from 1806 to 1851 105

er, Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, and
himself, who controlled legislation in the House.⁸
In 1806, says Adams,⁹ the President "was glad to
conciliate Joseph Nicholson, next to Randolph the
most formidable 'old Republican' in public life."
"I had anticipated your appointment," said Caesar
Rodney, of Delaware, "to one of the best places
in the gift of the country."¹⁰ In 1805, he was
unanimously chosen by the Governor and Council
of Maryland as agent of the state to arrange a sale
of English funds held by the state and to re-invest
in American securities. And he was made one of
the managers of the impeachment of Samuel
Chase. But Nicholson was not a man of wealth,
he had a family of a wife and six children, his pay
as a Representative, $6. for each day of actual
session, brought him less than $1,000 in a year,
and he had become so pressed for money that he
decided he must abandon his public career. In
January of 1806, the Governor and Council of-
fered him the position of Associate Judge of the
second judicial district which included his home
county, but he declined it. The salary of that
position was $1400 a year. It was in the latter
part of March, 1806, that he was offered the posi-
tion of Chief Judge of the sixth district, which
included Baltimore and Harford Counties, a place
which carried a salary of $2,200 a year. The con-
stitution of the state did not then require previous

8. Henry Adams, Life of John Randolph, (Amer. Statesmen Ser.) 80.

9. Henry Adams, History of the United States from 1801 to 1817.
Ill, 166 and 167. William Cabell Bruce, John Randolph of
Roanoke, I, 252.

10. Nicholson Papers, Letter April 18, 1806.

"It was well understood that he was to have Chase's place on the
Supreme Bench," if Chase had been removed. Beveridge, Life of
John Marshall, III, 171.