Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/214

186 States Circuit Courts. The Judges had fonnally voiced their protests on several occasions.^ The Attorney-General, and President Washington himself, had urged upon Congress the desirability of relieving the Judges of this duty. With this in view, President Adams, at the opening of the Sixth Congress in 1799, had strongly recommended such a revision and amend- ment of the Judiciary Act as "indispensably necessary.*' In accordance with the recommendation, a Committee of the House of Representatives was appointed, which reported a bill, March 11, 1800, said to have been prepared, the year before, by Hamilton. This bill justifiably alarmed the Anti-Federalists, for it provided for a division of the United States into twenty-nine districts, to each of which a new distinctive name was given, regardless of State names and State boundaries. "An attempt of an extraordinary nature to annihilate the State governments,** they termed it.* Action on this bill having been postponed by the House, another measure, less radical in its nature, was reported, which passed the House, January 20, 1801, relieving the Supreme Court of all Circuit Court duty, reducing the number of Judges to five and establishing six new Circuit Courts with sixteen separate Judges. The Anti-Federalists again received the measure with indignant hostility. They took the ground that the volume of business in the present Federal Courts did not warrant any such increase of judicial tribunals; that the bill created a host of new Federal official positions to be filled ; ^ and that so great an increase of

^ Amer, State Papers, Mite,, I, 77 ; see supra, SS-W.

> Life of Nathaniel Macon (1908). by William E. Dodd ; Avfora, Maidi 24, April 17, 1800 ; Independent Chronicle, Oct. 27, 80, 1800 ; ConnecUeul Courant, Jan. 26, 1801.

' See interesting article by Max Farrand on The Judiciary Ad cf 1801, in Amer, Hist, Rev. (1900), I, 682, controverting the statements of historians as to the obnoxious character of the statute.