Note 684 — Chapter V
Reading edition
"It is late at night—the fag-end of a hard day's work. My eyes, hand and mind all tired.... I have been up till midnight, at work, every night, and still have my hands full.... I am now worn out ... extremely fatigued.... The Supreme Court is approaching. It will half kill you to hear that it will find me unprepared." (Wirt to Carr, Jan. 21, 1818, Kennedy, ii, 73-74.) Wirt had just become Attorney-General. Apparently he found the office in very bad condition. The task of putting it in order burdened him. He was compelled to do much that was not "properly [his] duty." (Ib. 73.) His fee in the Dartmouth College case did not exceed $500. (Hale to Plumer, Jan. 1818, Lord, 140.)