Part 5 (1/2)

When the state was admitted into the Union the judiciary was made to consist of a chief justice and two a.s.sociate justices, who const.i.tuted the supreme court, with a jurisdiction exclusively appellate, and a district judge for each district. As the state has grown in population and business, the supreme court judges have been increased to five and the judicial districts to eighteen in number, two of which, the second and the fourth, have six judges each, the eleventh three, the first and seventh two each, and the remainder one each.

The practice adopted by the territorial legislature was generally similar to that of the New York code, with such differences as were necessary to conform it to a very new country. From a residence in the territory and state of forty-seven years, nearly all of which has been spent either in practice at the bar or as a judge on the bench, I take pride in saying that the judiciary of Minnesota, in all its branches, both territorial and state, has, during its fifty years of existence, equalled in ability, learning and integrity that of any state in the West, which is well attested by the seventy-seven well filled volumes of its reported decisions.

Nearly all of the old lawyers of Minnesota were admitted to practice at the first term held at Stillwater, among whom were Morton S. Wilkinson, Henry L. Moss, Edmund Rice, Lorenzo A. Babc.o.c.k, Alexander Wilkin, Bushrod W. Lott, and many others. Of the whole list, Mr. Moss is the sole survivor.

FIRST TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE.

The first legislature convened at St. Paul on Monday, the 3d of September, 1849, in the Central House, which for the occasion served for both capitol and hotel. The quarters were limited, but the legislature was small. The council had nine members and the house of representatives eighteen. The usual officers were elected, and on Tuesday afternoon both houses a.s.sembled in the dining-room of the hotel. Prayer was offered by the Rev. E. D. Neill, and Governor Ramsey delivered his message, which was well received both at home and abroad.

It may be interesting to give the names of the men const.i.tuting this body, and the places of their nativity. The councillors were:

James S. Norris, Maine.

Samuel Burkleo, Delaware.

William H. Forbes, Montreal.

James McBoal, Pennsylvania.

David B. Loomis, Connecticut.

John Rollins, Maine.

David Olmsted, Vermont.

William Sturgis, Upper Canada.

Martin McLeod, Montreal.

The members of the House were:

Joseph W. Furber, New Hamps.h.i.+re.

James Wells, New Jersey.

M. S. Wilkinson, New York.

Sylva.n.u.s Trask, New York.

Mahlon Black, Ohio.

Benjamin W. Bronson, Michigan.

Henry Jackson, Virginia.

John J. Duvey, New York.

Parsons K. Johnson, Vermont.

Henry F. Stetzer, Missouri.

William R. Marshall, Missouri.

William Dugas, Lower Canada.

Jeremiah Russell, Lower Canada.

L. A. Babc.o.c.k, Vermont.

Thomas A. Holmes, Pennsylvania.