If uniformity was at ail intended, tho sys
tem required that all the States shall be
accommodated with circuit courts, attend
ed by Supremo Judges; while, in fact,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, lowa, Kansas, Fiori
da, Texas, California and 0 O on have nev
er had any such courts. Nor can this be
well remedied without a change of the sys
tem, because adding of justices to the Su
preme Court enough for the accommoda
tion of all parts of the country with circuit
courts, would create a court altogether too
numerous for a judicial body of any sort,,
and the evil of it bo one that will increase
as new States come into the Union.
Circuit courts are useful or they aro not
useful. It useful, no State should be de
nied them; if not useful, no State should
have them. Let them be provided for all,
or abolished as to all. Three modifl nations
occur to me here, which x think would be
an in\ rovement upon our present system:
Let the Supreme court be of convenient
number, in every event. Then, first, let
the whole co’d’«try be divided into ciicuros
of convenient size; tho Supreme Judges to
serve according to their own number and
independent circuit judges be provided for
for all the rest; or, secondly the Supreme
Jud ros bo relieved from circuit duties and
Circuit Judges provided for all the circuits
or, thirdly, disperse with circuit courts al
together, leaving tho judicial function whol
ly to the District Courts and an indepen
dent Supremo Court.
One of the unfavorable consequences oi
tlio present insurrection s the entire sup
pression in many places of all ordinary
mentis of administering civil justice by the
officers, and in the forms of existing law.
