enactment. Just at
this juncture that gentleman prudently resigned; and Stephen A.
Douglas was appointed to the office which he had done his best to
vacate.[120]

This appointment was a boon to the impecunious young attorney. He
could now count on a salary which would free him from any concern
about his financial liabilities,--if indeed they ever gave him more
than momentary concern. Besides, as custodian of the State Library, he
had access to the best collection of law books in the State. The
duties of his office were not so exacting but that he could still
carry on his law studies, and manage such incidental business as came
his way. These were the obvious and tangible advantages which Douglas
emphasized in the mellow light of recollection.[121] Yet there were
other, less obvious, advantages which he omitted to mention.

The current newspapers of this date make frequent mention of an
institution popularly dubbed "the Third House," or "Lord Coke's
Assembly."[122] The archives of state do not explain this unique
institution. Its location was in the lobby of the State House. Like
many another extra-legal body it kept no records of its proceedings;
yet it wielded a potent influence. It was attended regularly by those
officials who made the lobby a rendezvous; irregularly, by politicians
who came to the Capitol on business; and on pressing occasions, by
members of the legislature who wished to catch the undertone of party
opinion. The debates in this Third House often surpassed in interest
the formal proceedings behind closed doors across the corridor.
Members of this house were not held to rigid account for what they
said. Many a political _coup_ was plotted in the lobby. The grist
which came out of the legislative mill was often ground by
irresponsible politicians out of hearing of the Speaker of the House.
The chance comer was quite as likely to find the Secretary of State in
the lobby as in his office among his books.

The lobby was a busy place in this winter session of 1840-41. It was
well known that Democratic leaders had planned an aggressive
reorganization of the Supreme Court, in anticipation of an adverse
decision in the famous Galena alien case. The Democratic programme was
embodied in a bill which proposed to abolish the existing Circuit
Courts, and to enlarge the Supreme Court by the addition of five
judges. Circuit Courts were to be held by the nine judges of the
Supreme Court.[123] Subsequent explanati