UNCLE SAM'S LAW

BUSINESS

BY JOHN K. RICHARDS SOLICITOR-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES

HE famous judiciary act of 1789,

TH

which organized the courts of the United States, provided in its last section that there should be appointed "a meet person, learned in the law, to act as Attorney-General for the United States, whose duty it shall be to prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned, and to give his advice and opinion upon questions of law when required by the President of the United States, or when requested by the heads of any

of the departments, touching any matters that may concern their departments.

The same act divided the United States into thirteen districts, and provided for a United States attorney in each district, but gave the Attorney-General no control over the district attorneys. This control was not given until 1861. No department was created, but simply an office; and this was the situation until 1870, when Congress created the Department of Justice.

Although the organization of the courts was one of the earliest things taken up by the First Congress, the judiciary act was not passed and approved by President Washington until September 24th. In the meantime Congress had provided for three Cabinet officers, a Secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs, now called the Secretary of State, a Secretary for the Department of War, now called the Secretary of War, and a Secretary of the Treasury; so the Attorney-General

was the fourth Cabinet officer created. Fourth in date of creation, the AttorneyGeneral is fourth in Cabinet rank and fourth in the Cabinet line of succession to the presidency, as defined by the act of January 19, 1886.

The salary provided for the first Attorney-General was fifteen hundred dollars a year. That would be a moderate fee now for arguing a single case in the Supreme Court. But the act which fixed that salary provided also that the United States District Judge for Massachusetts should get only twelve hundred dollars a year, for New York fifteen hundred dollars, and for Pennsylvania sixteen hundred dollars.

Still it was a serious task for a Cabinet officer to support his position on fifteen hundred dollars a year even in those days. It was expected he would eke out his salary by outside work.

What a belittling business this was appears in a note in which Edmund Ran