attendance--rising in population from
1,470,018 in 1830 to 6,151,405 in 1860.

Besides this, the country generally has outgrown our present judicial
system. If uniformity was at all intended, the system requires that all
the States shall be accommodated with circuit courts, attended by Supreme
judges, while, in fact, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Florida,
Texas, California, and Oregon have never had any such courts. Nor can this
well be remedied without a change in the system, because the adding of
judges to the Supreme Court, enough for the accommodation of all parts
of the country with circuit courts, would create a court altogether too
numerous for a judicial body of any sort. And the evil, if it be one, will
increase as new States come into the Union. Circuit courts are useful or
they are not useful. If useful, no State should be denied them; if
not useful, no State should have them. Let them be provided for all or
abolished as to all.

Three modifications occur to me, either of which, I think, would be
an improvement upon our present system. Let the Supreme Court be of
convenient number in every event; then, first, let the whole country be
divided into circuits of convenient size, the Supreme judges to serve in a
number of them corresponding to their own number, and independent circuit
judges be provided for all the rest; or, secondly, let the Supreme judges
be relieved from circuit duties and circuit judges provided for all the
circuits; or, thirdly, dispense with circuit courts altogether, leaving
the judicial functions wholly to the district courts and an independent
Supreme Court.

I respectfully recommend to the consideration of Congress the present
condition of the statute laws, with the hope that Congress will be able
to find an easy remedy for many of the inconveniences and evils which
constantly embarrass those engaged in the practical administration of
them. Since the Organization of the government, Congress has enacted some
5000 acts and joint resolutions, which fill more than 6000 closely printed
pages and are scattered through many volumes. Many of these acts have been
drawn in haste and without sufficient caution, so that their provisions
are often obscure in themselves or in conflict with each other, or
at least so doubtful as to render it very difficult for even the
best-informed persons to ascertain precisely what the statute law really
is.

It seems to me very important that the statute