Page:The Supreme Court in United States History vol 1.djvu/36

10 ities the government will have, and question much if any will be found more economical, systematic and eflScient than the one under consideration. Its fate in the House of Representatives, or in the opinion of the public, I can- not determine/* ^ And James Monroe wrote to James Madison: **That (the bill) to embrace the Judiciary will occasion more diflSculty, I apprehend, than any other, as it will form an exposition of the powers of the Government itself, and show in the opinion of those w*ho organized it, how far it can discharge its own functions, or must depend for that purpose on the aid of those of the States. Whatever ar- rangement shall be now made in that respect will be of some duration, which shows the propriety of a wise provision in the commencement." * In the House, fears as to the Federal Judiciary as an instriunent of Federal encroachment on State authority were ex- pressed in the debates over the famous Twenty-Fifth Section which authorized writs of error to the Supreme Court on judgments of State Courts.' **It is much to be apprehended that this constant control of the Supreme Federal Court over the adjudication of the State Coiurts would dissatisfy the people and weaken the importance and authority of the State Judges,*'

1 State Trials (1849). by Francis Wharton, letter of Ellsworth to Judge Richard Law, Aug. 7, 1789.


 * Monroe, I, letter of Aug. 12, 1789.

of Fisher Ames, the talented Federalist Congressman from Massachusetts, as follows : " July 8, 1789, The Judiciary is before the Senate who make progress. Their committee labored upon it with vast perseverance and have taken as full a view of their subject as I ever knew a committee to take. Mr. Strong, Mr. Ellsworth and Mr. Paterson, in particular, have their full share of this merit. Sept. 3, 1789. You will see by the papers what pace we move in the discussion of the Judiciary bill. The question whether we shall have inferior tribunals (ex- cept admiralty courts, which were not denied to be necessary) was very formidably contested. Judge livermore, and ten others, voted against them. You will see in Fenno'e Oazette my speechicle on the subject. Sept. 7, 17^9. The Judicial slumbers, and when it shall be resumed will probably pass as an experimental law, without much debate or amendment, in the confidence that a short experience will make manifest the proper alterations." Works qf Fisher Ames (1854,) L
 * The progress of the bill in the House was commented on in the correspondence