II.

The Election of 1800 and Adams’s Last Days

The presidential election of 1800—in which Thomas Jefferson defeated the incumbent president, John Adams—was quite bitter. Jefferson’s supporters asserted that Adams intended to crown himself king. Adams’s backers sharply criticized Jefferson for supporting France, especially during the French Revolution (1789-1799), and claimed that Jefferson would set up a guillotine on Capitol Hill to execute his opponents. Although the election was held in November 1800, under the law of the time Jefferson—and the newly elected Congress that his party would dominate—did not take office until March 4, 1801. In his final days as president, Adams attempted to fill the courts with members of his party, the Federalist Party.

In January Adams appointed Secretary of State John Marshall to be chief justice of the United States. The Senate immediately confirmed Marshall, but he remained secretary of state until the end of Adams’s term and did not actually assume his new office until March 3, 1801. As a result, Marshall, who would decide Marbury, was secretary of state at the time the events leading to the case took place and was a central participant in those events.

In February, less than two weeks before Jefferson was inaugurated, the Federalist-dominated Congress adopted—and Adams signed—two statutes that set the stage for Marbury. The first, the Judiciary Act of 1801, created a number of new federal judgeships, which Adams promptly filled. This law also designated two terms for the Supreme Court to hear cases—one beginning in June and one beginning in December. (At the time, the Court conducted business until it ran out of work. Because it heard far fewer cases then, the Court met for only a few months at a time.) In the second act Congress created a government for the newly created national capital, the District of Columbia. This act empowered the president to appoint justices of the peace (magistrates) for the new city.

As with most federal appointments, these justices of the peace had to be confirmed by the Senate. After confirmation, the president would sign an official commission and the secretary of state would affix the Great Seal of the United States to the commission and deliver it to the appointed official. Just before leaving office, President Adams appointed a Maryland banker and politician, William Marbury, to one of the new posts. The Senate confirmed Marbury’s appointment, President Adams signed the commission, and Secretary of State John Marshall affixed the Great Seal on the commission. But in the rush of business during the final days of the Adams administration, Marshall failed to actually deliver the commission to Marbury (and at least three other appointees).