Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/247

Rh to Federal judicial supremacy which was voiced in these debates, chiefly by representatives of Virginia and Ken- tucky, was based on political and legal views regarding the Constitution. A review of a mass of historical material contained in an extensive correspondence between Senator Breckenridge and his Kentucky con- stituents shows that this assumption is probably er- roneous, and that the opposition arose, not from any adherence to abstract political or juridical theories, but largely from the very concrete fear lest the decisions of the Federal Courts might be adverse to the land laws and the landholders of Virginia and Kentucky.^ In both these States, the conditions of land titles were compli- cated and deplorable, and thousands of suits had been entered, largely by non-resident claimants of title. In Virginia, moreover, the famous litigation over the Lord Fairfax and other British titles vitally excited large numbers of landholders and claimants. It was, there- fore, chiefly on accoimt of these fears lest the Federal Courts should disturb existing titles that Kentuckians and Virginians seized on any weapon of attack and any available argument against the power of those Courts. This situation was clearly explained by one of Brecken- ridge's correspondents who wanted the Federal Courts either abolished or stringently limited in jurisdiction, and who wrote: "I apprehend great danger and mis- chief from the (Federal) Court in this State ; a great part of the lands here are claimed by non-residents,

^ See History rf Kentucky and the Keniuekiane (1912), by E. Polk Johnson, 14S et eeq. "John Rowan said that the Territory of Kentucky was *encambered and cursed with a triple layer of claimants.*' See ibidf 141, 161 et eeq,, for description of the excitement in 1795-96, over an early^ decision by State Judges as to the unconstitutionality of a Kentucky land-claimant law of 1794, and over attempts to remove the Judges for their decisions, "subversive of the plainest principles of law and justice and involving^in their consequences the distress and ruin of many of our innocent and meritorious dtiisens.** See also History rf Kenttuiky (1824)» by Humphrey Marshall, I, 419 et eeq,; Lawyere and Lawmakere of Kentucky (1897). ed. by H. Levin.