James Madison Papers

To James Madison from Henry Smith and Others, 4 November 1812 (Abstract)

§ From Henry Smith and Others

4 November 1812, Providence. “The District Judge of this district having deceased, we beg leave to recommend Asher Robbins Esqr. as a suitable successor.1

“His pre-eminent qualifications for a seat in the Supreme Court having, as is presumed, been completely unfolded to your view on a late occasion,2 it is only necessary for us to offer our names in his favor for the present vacancy, forbearing to dwell on his rare merits.”

RC (DNA: RG 59, LAR, 1809–17, filed under “Robbins”). 2 pp.; signed by Henry Smith, Seth Wheaton, Thomas Coles, Christopher Ellery, and Samuel Thurber.

1For this vacancy, see James Fenner to JM, 3 Aug. 1812, and n. 1.

2For Robbins’s unsuccessful bid to replace William Cushing on the U.S. Supreme Court in 1810, see Christopher Ellery to JM, 21 Dec. 1809 and 30 Sept. 1810, Constant Taber and Others to JM, 24 Sept. 1810, David Howell to JM, 26 Nov. 1810, Charles Collins and David A. Leonard to JM, 27 Nov. 1810, and John Pitman Jr. to JM, 24 Oct. 1811, PJM-PS description begins Robert A. Rutland et al., eds., The Papers of James Madison: Presidential Series (5 vols. to date; Charlottesville, Va., 1984–). description ends , 2:140–41 and nn., 566–67 and n. 2, 553–54, 3:10 n., 27–28, 31, 497–98.

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