The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1861-12-05

the Navy by introducing additional
grades in the service. The present or.
ganization is defective and unsatisfac.
tory, and the suggestions submitted by
the Department will, it is believed, il
adopted, 'obviate the difficulties alluded
to, promote harmony and increase the
efficiency of me Navy.
There are three vacancies on the
bench of the Supreme Court, two by
the decease of Justice Daniel and Nc
Lean, and one by the resignation OF
Justice Campbell. / have SO far for
borne making nominations to fill these
vacancies, for reasons which / will now
state. Two of the outgoing Judges
resided within the States now oyerrun
by revolt, SO that if successors were
appointed in the same localities, they
could not serve upon their circuits, and
many of the most competent men here
probably would not take the personal
hazard of accepting to serve even here
upon the Supreme Bench. / have beeG
unwilling to throw allthe appointments
northward, thus disabling myself from
doing justice to the South on the return
OF peace, although / 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 en-
pire altogether too largo for any one
Judge to give the Courts therein more
than a nominal attendance, rising in
population from 100000 in 1881 to
6,151, 4O5 in 1861. Besides this, the
country has generally outgrown our
present judicial system. If uniformity
was at all intended, the system requires
that all the States shall be accommo-
dated with Circuit Courts, attended by
Supreme Judges, while in fact Wiscon-
sin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Florida,
Texas, California and Oregon have
never had any such courts. Nor can
this be well remedied without change
of the system, because the adding of
of Justices to the Supreme Court
enough for the accommodation of all
parts of the country with Circuit
Courts, would create Court altogether
too dangerous for a judicial body of
any sort, and the evil of it be one that
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 abol-
ished as to all. Three notifications
occur to me here, which | think would
be an improvement upon our present
system. Let the Supreme Court be of
convenient number in every event !;
then, first, lie: the whole country be di-
vided into Circuits of convenient size,
the Supreme Judges to serve in num-
Der of them corresponding to their own
number, and independent Circuit
Judges be provided for all the rest or,
secondly, the Supreme Judges be re-
lieved from Circuit duties and Circuit
Judges be provided for all the Courts ::
or, thirdly, dispense with Circuit
Courts altogether, having the judicial
function wholly to the District Courts
and an Independent Supreme Court.
/ respectfully recommend to the con-
sideration of Congress the present con-
dition of the statute laws, with the
hope that Congress will be able to find
an easy remedy for the many incon-
veniencies and evils which constantly
embarrass those engaged in the practi-
cal administration of them. Since the
organization of the Government, Con
gress has enacted some 5000 acts and
joint resolutions, which fill more than
5000 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 9th
err, and at least so doubtful as to render
it very difficult for even the best in
formed persons to ascertain precisely
what the statute law really is. 1t seems
to me very important that the statute
laws should be made as plain and in
telligible as possible, and be reduced
to as small a compass as may be con-
sistent with the fullness and precision
of the will of the Legislature, and the
prespicuity of its language. These
well done, would, think, greatly facil-
itate the labors of those whose duty it
is to assist i'm the administration of the
laws, and would be lasting benefit to
the people, by placing before them in
more accessible and more intellgi.
bic form the laws which so deeply CON
Germ their interest and their duties.
am informed by some whose opinions
| 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 least two volumes, of or
binary and convenient size, and l res
pect.ully recommend to Congress to
consider the subject, and if any sug-
gestion be approved, to devise such a
plan as to their wisdom shall seem most
proper for the attainment of the end
proposed.
One of the unfavorable consequent
ees of the present Instruction, is the
entire suppression in many places of
all ordinary means of administering
civil justice to the officers, and in the
forms of existing law. This is the case
in whole or in part in all the insurgent