Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/237

Rh manifestly defective and hazards the existence of the Constitution.... It will, nevertheless, be carried on the triumphant vote of a great majority (many of them inwardly cursing their leaders) because the President has recommended it…. But I do not see how a member is to excuse himself, either to his conscience or to his constituents, for such excessive complaisance." And a Washington correspondent wrote: "The passage of the bill to destroy the Judiciary may be much obstructed but it will pass. Mr. Jefferson has set his heart upon this measiu^. 'Tis his favorite measure, and his party will (whatever scruples some of them may feel about the constitutionality of it) make this desired offering to his revengeful spirit.'* Another wrote: "A band of ministerial mutes stand ready to pass it without debate. These mutes are highly drilled at the Assembly Room."< The bill passed the House by a party vote of fifty-nine to thirty-two, and became law on March 31, 1802. Under its provisions, the Act of 1801 was repealed, and the country was divided into six instead of three Circuits, to each of which was assigned definitely a separate Judge of the Supreme Court, who together with a District Court Judge should compose the Circuit Court.^ "Judges created for political purposes, and for the worst of purposes under a republican government, for the piupose of opposing the National will, from this day cease to exist,** exultingly exclaimed an Administration paper.'

^ Diary and Letten qf OatMarMur Morris (1888)» n, ^11 etseq. See as to Morris' great speech on the bill. New York Spedaior, Jan. 28, 80, 1802; Farmer* 9 Weekly Museum, Fdi>. 2, 15, 1802; Connedieut CourarU, Feb. 22, 1802, letter of a Wash- ington correspondent; New York Eeening Post, Feb. 22, 1802.

' While the Act did not meet the full desires of the Judges, it was admitted, even by Chief Justice Marshall, to be a "great improvement of the pre-existing ^stem.** United States. DuvaU (1821), 6 Wheat. 542, 547.

' See iVoftona/ InieUigeneer, March 5, 1802; ibid., Feb. 5, 1802, terming the biD the triumph of Republican principles. . . economy in the public expenditure, distrust of extravagant executive patronage, a dread of whatever tends to the