With this thought that the purpose of the Department of Justice was and is the establishment of justice, to see that justice is established in the land by the just, equal, and fair endorsement of the laws, to the end that love of justice and a purpose to promote it may be implanted in the hearts and the souls of the people, I felt that it would be interesting, and possibly in some ways instructive, as I am sure it is important, for the members of your Association to be put in somewhat fuller possession of the facts as to the history and past operations and the present work of the Department of Justice.

The Department of Justice as it exists today has grown to its present position as the most powerful department of the Government-crushing in its power when improperly usedfrom very insignificant and humble beginnings. It has traveled a stony and tortuous path in reaching its present eminence. Its position today is due alone to the earnest and ceaseless efforts and recommendations to Congress of a long line of AttorneysGeneral and Presidents. The Department of Justice, as it is organized now, dates from the act of June 22, 1870. Prior to that time it was known as the Attorney-General's Office..

The Attorney-General's Office was one of the four original departments created by the first Congress of the United States at New York in 1789—the Congress which passed the famous Judiciary Act-the other departments created at the same time being State, Treasury, and War.

The first Attorney-General of the United States was a Virginian--that accomplished lawyer and able man Edmund Randolph. The Attorney-General who filled the office longest was also a Virginian-the learned and brilliant William Wirt, who served eleven years continuously from 1817 to 1829. Of these two men I shall have something more to say later.

The first Attorney-General received the munificent salary of $1,500 a year without an allowance for office rent, clerk hire or stationery. As Attorney-General with this meagre salary he accomplished an amount of arduous physical labor which is a marvel to those who today contemplate it. As first AttorneyGeneral he had to shape his own office, adapt the Constitutional provisions and the Judiciary Act to their work, construe and

apply the statutes, study out and decide the vexatious questions relating to the line of demarkation between the jurisdiction of the State and Federal Governments and their respective courts, and constantly give opinions and advice both written and oral to the President and the other heads of Departments concerning internal affairs, and to the Secretary of State upon questions of international law arising out of the unsettled relations of the country with foreign governments following the Revolutionary He was also one of the four members of the President's Advisory Council-subsequently called the Cabinet.

war.

In December, 1790, the seat of Government was removed from New York to Philadelphia, where it remained until 1800. No office was provided for the Attorney-General.

In 1791 Congress increased the salary to $1,900. In that year Randolph made the important recommendation to the President that the Attorney-General be authorized to represent the Government in the other Federal Courts as well as the Supreme Court, and that he be given control of the District Attorneys, and urged the necessity for a clerk. Washington transmitted the letter to Congress in a special message favoring the recommendations, but Congress did nothing, and twenty-seven years elapsed before an allowance was made for clerk hire, and nearly seventy before the Attorney-General was given supervision and control over the District Attorneys.

Randolph retired from the office in 1793 to become Secretary of State, replacing Thomas Jefferson.

In 1799 during the incumbency of Charles Lee, also of Virginia, the salary was raised to $3,000, and it is worth while to note that Randolph, Lee, Wirt, and John Mason are the only Virginians who have occupied this office; no Virginian having occupied it since 1846-for the last sixty-eight years. But the work accomplished by all of the other Attorneys-General combined was not greater in point of importance, and effect upon the future welfare of our country than that done by Randolph and Wirt in their twenty-one years of service. Mason was only in the office a year, and retired in 1846 to become Secretary of the Navy.

The terms of some of the Attorneys-General have been exceedingly short, and they have varied from four months to eleven years. No Attorney-General resided in Washington, or had an office at the seat of Government until 1814, when Madison appointed Richard Rush, of Pennsylvania, upon the condition that he should reside in Washington. Madison in his message to Congress called attention to the office of the Attorney-General; to the hardships which resulted from the failure of Congress to provide a suitable salary, office quarters, clerical assistance, etc., but his appeal was unheeded.

President Monroe appointed William Wirt November 28, 1817, and he continued in office throughout the terms of Monroe and John Quincy Adams, retiring on March 3, 1829. Prior to his appointment no record of any kind had been kept by his predecessors in office. The first record book was opened by William Wirt, upon his induction into office, and on the fly leaf of this earliest record in his own handwriting, as clear today as it was on the day it was written, is the following note by this great man:

"Finding on my appointment, this day, no book, documents, or papers of any kind to inform me of what has been done by any one of my predecessors, since the establishment of the Federal Government, and feeling very strongly the inconvenience, both to the nation and myself, from this omission, I have determined to remedy it so far as depends on myself, and to keep a regular record of every official opinion which I shall give while I hold this office, for the use of my successor.

"To make the arrangement as perfect as I can, I have prevailed on the heads of departments to furnish me with copies of all documents on which I shall be consulted and which will be found filed and numbered, to correspond with the numbers in the margin prefixed to each opinion. A copious index to this book is also given, with reference, under various heads, to each case, for the greater facility of using the book.

"WM. WIRT."

This record was faithfully kept by Wirt, the early entries being made in his own handwriting. At last in 1818 Congress provided $1,000 for the employment of a clerk, and $500 for