The Keystone of the Supreme Court

In the fall of 1800, Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth unexpectedly resigned as Chief Justice, marking the fourth transition of Chief Justices in the Court’s first eleven years of existence. By now it was clear that President John Adams’s party, the Federalists, had lost the presidency and control of the Senate, so Adams was under intense pressure to appoint a new Chief Justice quickly, before the Democratic-Republicans took over.