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An Historical Anecdote of Independence Day and The Supreme Court
“Immediately after the close of this Court [1790] the Chief Justice [John Jay] commenced his first circuit through New England and was everywhere received with the most flattering marks of respect… Thus the citizens of New Haven and the citizens of Portsmouth honored him with a ‘public entry’ into these towns; even the staid people of Boston were moved from their propriety in a similar manner.”
Later, on a journey through New York, he was “attended for twelve miles on his journey by a body of cavalry, entering the village of Hudson on Independence Day amid the ringing of bells and roar of cannon.”
from George Van Santvoord’s, Sketches of the lives and judicial services of the chief-justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. New York, 1856.
Access through The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926. Gale. 2010.