State of the Union | Page 4

been unwilling to throw all the
appointments northward, thus disabling myself from doing justice to
the South on the return of peace; although I may remark that to transfer
to the North one which has heretofore been in the South would not,

with reference to territory and population, be unjust.
During the long and brilliant judicial career of Judge McLean his
circuit grew into an empire altogether too large for any one judge to
give the courts therein more than a nominal attendance--rising in
population from 1,470,018 in 1830 to 6,151,405 in 1860.
Besides this, the country generally has outgrown our present judicial
system. If uniformity was at all intended, the system requires that all
the States shall be accommodated with circuit courts, attended by
Supreme judges, while, in fact, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas,
Florida, Texas, California, and Oregon have never had any such courts.
Nor can this well be remedied without a change in the system, because
the adding of judges to the Supreme Court, enough for the
accommodation 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, if it be one, will increase as new States come into the
Union. Circuit courts are useful or they are not useful. If useful, no
State should be denied them; if not useful, no State should have them.
Let them be provided for all or abolished as to all.
Three modifications occur to me, either of which, I think, would be an
improvement upon our present system. Let the Supreme Court be of
convenient number in every event; then, first, let the whole country be
divided into circuits of convenient size, the Supreme judges to serve in
a number of them corresponding to their own number, and independent
circuit judges be provided for all the rest; or, secondly, let the Supreme
judges be relieved from circuit duties and circuit judges provided for all
the circuits; or, thirdly, dispense with circuit courts altogether, leaving
the judicial functions wholly to the district courts and an independent
Supreme Court.
I respectfully recommend to the consideration of Congress the present
condition of the statute laws, with the hope that Congress will be able
to find an easy remedy for many of the inconveniences and evils which
constantly embarrass those engaged in the practical administration of
them. Since the organization of the Government Congress has enacted
some 5,000 acts and joint resolutions, which fill more than 6,000
closely printed pages and are scattered through many volumes. Many of
these acts have been drawn in haste and without sufficient caution, so
that their provisions are often obscure in themselves or in conflict with

each other, or at least so doubtful as to render it very difficult for even
the best-informed persons to ascertain precisely what the statute law
really is.
It seems to me very important that the statute laws should be made as
plain and intelligible as possible, and be reduced to as small a compass
as may consist with the fullness and precision of the will of the
Legislature and the perspicuity of its language. This well done would, I
think, greatly facilitate the labors of those whose duty it is to assist in
the administration of the laws, and would be a lasting benefit to the
people, by placing before them in a more accessible and intelligible
form the laws which so deeply concern their interests and their duties.
I am informed by some whose opinions I respect that all the acts of
Congress now in force and of a permanent and general nature might be
revised and rewritten so as to be embraced in one volume (or at most
two volumes) of ordinary and convenient size; and I respectfully
recommend to Congress to consider of the subject, and if my
suggestion be approved to devise such plan as to their wisdom shall
seem most proper for the attainment of the end proposed.
One of the unavoidable consequences of the present insurrection is the
entire suppression in many places of all the ordinary means of
administering civil justice by the officers and in the forms of existing
law. This is the case, in whole or in part, in all the insurgent States; and
as our armies advance upon and take possession of parts of those States
the practical evil becomes more apparent. There are no courts nor
officers to whom the citizens of other States may apply for the
enforcement of their lawful claims against citizens of the insurgent
States, and there is a vast amount of debt constituting such claims.
Some have estimated it as high as $200,000,000, due in large part from
insurgents in open rebellion to loyal citizens who are even now making
great sacrifices in