SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES. In accordance with the pro visions of the United States Constitution there was organized in 1789 a Supreme Court, John Jay receiving the first ap pointment as chief justice. With him were joined as associate judges John Rutledge, of South Carolina ; James Wil son, of Pennsylvania; William Cushing, of Massachusetts; John Blair, of Vir ginia; and James Iredell, of North Caro lina. John Jay held the office till 1795, and in 1796 Oliver Ellsworth became chief justice. The latter presided over the court till in 1800 the infirmities of age compelled his resignation. Then came the long and honorable incumbency of Chief-Justice John Marshall, who held the office from his appointment in 1801 to his death in 1835. This was a very notable period in the history of this court, and Judge Marshall's decisions have always been ranked as of pre-em inent ability. In 1836 the appointment of Roger B. Taney to the chief justice ship by President Jackson was confirmed by the Senate, and he took his seat on the bench in January, 1837, entering on his long term of 27 years. It was his celebrated decision in the case of the negro, Dred Scott, relative to the status of the slave race in America that applied the torch to that immense heap of com bustibles whose explosion was the Civil War. At the death of Chief-Justice Taney in 1864, President Lincoln ap pointed as his successor Salmon P. Chase, former Secretary of the Treasury, and author of most of the great financial measures and expedients by which the national credit had been preserved dur ing the war. His official term extended to his death in 1873, and covered the period when the important issues arising from the Civil War were under adjudica tion. To Chief-Justice Chase fell also, by virtue of his office, the duty of pre siding at the impeachment trial of Presi dent Andrew Johnson. In 1874 the ap pointment of Morrison R. Waite as chief justice was made by President Grant, and the death of this able jurist in 1888 devolved on President Cleveland and the Senate the duty of selecting his succes sor, Melville W. Fuller, who served until his death in 1910. Edward Douglass White, of Louisiana, associate justice, and a Democrat, was appointed his suc cessor as chief justice.
In the formation of the Constitution of the United States it was intended that the three general departments of the government should be of correlative rank and influence. And the decisions of the
Supreme Court, especially those rendered since the Civil War, in the construction of the constitutional amendments which were made as a result of that war, have been of such fundamental and far reach ing consequences that the value and im portance of this tribunal in the United States system of government have been made more strikingly conspicuous than ever before. Its judgments, for example, in regard to civil rights, interstate com merce, prohibition liquor laws, the Mor mon question, the right of Congress to authorize the use of paper money in time of peace, the legislation of Congress in regard to the Southern States by so called "force bills," the relations of the States to the Federal Government, etc., have been of the highest importance, and their influence in the future will be al most incalculable. The importance of the conservative opinion of this great national court in determining, at least negatively, the final validity of all legis lation and of all subordinate judicial de cisions, can hardly be overestimated. The same may be said of the Supreme Bench, considered as the only immovable break water against the unscrupulous and ram pant spirit of party. It is fortunate, moreover, that the offices of our chief jus tice and the associate judgeships are ap pointive, and are thus removed in a great measure from the perfidy of the conven tion and the passion of a partisan elec tion. The Supreme Court, at its first session in 1790, as already noted, con sisted of a chief justice and 5 associates. By successive acts of Congress the num ber of associate justices was increased, 6 in 1807, to 8 in 1837. and the statute now in force, passed in 1869, fixes the number at 9. The re tirement of supreme justices at the age of 70 is not compulsory, but a mere per sonal privilege. This provision was originally enacted April 10, 1869. Sec. 1, Art. III., of the United States Constitu tion expressly provides that the judges "shall hold their offices during good be havior," so that if they do not volun tarily take advantage of the foregoing provision and are not removed they are entitled to exercise the duties of their office till death.