Finally, President Washington himself wrote, in August, 1791, that he hoped that Congress would give "relief from these disagreeable tours."[1] Besides the laborious duties it entailed, the system was defective for other reasons. "It has happened in more than one instance," wrote Jay to Rufus King, "that questions in the Circuit Court decided by one set of Judges in the affirmative had afterwards in the same Court been decided by others in the negative. As writs of error do not reach every case, this evil has no remedy. The natural tendency of such fluctuations is obvious; nor can they otherwise be avoided than by confining the Judges to their proper place, viz. the Supreme Court."[2] Frequently the Judges, through illness or impassable state of the highways, were unable to attend, and the consequent delays and postponements entailed great cost and hardships to litigants and injustice to persons held for trial for crimes.[3] The National Gazette said:
- ↑ Washington, X, letter of Aug. 7, 1791. Rufus King wrote to Southgate, Sept. 30, 1792: "I remember you have a cause in the Federal Courts that has been delayed for want of Judges to form a Court. Wilson and Iredell go to the Eastern Circuit. I have heard that Wilson casually observed (when here on his way to Connecticut, where he now is) that he should not go farther East than Boston and that Mr. Iredell would go to New Hampshire."
- ↑ King, I, Dec. 19, 1793.
- ↑ In the National Gazette, Jan. 5, 1793, a correspondent from Newbern, N. C., wrote Dec. 11, 1792: "The Circuit Court of the United States was opened here on the 30th of November and continued open from day to day until Tuesday the 11th inst., when it was adjourned by the District Judge until the 1st of June, next. No business of any kind was done, owing to the absence of the Circuit or Associate Justice. The jurors attended with great punctuality and patience the whole time, although this is a very busy and important season with the planter and farmer. Mr. Johnson, one of the Associate Justices, had held the Courts in South Carolina and Georgia, and was taken ill at Augusta and his letter authorizing the adjournment of the Court was not received until Monday, the 10th. Several pirates have been for many months confined here in a loathsome dungeon, praying for their execution as a tender mercy compared with their present confinement—and two persons, who were only so unfortunate as to be witnesses of their crimes, not being able to give security for their appearance, are confined in a manner not much more comfortable. These poor wretches are now doomed to suffer the inclemencies of the winter in a situation already shocking to humanity." See also a letter from a citizen of Delaware describing the failure of Judges Iredell and Wilson to attend a Federal Circuit Court in that State: "Most people know
