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this country, I ought to feel the solicitude which I express, because I know it well, and hold, in high respect and esteem, its worth and genius, as well native as acquired.

the inadequacy of his feeble powers to the duty which he had to perform. I confess, sir, said Mr. M. it was with equal surprise and alarm that I heard, on the first day on which the committee sat, a motion put, though happily not then decided, that the committee should rise and re- And to what portion of this extensive and fruitful terriport the bill, without a solitary murmur of dissent to its tory are we referred for these evils? Sir, the Judiciary avowed principles. My apprehensions were excited yes- Committee tell us, by their Chairman, that they are conterday, as this measure was hastening to the same matu- fined to a single circuit, embracing three, only, of eleven rity, when the voice of my worthy colleague sounded States. And in what do they here consist? In a delay gratefully in my ear, through the medium of his rejected of justice, to such extent, that, on the docket of the Disamendment, the welcome signal of opposition. I am not trict and Circuit Courts of Kentucky, and chiefly, if not only oppressed by the vast importance of the question solely, on the latter, there remain undecided nine hunnow depending before the committee, but cannot be in- dred and fifty causes. On the dockets of the District and sensible of my own unfortunate situation, in being com- Circuit Courts of Ohio, probably the latter, since this State pelled to oppose a measure, brought into this House un-has as little maritime jurisdiction as her Southern neigh der the imposing sanction of the Judiciary Committee-bor, there are, he apprises us, two hundred and fifty suits a committee consisting of gentlemen celebrated, no less standing over; and the gentlemen of the Bar of Nashfor their professional learning than the extent of their ge-ville, where the only remaining Circuit Court is held, have neral acquirements, and who are sustained, on this floor, stated that there are one hundred and fifty suits deon the present occasion, by the force of their separate, as pending. well as combined reputation.

Now, sir, it is to me highly gratifying, amidst this array One ray of hope, however, breaks through the gloom of judicial distress, to derive, from the same authority, of these discouragements. I am cheered by the fact that the most consolatory information-that, in the Circuit the chief organ of the committee, the very able Chair- Court of Kentucky, to which a Judge of the Supreme Court man, by which this bill was reported, has acknowledged has long been allotted, and who also resides in Kentucky, that he yielded a reluctant assent to some of its provi- this accumulation of suits is not to be attributed "either to sions, and has, in fact, as I hope to prove, disclosed its negligence of duty," or "want of industry;" and this inutter incompetency to fulfil the avowed wishes of its formation is moreover corroborated by the extraordinary friends in the remedy that it provides for the evils of fact derived from the same source, that, in this single which they complain. My resolution to resist this mea- court, in the short period of three years, more than two sure was even strengthened, by the argument in its favor, thousand causes have been actually decided. Now, delivered yesterday, in a manner so gratifying to this com- sir, a very simple operation of common arithmetic will mittee, and to no member of it more than to myself, by determine the true extent of this delay; and its result "a patriot soldier of the South," another learned organ of manifest, that, with the same diligence that has been the same select committee. I was, indeed, not a little sur- hitherto manifested by this Court, eighteen months will prised, when I heard his objections to our present judicial clear its docket of every cause now upon it. And in system, and traced the path by which he had reached the what description of causes does this eighteen months' deconclusion that the present bill provided a remedy for the lay occur? Sir, many of them must be land causes, carevils which he pictured. I shall endeavor to demonstrate, ried into the Federal Circuit Court, for reasons well known; that its effects, should it prevail, will not be to promote causes involving the collection of a mass of testimony, to the distribution of prompt, impartial, and uniform justice; be gathered by surveys in the remotest forests of the that, on the contrary, it will prove deleterious, if not de- State, to be collected afterwards, and investigated, with structive of the vital principles of our present judicial sys-painful labor, by a District Judge, assisted by a Judge of tem; that, of evils which it professes to cure, for some it provides no remedy, and others it will aggravate.

What, then, is the character of our present federal judiciary, and what are the evils which call for this great reform?

I listened with pleasure, Mr. Chairman, to the remark of the gentleman from Massachusetts, in the brief but comprehensive history with which he favored the committee, that the first Čongress which sat under this Constitution had, with singular felicity, struck out, by one act, a judiciary system, which had, for so many years, stood the unerring test of experience, and proved its own adaptitude to the genius and necessities of our advancing and still prosperous country.

I understood him emphatically to state, that the only evil which he had heard charged upon this system, in any of the Atlantic States, was a delay, real or apprehended, in the proceedings of the Supreme Court, and, for this, he had himself suggested a very simple and efficient remedy -a remedy which constituted, however, no part of the bill on your table. From the St. Mary's to the St. Croix, from the Ocean to the remotest Western verge of the Atlantic States, the People are in a state of perfect contentment, the honorable member assures us, with their present judicial system. Where, then, are the evils which call for redress? They are to be found, it seems, beyond the territory which I have described-in a portion of this Union, in the prosperity of which my feelings are as deeply enlisted, Mr. Chairman, as in the welfare of the Atlantic States. For all that concerns the happiness of

the Supreme Court, who, though residing in the State of Kentucky, and justly venerated and beloved, has been, for some time, laboring under the infirmity of a disease, which our bill, should it pass, cannot remedy.

And is this a delay either extraordinary or peculiar to the Federal Court of Kentucky? Happy, sir, should I be, were I not compelled to assure the honorable and learned advocates of this bill that the courts of the district and of the Comwonwealth, in general, which I have the honor, in part, to represent, know no such despatch, even where the temporary disability or misfortunes of a judge constitute no impediment to the progress of justice.

We are not informed by the committee with what rapidity the causes on the docket of the Circuit Court for the district of West Tennessee are disposed of, nor those of Ohio: but, if it bear any tolerable proportion to that of Kentucky, and they have the same presiding judge, both courts will be speedily disencumbered without the aid of the bill on your table. The mountain of distress, built up by the Judiciary Committee, turns out to be but an optical illusion, and, on examination, unlike the works of nature, turns out, when approached, to be but a molehill.

While on this branch of my argument, I beg leave to present to the committee a document, derived but an hour ago from the Deputy Clerk of the Supreme Court, which is alike applicable, in its results, to our whole subject of debate, but more especially to a topic to which the honorable member from South Carolina so forcibly called our attention the inequality and injustice of our present

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judicial system, in allotting a Supreme Judge to some bench of the Supreme Court. The argument of the gendistricts, and denying his services to others. tleman from South Carolina reproaches our present judiAmong the best tests of the sound administation of jus-cial system with inequality and injustice, because it does tice in the Courts of the United States which have original not allot to the district courts of these and five other jurisdiction, is the contentment of the suitors, or the ab- Western States some Judge of the Supreme Court. Now, sence of appeals from their judgments to the court insti- sir, of this argument, I first remark, that, if it be sound, it tuted for the correction of their errors. And the conclu- leaves the Judiciary Committee without apology for an obsion thence to be inferred, is irresistible, where, as in the vious anomaly in their own system. What relief does the case of Kentucky, the progress of justice in the court of bill upon your table provide for the Eastern District of original jurisdiction is so rapid as to dispose of more than Tennessee and the Northern District of New York, and the six hundred and sixty cases in the short compass of a Western Districts of Pennsylvania and Virginia; the last single year. The ordinary interval between the docket- of which, with a full moiety of the white population of ing and the decision of a cause, by the Supreme Court of that State, comprehends three-fifths of its territory? That the United States, is, I am told, about four years; and honorable member represented this inequality of jus there are pending, upon the docket,of that Court, for the tice as incompatible with its most obvious and necessary approaching term, one hundred and forty-three causes. ends. Sir, it is remarkable that it was approved and Of these causes, five are from the District Court of Louisia-zealously sought in the Atlantic States, by the Peona; two from that of Mississippi; three from that of Ala-ple, or their Representatives, whom it is thus supposed to bama; one from the District Court of East, and nine from injure and degrade. My very learned colleague and lathe Circuit Court of West Tennessee; nineteen from the mented friend, now no more, who once represented, on Circuit Court of Kentucky; nine from the Circuit Court of the floor of this House, a Congressional district West of Ohio; one from the District Court of Indiana; none from the Alleghany, believed, I well know, that he rendered that of Illinois; from Missouri, none; from the Western an essential service to his constituents, when he erected a District Court of Virginia there is one; from that of Penn- Western District Court in Virginia, having a Judge investsylvania, none; and none from the Northern District of ed with the powers of a Circuit Court; and that he was not New York. mistaken, not only did his re-election prove, but his colleagues and mine of the rich and populous valley on this side of the Alleghany, sought and procured an extension of the jurisdiction of this court Eastwardly, as far as the summit of the Blue Ridge. The office of Judge for this district, it has been, indeed, sometimes found very diffi resigned it. It was tendered to a Judge of our General Court, but he preferred a State appointment; not, I presume, because he objected to the great extent of its undivided authority-though he might have anticipated some mortification, in travelling over a vast extent of mountain and valley, rivers and rocks, through towns and hamlets, without finding a single defendant suitor at the many seats of justice in his wide jurisdiction, except, perhaps, in the single village of Clarksburg. It People of the Western district of Virginia, or of either Pennsylvania or New York, that they were neglected or maltreated, because a Judge of the Supreme Court was not sent to assist, by his advice and counsel, their District Judge; or to multiply the chances of appeal, the power of which is as complete, from the judgment of a single Judge in a District Court, having Circuit Court powers, as from the Circuit Court itself. In this document, I have, moreover, an unquestionable ground for inferring, cer tainly without the least intentional disrespect of the Judges of the Supreme Court, that, in these and other districts having a single Judge, with the powers of a Circuit Court, justice does not suffer from their necessary absence

Now, sir, this little slip of paper, from the face of which I repeat those facts, is to me a volume of more important testimony than the Judiciary Committee have af forded us, and which I beg leave to recommend to the solemn consideration of this committee. Several very interesting conclusions may be deduced from it, in re-cult to fill. A friend of mine no sooner accepted than he lation to the actual wants of our country, and their pertinent and best remedy, if any be required. And among these deductions of reason from recorded facts, I comprehend this, that, even in Kentucky, the numerous causes, carried up to the Federal Court, are not taken there because difficult of investigation, but for a more perfect remedy of that injustice of which the suitor complains. The larger fees, indeed, every where paid to counsel, in the Federal Court of a State, might tend, especially where the plaintiff is, as must be the case here, a non-never did, I am sure, enter into the imagination of the resident, to the increase of the business of that Court, in every State. But the land laws, and the replevin or relief laws, of Kentucky, neither this committee, nor this Congress, of which it is a part, have any power to enforce, modify, or repeal. And they are unquestionably the fruitful causes of the accumulation of business in the Federal Circuit Court of that much suffering and long agitated State. Even where a claimant is excluded, by his residence within the State, from instituting an action of ejectment or of debt, in the Federal Court, he has only to transfer his title, or the evidence of his demand, to some nominal tenant or assignee of another State, to obtain admission into the Federal Court, and the benefit, if not of speedier, of more ample justice. Among the two thousand causes, disposed of in the Kentucky Circuit, during the short compass of three years, many must have been promptly and easily decided, and there brought for that reason and that alone.

From the District Court of East Tennessee, where no Supreme Judge ever appears, there is but one docketed appeal on the records of the Supreme Court; from the Western Circuit Court, consisting of two Judges, and one of them a Judge of the Supreme Court, there.are nine apSome of these remarks may, perhaps, apply in explana-peals, as there are from Kentucky nineteen, and from Ohio tion of the multiplication of those suits in Ohio instituted nine; while, from the District Court of Louisiana, embracin behalf of the Bank of the United States and other ab-ing, within its manifold jurisdiction, admiralty, equitable, sent collectors, for the recovery of debts. But the most valuable conclusion which, for my present purpose, I propose to draw from this document, is that which meets directly the chief argument of the gentleman from South Carolina, to which the gentleman from Massachusetts an- From those districts, therefore, wherein there is no nexes great, though less importance, since he would leave Circuit Court, or where, in plainer phrase, no Supreme the three Northwestern States, for some years longer, to Judge ever presides over the administration of justice, the circuit powers of the single Judge of their present there are but few appeals-while, from those, which are District Courts, and he would not only be content, but ap-favored with the benefit of a Circuit Court, in which a parently better satisfied with nine than ten Judges, on the Judge of the Supreme Court sits with the District Judge,

and common law, the rich emporium of the commerce of the West, there are but five appeals. From the District Courts of Pennsylvania and New York, extended as is their jurisdiction, there is not a single appeal.

there are not many appeals, indeed, but many more than from the former.

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This is the first time that such a measure was ever contemplated within the hall of an American Legislature; and Any answer to this reasoning, if, indeed, it be deemed the argument in its support is as extraordinary as the meaworthy of reply, would have more force with me, if I sure itself. In all the changes of the judicial system of the did not too well know the actual condition of the courts United States, hitherto effected, or proposed, from the first of Kentucky, from which the loudest complaints proceed, organization of this Government, to the present day, with of the defects of our present judicial system. I know the single exception of the act of 1807, which added a sintheir condition, and knowing it, I aver that those com-gle Judge to the six who previously sat on the bench of the plaints cannot be redressed. They would be aggravated Supreme Court, it has been contemplated to reduce, not by expediting the proceedings of the Federal Courts, with- to increase their number. An alteration in that Court, neiout a radical change of the principles which guide their ther demanded by the People in general of the United decisions. I unhesitatingly aver, therefore, my belief States, nor requested by the Judges themselves, has never that the remedy proposed by the bill on your table, if it before been proposed. That of 1793 was conceded to the shall not operate so as to produce other effects than those petition of the Judges, and relieved them from a moiety of which seem to be anticipated, by the gentlemen from their circuit labor. It was an alteration not required by Massachusetts and South Carolina, who have addressed the People. The change of 1801, brief as was its durathe committee, will not produce the benefits which many tion, was prompted by a regard also to the convenience of its friends seek, and expect to obtain. It is neither of the Judges, as well as the better administration of juscommensurate with the imputed evil, of which complaint tice. It provided for a reduction of the number of the forhas been here made, nor can it administer adequate relief, mer from six to five, on the happening of the first vacanor any relief whatever, unless, as I have said, it shall have cy, and, relieving them from all circuit duties, instituted a a different effect from that which either of these gentle- distinct system of Circuit Courts. It more effectually semen expect. The plaintiffs in the Federal Court of parated the original from the appellate jurisdiction of the Kentucky do not complain-the defendants ask not United States' Judges, and sought to free the final trial speedier justice. Such is not the character of the of every cause from every bias in favor of the original relief which they have sought at home. And if this bill judgment. has the effect expected by the Judiciary Committee, it will be, to them, not bread, but a stone. If its real object be uniformity, how does it happen that it makes no provision for the Western district of Virginia, containing a population of near 300,000 white inhabitants, or of Pennsylvania, containing a much larger number, or of New York, having more than either? A million and a third of the white population of the United States will remain, according to the language of the gentleman of SouthCarolina, without the benefit of equal justice. Even East Tennessee, in a bill designed especially for the relief of the West, has been pretermitted, and is to remain unredressed.

The manner in which this new system was executed, accompanying, as it also did, a revolution of parties in the United States, occasioned the repeal of the act which gave to it its transient existence : but the immediate return to the former judicial system, was marked by no attempt to increase the number of Judges of the Supreme Court, although such an effort might have been expected, had the triumphant party of that day possessed the notions, now sustained on this floor,by the gentleman from Massachusetts. It was six years after, and eighteen from the adoption of the Constitution, that a single Judge was added to the bench of the Supreme Court; when, if, as some men singularly imagine, the progessive increase of the numbers of a court should bear any proportion to the growth of the Republic, our population had doubled, our territory had reached, very near, and our commerce, risen from nothing, had surpassed, its present extent, and our wealth was incalculably multiplied. At the end of another period of eighteen years, we are called on, for reasons of unheard of expediency, to add to the bench of the Supreme Court, at one moment, three new Judges !

In the last period of eighteen years, making, with the former, the entire age of our present political institutions, the only important bill in relation to our judicial system, which has passed either branch of this Legislature, is that which the Senate sent to this House seven years ago, proposing to reduce the Supreme Court to five Judges, and to relieve them from their circuit duties.

Sir, the true, the only remedy for the evils of which our friends from Kentucky compain, is too palpable to escape the searching scrutiny of the gentleman from Massachusetts. It can be effected only by a change of the judgment of the Supreme Court, upon the validity of the occupying claimant laws of that State, and by a recognition of the constitutionality of its new replevin or relief law. It can be accomplished only by a revolution of opinion on the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, which would be less deplorable, if it there terminated: if it should not prove the commencement of dissension, instability, and change, where harmony, firmness, and consistency, have hitherto prevailed. Sir, the new remedy is not to operate on the Circuit or District Courts of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Ohio, but on the Supreme Court, held annually, in this Capitol. And how will it be wrought by the immediate addition of three new Judges We are now about to propose to the Senate, to double to the seven now entitled to sit on that bench? That that number. In all the severe ordeals to which the charbench is to be new peopled, the court popular and poli-acter and stability of that Court has been exposed, in the tical. Its numbers are to be augmented for no purpose six and thirty years that it has now endured-in all the efof judicial propriety. To the proper administration of its forts to shake its steady purpose of universal justice, nothordinary, regular, judicial functions, it is to become less ing resembling the present proposition had been, therefitted, by the very admission of the gentleman from Massa- fore, conceived or attempted. We have passed through chusetts. Too numerous, he distinctly admitted it would a war of severe suffering, and brought from its well fought be, for the investigation of facts; for the administration of battles, by sea and land, a standard covered with unfading its equitable, its maritime and admiralty, even for its com- honor. The politics of Europe agitate us less than the mon law jurisdiction. It is to be revolutionized for the ocean which beats upon our shore; the old partitions of sake of its extraordinary and political jurisdiction, its party are broken down, and that co-ordinate branch of agency in the exposition of constitutional law. our happy Government, which imparts stability to the rest, and has survived so many elements of change and mischief, is now threatened with an entire revolution. A new illumination has been cast upon the proper structure of the Supreme Court, manifesting, it seems, the necessity of a great and immediate augmentation of its present numbers. It is a court having great political power, and

Sir, these are, to me, new doctrines; as novel as a Supreme Court of Appeals consisting of no less than ten Judges; a court of final jurisdiction, which will not have its examplar in the judicial system of any of the United States, or of any State in Europe, to which we look for analogies to enlighten and guide our reason.

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the better to administer that power, its capacity for all other purposes of utility is to be impaired, as the chief advocate of this change has himself distinctly admitted, and, indeed, partly demonstrated. Is any change required even for this purpose? Let us consult the history of the Court, and, for authority, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Is there an opinion or judgment of this Court involving a question of constitutional law, which that gentleman condemns ?

[JAN. 6, 1826.

are to preside. If this bill passes in the spirit which prompts its advocates-to identify the Judge with the People-the Judges should be from the West; and what, then, sir, will be the result? You will have three new Western Judges suddenly transferred from the bar to the bench of the Supreme Court. My colleague and friend near me whispers four. The present venerable Judge of the Western Circuit is indeed confined to his sick chamber, and rumor states that he is dangerously ill. I wish him speedy restoration to health, and to that bench on which he has been distinguished by an undeviating firmness and rectitude. Let him live or die, his memory will be cherished, with affection, wherever the name and story of Moultre shall be heard.

The Committee will pardon this digression, to which I have been led by the whisper of my friend, as I thought, that there would be four new Judges from the West." In relation to the propriety of this sudden augmentation of the number of the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee acknowledges that his mind has undergone a great change of opinion within a short time past. I have the report of his speech, and believe that I quote him correctly. I certainly wish to do so.

How many years elapsed, after the formation of this Government, before any change of that Court was proposed, and how little change has time effected in its structure ? How have the People regarded it? With what unvarying trust and confidence, I may say veneration and love I speak not of the transient disgusts of particular individuals or communities. One of the earliest complaints, by any State, of the exercise of its jurisdiction, perhaps the very first attempt to impair its authority, as the expositor of the Constitution, in the last resort, was made, by Pennsylvania, in the celebrated case of Olmstead. That State threatened an armed resistance to the officer of the Court, which was met, with firm decision, by the Chief Magistrate of this Union. He not only refused to bend to the storm, but gave explicit warning, that, if the resistance [Mr. WEBSTER, in explanation, said, that, if any obcontinued, he should order the troops of the United servations of his had attracted the attention of the honora States to put it down. At that moment of disaffection, ble gentleman from Virginia, he wished them to be corPennsylvania called upon her sister States to aid her in rectly stated. What he had said was, that, in relation to establishing a tribunal altogether distinct from the Su- the general question, whether it was expedient and desipreme Court, to adjudge controverted questions of consti-rable in itself, to relieve the Judges f the Supreme Court tutional law. Sir, I remember, with mingled pride and | from the performance of circuit duties, his own opinions pleasure, the conduct of Virginia, when this call was ad- had undergone some change.] dressed to her. Her Legislature answered, most respect- I thank the honorable member (said Mr. M.) for the pause fully, but with simple brevity, that the Constitution of the allowed me by his explanation. It enables me to return to United States had already provided this tribunal in the the path I had left, with a recollection of what the honorable Supreme Court of the United States, and that a better member did say; and whatever he says will always receive could not be created. This, sir, was then the unanimous from me the respect to which it is entitled. "In all ca voice of the most numerous legislative assembly, except "ses of admiralty and maritime law, in all cases of equity, that of the ancient, and perhaps of the present State of "the court would be more numerous than was desirable. Massachusetts-an assembly, which, from its very num"As a court of common law, it is numerous enough albers, must be regarded like a numerous Court of Justice," ready. It was for the better discharge of its political as exposed to the influence of factious feelings-the as- "duties that he desired its proposed augmentation of numsembly of a State which had contested the constitutiona-"bers. As a measure of necessity, its augmentation was lity of the first system of internal taxes, had more than "required to extend the circuit system, to bring the Judges doubted the constitutionality of the National Bank, and re- "in contact with the People of the different States, that sisted, as far as argument could go, the constitutionality, "they may be inspired with caution, and taught to impose also, of the alien and sedition laws. All these constitu- "restraints and qualifications on the general provisions of tional questions were agitated, with many others, when "law, which, however cautiously expressed, often require this State had no Judge on the bench of the Supreme "limitation and modification." By such means, the Hono. Court, and at a time of great party excitement. Her judg-rable Chairman proposes to conciliate popular feeling m ment has been consistent and uniform. And where now are those complaints which were heard in a tone so angry, from the rich, flourishing, and enlightened State of Pennsylvania? In despite of her natural and just pride, wounded by threatened force, and unsoothed by judicial honors, she walks at peace with her sisters, and in harmony with

the Court.

How are the complaints now made from the West, and especially from Kentucky, to be redressed? Not by the lenient influence of time, but by the rude hand of perilous innovation. Sir, the remedy is palpable. It is to bring three additional Judges upon the bench of the Supreme Court from the West. Does any member of this Committee really believe that they will be selected from any other quarter of the Union? What did the almost unanimous rejection of the amendment proposed by my colleague imply? That the Committee believed no derangement would be made of the allotment of the present Judges, if the bill passed in its present form. The three additional circuits, which it creates to the West, are, therefore, to be supplied by three Western Judges. It is not to be expected, that members of the profession of law | from the East, will be deputed, if this bill shall pass, to fulfil its requisitions to the West. No, sir, these Judges will be chosen from the profession over whose circuits they

behalf of the Court, and to secure to it, (I wish to do him justice,) the public support and approbation.

Sir, if I thought this sudden increase of the number of the Court calculated, by all its consequences, or even their general result, to lead to this end, I would heartily concar with the gentleman from Massachusetts in advocating the bill by which he proposes to accomplish it. "The opinions of mankind naturally attachi," says the gentleman, "more respect and confidence to the decisions of a court somewhat numerous, than to those of one composed of a less number." Mr. Chairman, I know that I have never sought to acquire, and I am very conscious that I do not possess, one moiety of that gentleman's information, on all subjects of a professional and legal character. He has given us an able, because concise, and comprehensive history of our Federal Judiciary, in which we have seen, that but one enlargement of the Supreme Court has been made since its first organization, and that a reduction of its former number was once proposed, and carried by an act of transient duration; but, of which, I presume, he did not disapprove. That act provided for a reduction of the number of Judges to five, as did the bill which came to us but six years ago from the Senate. I should have been gratified if the Hon. Chairman had given us, what be could have done with so much readiness, the experience

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of the several States upon the same subject. I regret that duties of the bench. Of the peculiar investigations dethis duty devolves upon me, instead of a gentleman pos-pending, or likely to come before them, a circumspect sessed of so wide a range of legal information. The result of my limited experience and observation does not accord with that of the honorable member from Massachusetts, in any of the moral reflections by which he reconciles, to his own judgment, his recent change of sentiment, in regard to the best possible structure of our Federal Judic.ary. There exists, I believe, Mr. Chairman, not a solitary example in the world, of an appellate court, of the highest resort, composed of as many as ten, or even nine Judges -the number preferred by the gentleman from Massachusetts. In New York, the Supreme Court consists of but three Judges; in South Carolina of three only; in Louisiana, of no greater number; in Virginia, where its number was once three, it is now five; and, I believe there is not a State in this Union wherein there exists a Court of Appeals, in the last resort, having a greater number of judges. A friend near me, [Mr. HEMPHILL,] says, that in Maryland, this court is composed of six judges;plies to the education of the bar, rather than to the du this, then, is a solitary exception, and aids my argument by the authority of a learned member from Pennsylvania, once himself a judge. All these Courts are believed to have the confidence of the People whose laws they expound, and whose respect for their Judges will no where be found to be proportioned to their number.

and vigilant sense of duty imposes upon them even studied silence; and it is not a small evidence of this, that the Judges of the very Court of which I am speaking, debar themselves of most of the pleasures of social intercourse, in obedience to a sacred regard for their high and solemn duties. And so far from this separation having impaired, it must, wherever known and justly appreciated, augment their reputation. Were your Judges, sir, admitted, at an earlier age, upon the bench of the Supreme Court, it might, indeed, impair their usefulness; but surely, at the age of forty-five or fifty years, and sooner no man should ascend that bench, they will have acquired a sufficient stock of general knowledge, in relation to all the ordinary interests of society, to avail them. selves of the analogies which common sense supplies to learning, in the investigation of practical legal truth. The philosophy of the gentleman from Massachusetts apties of the bench; but if to any bench, certainly not to that of the Supreme Court of the United States, unless, indeed, the power which supplies its vacancies, as they occur, shall be miserably perverted-a consequence I do not apprehend. A judge should be capable of writing an opinion, undoubtedly; and, with twenty-four su

eral District Courts, supplied with crowded bars, it cannot be difficult to find an able Judge, and, if such difficulty really exist, it will not be removed by the knowledge of the Chief Magistrate, and of the Senate who confirm his nomination, that the appointed Judge may be required to write and to pronounce his own opinions on the bench of a Circuit Court.

In New York the number of the Judges of the Supreme courts in the several States, and twenty-eight Fedpreme Court has recently been reduced from five to three only, and this change accompanied and constituted a striking feature of a change of the political constitution of that populous State, effected by a nett majority of six and twenty thousand voices. May I be permitted to bor. row authority from abroad, and to inquire if the Courts of Westminster, whose integrity, at least, has rarely, if ever, been impeached, derive their authority and induence from the number of their Judges? The Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and of the Exchequer Chamber, have four Judges each. An appeal, but seldom made, lies, indeed, from their separate judgment to the House of Lords, over whose deliberations another Judge, the sole Chancellor of England, and highest law officer of the British Empire, presides.

The authority which the decisions of these foreign tribunals still carry with them in the Courts of our own country, points to the true origin of the respect and confidence of any People in the wisdom and integrity of their Judges. That of the People of these States, in the Supreme Court of the United States, has the same, it has no other. It never had any other, and it needs no other foundation.

Swell their numbers from seven to ten, from ten to twenty, and still, what proportion will that number bear to ten millions of People Let them traverse the country by day and night, and study wherever they go the popular feeling, and what harvest would they reap, but of contempt, if, studying the popular favor, they sacrifice to it one scruple of that justice, which has its duties on earth, but is fastened to the throne of the Eternal by an adamantine chain?

The merit of the Supreme Court of the United States is manifested by its written opinions; by its learning, its truth, and its consistency-the certain pledge and firm assurance of its diligence, ability, and integrity. Between the knowledge of these qualities and the People, the only link of connection consists of that profession trained to the study and practice of the law, competent to estimate justly the merit derived from the most eminent portion of their own body, and set above them, to be their hight and counsel. Even their knowledge of a Judge cannot be deduced from familiar intercourse, but from the perusal and examination of his opinions. In the intervals of leisure, Judges, like other men, prefer any other topic of mere conversation to the dry and laborious

In the argument which requires continued exercise for the perfection of any and every faculty, I fully coincide; but this again can scarcely apply to the habits of men who are between the ages of fifty and seventy years, whose own pursuits prompt them to the culture of those fields of science in which they were nurtured, and the preservation of whose reputation, a labor as arduous, at least, as its acquisition, imposes on them the necessity of diligence.

A journey, often repeated, of many hundred miles, over wretched roads, with bad accommodation, may im prove the hardihood of youth, though it would scarcely augment its acquisitions. Made the test of the ability of an aged judge, it may, indeed, by multiplying his infir mities, hasten his departure, and make room for a sturdier successor in office, but will scarcely improve his ability, while his constitution endures the shock.

The more the Judges are multiplied in number, to keep pace with the multiplication of their circuits, the more uncertain must be their attendance upon any of their duties, either original or appellate, and the greater must be the hazard of inconsistency in the judgments of that court, which is to impart stability and certainty to the laws.

But why need I talk of stable or certain decisions, when some of the very evils which this bill is required to reme dy, the fruition of the hope which it inspires, supposes a reversal of some of the judgments which the Supreme Court has already pronounced? And for this, its prompt enlargement, I admit to be the natural, if not the only means. Sir, the end of the enlargement of the Court is avowed. It is to fit, it for its political function, as the expounder of the laws of the States and of the Umon, in relation to each other, to foreign treaties, and to the Con. stitution of the United States. And this political function implies a sort of representative quality in the Court, resembling that of the members of this flouse, to which, I readily concede, that a knowle !ge of the temper, circum stances, wishes, and even passions, of their constituents, is highly important, if not absolutely essential to a wise