The frontier soldier -- A revolutionary capital -- Debating the constitution -- Slaves and hypocrites -- Innocence lost -- Citizen Genet -- Entangling alliances -- Jay's treaty -- Talleyrand -- Not a sixpence -- Love and war -- Tossed into the Seine -- The XYZ papers -- The Jonathan Robbins affair -- Privateers and pirates -- The new order of things -- Showdown -- A strategic retreat -- Prizes of war -- High crimes -- Treason -- Estrangement -- The meaning of sovereignty -- Washington burning -- Friends and enemies -- The supreme law -- The pirate lottery -- The great steamboat case -- Public and private -- Right remains with the strongest -- An extravagant pretense -- In the conqueror's court -- A union prolonged by miracles.;-- Without Precedent is the engrossing account of the life and times of this exceptional man, who with cunning, imagination, and grace shaped America's future as he held together the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the country itself.