Congress paid no heed to the request;[1] but it lightened the labors of the Judges somewhat by passing the Act of March 2, 1793, which provided that the Circuit Courts should consist of one Supreme Court Judge and one District Judge; and thereafter, the Judges took the Circuits in turn, instead of being confined to fixed Circuits. In consequence of this change, Jay, who during the previous year had been a candidate for Governor of New York, because, as he wrote, "the office of a Judge of the Supreme Court of the United States was in a degree intolerable and therefore almost any other office of a suitable rank and emolument was preferable,"[2] decided to remain on the Bench. He still insisted, however, upon the weakness of the Federal Judiciary system. "The Federal Courts have enemies in all who fear their influence on State objects. It is to be wished that their defects should be corrected quietly. If these defects were all exposed to public view in striking colors, more enemies would arise, and the difficulty of mending them be increased. When it is considered that the important questions expected to arise in the Circuit Courts have now been decided
- ↑ Charles Carroll wrote to John Henry, Dec. 16, 1792: "Please to inform me as soon as you can what alterations of the judicial system are in contemplation. I have heard it rumored that the State Judges are to be made Judges of the United States within the jurisdiction or boundaries of each State, and the Supreme Court to be sedentary at the seat of Congress. Such a system will never answer." Life of Charles Carroll of Carrollton (1898), by Kate Mason Rowland.
- ↑ See letter of Egbert Benson to Rufus King, Dec 18, 1793, reporting Jay's answer to a second request to run for Governor. King, I.
