One of the problems of the territorial period was that of a satisfactory judiciary system, the source of trouble being an imperfect adjustment between the federal and the legislative powers. A memorial by the Legislature laid before Congress as late as 1814 thus sets forth the difficulty:

"By a law of Congress one of the judges appointed by virtue of the ordinance for the government of this territory, is authorized to hold a court. Thus one of the [federal] judges, being competent to hold a court, may decide a principle or a point of law at one term, if the other two judges are present, they may decide the same principle or point of law different. Thus the decisions of the superior court, organized, we presume, y the general government finally to settle in uniformity the principles of law and fact which may be growth before them by suitor, may be, and frequently are, in a state of fluctuation; hence the rights of persons and property become insecure. There is another evil growing out of the system of one judge being competent to hold the superior court, or that court which forms the last resort of the suitor in any government, and particularly in the territory; for appeals are taken from all the courts of inferior jurisdiction in the territory to the court organized by the ordinance, which inferior courts are never constituted of less than two judges. Thus the suitor in the territory is frequently driven to the necessity of appealing from the judgement of two men to that of one. But this dilemma only constitutes part of the solecism for the next superior court, as the other two judges my overturn the principles of the decision of their brother judge at the preceding term. Hence the want of uniformity in the decisions of the court of the last resort. Anger and warmth in the suitors and a confusion in our system of jurisprudence is the result."

Prior to this memorial the Legislature had attempted to correct the defects, but they lay beyond its power. In response to the appeal a congressional act of February 24, 1815, provided that there should serve at least two judges of the superior court.