ABSTRACT
The Civil War put out of men's minds such placid concerns as judicial organization, but the Civil War is also a turning-point in the history of the federal judiciary. The desirability of independent lower federal courts for the limited class of cases found general concurrence or, at least, did not encounter vigorous opposition even from the Anti-Federalists. To the Supreme Court Congress gave appellate jurisdiction over all classes of cases which constitutionally could be reviewed, in addition to the controversies arising under the "original jurisdiction " conferred by the Constitution itself. The growing volume of the Supreme Court's appellate business only intensified the conflicting drain which Supreme Court and circuit court work made upon the energies and capacities of the Justices. Thus the attention of the House was called to the "considerable delay and injury" "occasioned to suitors" "from the increased business of the Supreme Court".
