There has been some discussion in the public prints as to whether the threat of instituting proceedings in bankruptcy, will not be made by exacting creditors to timid debtors, and the existence of the law and the possibility of proceeding under it be used, in effect, as a blackmailing scheme. Under the present status of affairs, creditors frequently threaten their debtors with proceedings at law or in equity. The cases are not infrequent in which proceedings have been begun which finally resulted in the financial destruction of the estate of the debtor, when, with proper management, the debts might have been paid dollar for dollar. Under the proposed act, the debtor has or may have a ready reply to the threat of the creditor. In the first place, the bill contains ample and equitable provision for a composition, and if that proves unavailing, the honest debtor may be readily discharged. As a matter of fact, it is a question as to whether the exacting debtor may not say to the timid creditor that unless he desists from pressing him, that he will file a voluntary petition and offer composition, or permit the administration to proceed, and then secure a discharge, and simply let the estate pay whatever it will upon final administration. In any event, we consider that the objection is not well founded, and that it cannot be taken advantage of as suggested, because the bill is a fair one to both the creditor and the debtor classes. ELLSWORTH, not MARSHALL, was the Chief Justice who was appointed when Cushing declined. In the Current Comment for January (page 5), by some curious slip, MARSHALL is said to have been appointed by Washington! Of course, Marshall was appointed by President Adams, January 31, 1801, while serving in the Cabinet as Secretary of State. (See July number, 1889, of CURRENT COMMENT.) To the writer of the life of CUSHING, this slip is exasperating, for the information for ELLSWORTH's life was then being gathered. Perhaps this was the cause of the slip, as MARSHALL succeeded ELLSWORTH. And ELLSWORTH, in his way, was "great," as well as JOHN MARSHALL. THE SUPREME COURT ROOM. The first Monday of February 1790, was the appointed day for the organization of the Supreme Court of the United States. Through lack of a quorum, the next day, February 5, 1790, was the actual time when Chief Justice John Jay, of New York, and Justices William Cushing, of Massachusetts, James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, and John Blair, of Virginia— (John Rutledge, of South Carolinia and Robert H. Harrison, of Maryland, being still absent), organized the Court in a room in the Exchange in New York City, then the seat of the new Government. In this Court-room no litigation was heard, a fact which some orators have used as a contrast with the overloaded docket of to-day, forgetting that a crowd of that would have added a deeper hue to the depressed condition of the country. The significance of this absence of suitors lies in the conservatism which still characterizes the American lawyer. A new law, a new Court, a new jurisdiction, all invite trial and proof, but not for theory's sake. All lawyers are trained to abhor fishing suits, and collusive actions. Real litigation is conducted with the desire for success, and success in some form requires caution in the absence of any practice, any decision, even any judicial examination of any question, by a Court endowed with power to define its own jurisdiction. It must be borne in mind that the only appeal from the Supreme Court of the United States is to the operation of the cumbrous machinery of Constitutional Amendment, though, of course, in many cases the principle of a decision may be reversed by an Act of Congress. From the decision of the case, there is only that one further appeal, short of revolution. By the removal of the seat of government from New York City, the Supreme Court came to hold its first sessions for argument and trial in Philadelphia, and, naturally, the first reporter was a Pennsylvanian, and his books (Dallas, 4 vols.) also contain the decisions of the State Courts. The old city hall of Philadelphia was begun in 1790 and finished in the summer of 1791. Centennial visitors to the City of Brotherly Love, may recall it standing to the east of Independence Hall, at the south-west corner of Fifth and Chestnut streets, and then used by the Mayor, Clerks of Councils, and Police. It is a plain brick building with a small cupola, and marble keystones and springers to the arches of the windows and doors. The large ante-room to the Mayor's private office, at the head of the stairs, on the second floor, was the first regular court room of the United States Supreme Court. There presided John Jay, Chief Justice from 1789 to 1794; John Rutledge (1794-1796); and Oliver Ellsworth (1796-1800). As a result of many offers, and almost the acceptance of historic Germantown (on the outskirts of Philadelphia,) the present site of the Federal City was at last selected. But not for immediate occupation. The Funding Bill for the assumption of the State War debts, was Hamilton's great measure, and to pass it, a deal was arranged, by which the capital went to the Potomac, and so satisfied Virginia, but not until 1800, and so salved the disappointment of Pennsylvania, and the Funding Bill passed, to the delight of the Northern States. The new Court Room opened with a new Chief Justice. "If Mr. Adams, as president, had served his country better than had served his party, at least one of the latest acts of his administration was an equal service to both. Having offered the chief-justiceship of the United States to Jay, who declined it, he then nominated John Marshall. The Parthian shot went home. Half of what the Democrats seemed to have done by the election of Jefferson, was undone by the appointment of Marshall. By it, the Federalists got control of the national judiciary, and interpreted the Constitution in the courts, long after they had shrunk to utter insignificance as a political party." (John T. Morse, Jr., American Statesmen series: John Adams, p. 321.) Marshall was confirmed on the thirty-first of January, 1801, and on the first Monday of February following, that is the following Monday, the second day of the month, the court was holden in the basement story of the Capitol at Washington, directly beneath its present court room. This room has been described as ill-arranged and inconvenient, as well as badly lighted. The Northern wing of the first Capitol building was ready |