Who said the President associated with terrorists?

American civic discourse has always been a contact sport. Who wrote this, about whom, and when?



Mr. X said: "The democrats are divided into speculative theorists and absolute terrorists. With the latter I am not disposed to class Mr. Y."


Answers below.

Mr. X was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall.

Mr. Y was Thomas Jefferson, the president elect of the United States.

Marshall wrote this in a letter on the same day in March 1801 that he administered the oath of office to Thomas Jefferson.
Source: Jeffrey Rosen, The Supreme Court (Times Books 2007), p. 27.

And I thought that the terrorists had only been around since 9/11.