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240 Men: The Antebellum Lower Federal Judiciary, 1829-1861, Kermit L. Hall

Vanderbilt Law Review

Between 1829 and 1861 antebellum presidents nominated 200 judges to the federal lower courts. Earlier administrations had appointed another forty jurists who held their positions during part or all of the era. Of these judges, 108 served in the federal district courts, 126 in the territorial courts, five in the Court of Claims, and one in a special circuit court established in 1855 for the northern district of California. The number of appointments available to an administration involved fate and the pace of territorial expansion;thus, during the first eight years of the period, Jackson nominated thirty-two judges, while in the …