lphia, a rather more central seat.
Then, in 1802, the abolition of the August term eased the burdens of
the justices still more. But of course they still had to put up with bad
roads, bad inns, and bad judicial quarters or sometimes none at all.

Yet that the life of a Supreme Court justice was not altogether one of
discomfort is shown by the following alluring account of the travels of
Justice Cushing on circuit: "He traveled over the whole of the Union,
holding courts in Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. His traveling
equipage was a four-wheeled phaeton, drawn by a pair of horses, which he
drove. It was remarkable for its many ingenious arrangements (all of his
contrivance) for carrying books, choice groceries, and other comforts.
Mrs. Cushing always accompanied him, and generally read aloud while
riding. His faithful servant Prince, a jet-black negro, whose parents
had been slaves in the family and who loved his master with unbounded
affection, followed." * Compared with that of a modern judge always
confronted with a docket of eight or nine hundred cases in arrears,
Justice Cushing's lot was perhaps not so unenviable.

* Flanders, "The Lives and Times of the Chief-Justices of
the Supreme Court," vol. II, p. 38.

The pioneer work of the Supreme Court in constitutional interpretation
has, for all but special students, fallen into something like obscurity
owing to the luster of Marshall's achievements and to his habit of
deciding cases without much reference to precedent. But these early
labors are by no means insignificant, especially since they pointed
the way to some of Marshall's most striking decisions. In Chisholm vs.
Georgia, * which was decided in 1793, the Court ruled, in the face of an
assurance in the "Federalist" to the contrary, that an individual
might sue a State; and though this decision was speedily disallowed by
resentful debtor States by the adoption of the Eleventh Amendment, its
underlying premise that, "as to the purposes of the Union, the States
are not sovereign" remained untouched; and three years later the Court
affirmed the supremacy of national treaties over conflicting state
laws and so established a precedent which has never been disturbed.**
Meantime the Supreme Court was advancing, though with notable caution,
toward an assertion of the right to pass upon the constitutionality of
acts of Congress. Thus in 1792, Congress ordered the judges while
on circuit to pass upon p