening scenes of Massachusetts. He was chosen a of the Revolutionary war. The death representative to Congress the same of his father occurred about the same year, and continued a member of that time. On the reopening of the institu- body to the formation of the Constitution at Cambridge, having pursued his tion. education in the interim with his former preceptor, a rigorous instructor, who, “in many respects, is said to have resembled the celebrated Busby," 1 he joined its band of students and graduated with honor as a classical recommendation to the States-it had scholar and accomplished speaker in power to effect nothing more of a more-of 1777. We then find him engaged in uniform system of imposts for the pubthe study of the law with Theophilus lic revenue. There was some relucParsons, subsequently the chief justice tance on the part of Pennsylvania to of Massachusetts, at Newburyport, and meet the provisions of the act, growing the war being still in progress, he took out of an alleged inequality of the part in the military expedition to disbursements, in consequence of which Rhode Island, in 1778, conducted by General Sullivan, with the expectation, through the assistance of the French

1 Delaplaine's Repository, Art. Rufus King.

No one saw more clearly, or urged more zealously, the wants of a just consolidated government. One of the prominent measures of the old Confederacy, in its latter days, was the

the State applied its quota, not to the general treasury but to the public creditors within her own jurisdiction. To remedy this grievance, and bring the tax where it belonged, at the disposal

of the General Government, Mr. King strong personal connection with the and Mr. Monroe were sent by Congress society of New York, in 1788, made to represent the case to the legislature. that city his residence. He had, two A day was appointed for the hearing, years before, been married to Mary and Mr. King took especial pains to Alsop, the daughter of a wealthy, prepare himself, as was his custom, for patriotic merchant of the place, a memthe occasion. Perhaps the very extent ber of the old continental Congress, of his preparation defeated his usual who had been driven from New York ease and readiness, for, the opening of by the British occupation, and had the case being assigned to him, he taken refuge with his daughter, his grew embarrassed, hesitated, and was only child, at Middletown, Connecticut. compelled to request his coadjutor to On the withdrawal of the British, he take up the discussion. Monroe, ever returned to the city, and there, in fluent at a certain level, proceeded with March, 1786, the daughter, then in her the ordinary aspects of the question, sixteenth year, became the bride of the .while Mr. King, having freed his mind young New England statesman. John of the constraint of his elaborate pre- Adams addressed to him a letter of paration, when his companion con- congratulation, from England, on the cluded, rose and delivered a finished event, in which, with some other inand eloquent address. We may here stances of the kind, he playfully found remark that it was Mr. King's habit to a bond of federal union. "I heard study the subject of his speeches tho- some time ago," he wrote, "of your roughly, making elaborate notes, but marriage with the daughter of my old reducing the points of his discourse to friend, Mr. Alsop, as well as of the a few heads, so that he trusted at last marriage of Mr. Gerry, and of both to the powers of his own mind on the with the more pleasure, probably, as a occasion. His language then had the good work of the same kind, for conadvantage of a sonorous utterance and necting Massachusetts and New York impressive manner. in the bonds of love, was going on here. Last Sunday, under the right reverend sanction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of St. Asaph, were married Mr. Smith and Miss Adams. It will be unnatural if federal purposes are not answered by these intermarriages." 1 The Mr. Gerry mentioned in the letter is Mr. Elbridge Gerry, the member of Congress, who about this time was married to a Miss Thompson, of New York. Colonel

He was also a prominent member of the Convention of 1787, which formed the Constitution, of which he was one of the most intelligent advocates, and was one of the committee appointed to prepare and report the final draft of the instrument. When the question of its adoption was brought before his own State, he rendered a no less important service in the ratifying convention, in which he sat as a member from Newburyport.

Mr. King having already formed a

1 Griswold's Republican Court, p. 100.