Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/215

Rh Federal power was an infringement upon the rights of the States and another step towards the consohdated Government so long dreaded by them.^ "We have been asked if we are afraid of having an army of Judges/' said Senator Jackson of Georgia, in a debate. "For myself, I am more afraid of an army of Judges imder the patronage of the President than of an army of soldiers. The former can do us more harm. They may deprive us of our liberties, if attached to the Executive, from their decisions, and from the tenure of ofBce con- tended for we cannot remove them." * The Aurora said : " One of the most expensive and extravagant, the most insidious and imnecessary schemes that has been con- ceived by the Federal party is now before Congress under the name of the Judiciary Bill, but which might with greater propriety be called a bill for providing sinecure places and pensions for thoroughgoing Federal partisans." A prominent Massachusetts Anti-Federal- ist, Benjamin Austin, wrote : ' "This extensive ma- chine, moving under the weight of a column of super- nmnerary Judges, attended with the immense expense

^ Fisher Ames, the most conservative Federalist, had written, Dec. 29, 1799: "The steady men in Congress will attempt to extend the Judiciary Department. . . . There is no way to combat the State opposition, but by an efficient and extended organization of Judges, magistrates and civil officers," quoted in Harruon Gray Otis (1908), by Samuel E. Morison, I, 202. Alexander Hamilton, in a letter to Jonathan Dayton, in 1799, had advocated an even greater extension of the Federal Judiciary, saying : "Amidst such serious indications of hostility, the safety and the duty of the supporters of the government call upon them to adopt vigorous measures of counteraction. . . . Possessing, as th^ now do, all the constitutional powers, it will be an unpardonable mistake on their part, if they do not exert them to surround the Constitution with more ramparts and to disconcert the schemes of its enemies. The measures premier to be adopted. . . . First, establishments which will extend the influence and promote the popularity of the government. . . . The extension of the Judiciary system ought to embrace two objects; one, the subdivision of each State into small districts (suppose Connecticut into four, and so on in proportion) assigning to each a Judge with a moderate salary; the other, the iqypointment in each county of conservators or justices of the peace with very ministerial functions and with no other compensation than fees for the services they shall perform." HamiUan, X, 829.


 * 7th Cong,, Itt Sess., 47.

' Aurora, Jan. 21, 1801; Independent Chronide, Dec. 24, 1801.