on earned for him considerable notoriety.
Indeed, it passed into a sort of proverb that there were three parties
in the convention--the Republicans, the Federalists, and Erastus Root.
It is not so clear that he had as much influence as his long
prominence in public life would seem to entitle him; but when he did
happen to stand with the majority, he pleased it with his witty
vehemence more than Peter R. Livingston did with his coarse
vituperation. In the debate on the judiciary, however, abuse and
invective were not confined to Root and Livingston. Abraham Van
Vechten and some of those who acted with him, employed every means in
their power to defeat the opponents of the judges, although they
scarcely equalled the extra-tribunal methods of their adversaries.

The contest opened as soon as the chairman of the judiciary committee
reported in favour of a vice chancellor, from whom appeals should be
taken to the chancellor; and of a superior court of common pleas,
having practically the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which should
form a part of the Court for the Correction of Errors. This meant the
continuation of the old judges. Immediately, Erastus Root offered a
substitute, abolishing the existing courts, and creating a new Supreme
Court, with a corps of _nisi prius_ district judges. Root's plan also
provided for the transfer of the equitable powers of the Court of
Chancery to the courts of common law. This was the extreme view.
Although the convention, or at least a majority of it, might wish to
get rid of the old Supreme Court judges, it was plainly unwilling to
let go the Court of Chancery. So it rejected the Root substitute by a
vote of seventy-three to thirty-six, and the report of the judiciary
committee by seventy-nine ayes to thirty-three noes. But the attack
thus daringly begun by Root, was steadily maintained. Martin Van
Buren, who figured as a sort of peacemaker, proposed the retention of
the Chancery and Supreme Courts, and the creation of circuit judges.
This proposition went to a special committee, which presented two
reports--one for the preservation of the Court of Chancery and the
Supreme Court, the other for the creation of a Court of Chancery, a
Supreme Court, and courts of common pleas. It was plain that the
second of these was Root's former substitute, with the Court of
Chancery continued, and, in support of it, he now arraigned the
political conduct of the judges with a severity that was speedil