Congress will not be deterred from its duty and that
the law will be repealed. No doubt, some struggle
will be made at the next sitting of the Supreme Court
in this city to effect something under color of law, which
may have a tendency to raise the drooping spirits of
the opposition party—indeed, I am told that the matter was at first proposed by those behind the curtain
not to bring it forward so soon, but the rumours that
had been spread of the President's intention not to
ape the monarchical forms of speechifying induced them
to precipitate the business in the last Term."[1] If the
purpose of the Federalists in instituting the Marbury
Case had been such as was intimated in this letter, it
utterly failed; for the Republican party had no intention of being deterred from abolishing the Federalist
Judiciary legislation. For two months there ensued
a prolonged and heated debate in Congress.[2] Ostensibly there were three leading points of discussion—first, the necessity for any increase in the number of
Federal Judges, in view of the alleged decrease in business in the Federal Courts; second, the desirability
of the performance of Circuit Court duty by the Supreme Court Judges; and third, the constitutionality of
the proposed legislation. The Federalist attack was chiefly based on the proposition that a statute abolishing existing Courts would violate the constitutional pro-
- ↑ This reference was to the fact that President Jefferson in his First Annual Address to Congress in December, 1801, departed from the precedent set by Washington and Adams of delivering his address in person before Congress and sent in a written message through his Secretary.
- ↑ 7th Cong., 1st Sess., see debate in the Senate, Jan. 6, 8, 18, 15, Feb. 2, 3, 1802; in the House, Feb. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 24, 25, 26, 27, March 1, 8. For detailed account of this debate, see Marshall, III, 50, 91, and for lively and interesting contemporary account, not cited in the above work, see letters from Washington correspondents in United States Gazette, New York Evening Post, New York Spectator, Washington Federalist, Salem Gazette, Salem Register, passim, Jan.-March, 1802; Connecticut Courant, Feb. 22, 1802; Farmer's Weekly Museum, March 16, 1802. See also interesting article in the National Aegis (Worcester, Mass.), Dec. 16, 1801, on the Judiciary system, and article quoted from Connecticut Gazette.
