OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 235 
and in such capacity he settled all of the French difficulties. In 
1801 he was appointed to the supreme court to succeed CHIEF 
Justice ELLswortH, but at the special request of the president 
administered both duties until the end of the presidential term. 
It was while chief justice that he acquitted Aaron Burr of the 
charge of murder of ALEXANDER HAMILTON. 
He compiled the “Life of Washington” in five volumes on the 
request of the family, and afterward published the first volume 
separately as the “History of the American Colonies.” (1824). 
The degree of LL. D. was conferred on him by New Jersey in 
1802, Harvard in 1806, and Pennsylvania in 1815. He was 
elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at New York 
University with a total of ninety-one votes, the highest anyone 
received, except WASHINGTON, FRANKLIN, LINCOLN, WEBSTER and 
Grant. He died in Philadelphia, July 6, 1835, aged 79 years, 
8 months and 13 days. 
