Mr. JOHNSON. I am by no means certain that the judges of the district court here are satisfied with the amounts which they receive. I have some reason to believe they are not satisfied. However that may be, the question before the Senate is, whether the sum proposed by the ComJudiciary is too high to pay the judges of the Court of Claims?. No one who is acquainted with the cost of living in the city of Washington can doubt for a moment that it is almost impossible to reside here with a family upon a salary of $4,000 in such a way as a judge should be able to live. It is true that it may be said, as has been said by my friendfrom Maine, that they are not residents here in one sense; that is to say, they take occasionally a recess of one or 2 months, but nearly the whole of their time is spent here. The winter is spent here, and if they take any recess it is for one or 2 months in the summer, and I am satisfied from what I have heard from them that they are obliged to den themselves things which are necessary I i. to every gentleman who is upon the bench of any extensive jurisdiction, and which implies for the discharge of its duties judicial ability. The questions before the Court of Claims are very different from the questions which are brought before the supreme court of the district. They deal in criminal cases and with every species of offense, small and great. Their jurisdiction in civil matters is comparatively unimportant to the public at large, except so far as the public is interested in seeing the rights of suitors carefully attended to. But the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims, as we have now given it, is very extensive and in volves in its exercise the interests of the Treasury to a large amount. I do not know what may be the amount actually in controversy in the several cases in the Court of Claims, but the number of the cases in that court is very great; and from the character of the claims themselves, the nature of the questions which they Present, it requires much more labor in each case to decide it than it does require to decide an ordinary case where the court have the assistance of a jury. These judges have to try the facts as well as the law. The questions of law which are brought before them are often very intricate, very doubtful to any man who is not well acquainted with the general juris prudence of the nation; and I should be exceedingly unwilling to see upon the Court of Claims any gentleman who was not able to fill the highest judicial office in the country. I agree with my friendfrom Maine that there ought to be a distinction between the judges of the Court of Claims and the judges of the SCOTUS, for the reasons which he states; but the judges of the Supreme Court do not get enough. do not like to refer to io.but the late Chief Justice, who gave his whole life for 24 years in the discharge of his duty, and to the satisfaction of all the suitors and the satisfaction of the country, except in a particular instance, who might have earned at the bar, if his, health had permitted him, a great deal more, although he lived in the most economical way possible, left the world with a family almost wholly dependent upon others. If he had had a salary at all equal to the sal aries which are paid in England to abilities of no greater extent he could have entertained the members of the bar who came here from time to time, the eminent men who belong to the courts abroad, many of whom are from time to time here; but, as it was, so far as I am advised, he never was able to have a single person at his table, either in the morning or in the evening. Now, these judges, all of them, have fami lies, and they are here the whole year, with the exception of some one or 2 months; and they are away then because they are exhausted by the labors of the antecedent months, and because the heat of the weather is such that they are unable to discharge the very labo rious duties which are upon them in the other months of the year. Mr. President, what have we done? Upon an average the long session never exceeds 6 months and the short session 3 months, making 9 months in 2 years; and for our duties here we get $10,000–$10,000 for 9 months of actual service. When we go home those of us who have professions or other employment apply ourselves to such professions or employment and receive whatever additional compensation we may be able to earn. But it is not so with these judges. When they, for the purpose of relaxation, leave their labors here and for a month or 2 go elsewhere, they have to spend the money, live upon the money which we give. They have no resources at all of acquiring anything else. I do not think it is an argument against the propriety of this allowance that the officers of the several bureaus, many of whom are highly intelligent men, worthy in all respects, are getting less than the judges of the Court of Claims are. They do not require the same kind of ability as a general rule. They are accounting officers. It is more the ability of the clerk than the ability of the jurist; and the questions which they are called upon to decide are questions very different in general from those which the Court of Claims are called upon to decide; and when they are in doubt they have a right to appeal to the SecyTreasury and ask him to take the opinion of the AttyGen, so as to save themselves the trouble of coming to any conclusion for themselves, if they felt themselves even cometent to that task. It seems to me, therefore, ooking to the character of the court, the nature of its jurisdiction, and the almost impossibility of?.upon the salary, that it is due to the country as well as to the judges that they should be paid at least the sum proposed by the ComJudiciary.