he wrote. "Considering the judicial system as the chief pillar upon which our National Government must rest, I have thought it my duty to nominate, for the high offices in that department, such men as I conceived would give dignity and lustre to our National character, and I flatter myself that the love which you bear to our country and a desire to promote the general happiness will lead you to a ready acceptance of the enclosed commission which is accompanied with such laws as have passed relative to your office."[1]
On Monday, February 1, 1790, the day appointed for its organization, the Supreme Court of the United States met in New York, in the Royal Exchange, a building located at the foot of Broad Street. "The Court Room at the Exchange was uncommonly crowded," said the newspapers of the day. "The Chief Justice and other Judges of the Supreme Court of this State, the Federal Judge for the District of New York, the Mayor and Recorder of New York, the Marshal of the District of New York, the Sheriff and many other officers, and a great number of the gentlemen of the Bar attended on the occasion."[2] Since, however, in spite of the importance of the event, only three of the Judges were present. Jay, Wilson and Cushing, the Court adjourned to the next day at one
- ↑ Washington, X, letters of Sept. 30, 1789. The nominations of the Judges were sent in to the Senate, Sept. 24, and were confirmed, Sept. 26.
- ↑ Full accounts were published in the New York and Philadelphia papers and copied in papers throughout the country; New York Daily Advertiser, Feb. 3, 10, 11, 1790; Pennsylvania Packet (Phil.), Feb. 6, 11, 16, 1790; Federal Gazette (Phil.), Feb. 4, 6, 8, 10, 1790, stating the Court met "at the Assembly Chamber, New York"; New York Journal, Feb. 4, 1790, and Freeman's Journal (Phil.). Feb. 10, 1790, said "a very numerous and respectable auditory attended."
It is a curious fact that the very first line in the official written minutes of the Court, kept by the Clerk, contained an error. It reads as follows: "In the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States." The word "Judicial" of course improperly appears in the official title of the Court, and was undoubtedly inserted by the Clerk (who was a Massachusetts man) because of the fact that in Massachusetts, the official title of its highest Court was the "Supreme Judicial Court"
