Judiciary, providing for the election by the legislature of five
additional Supreme Judges, and imposing the duties of trial Judges
upon the members of the Court. Meanwhile, Field had grown weary of
the struggle with a hostile Governor and legislature, and, being
threatened with a sweeping change of the Court, resigned in January,
1841. The Governor appointed Douglas his successor. Five weeks
later the legislature chose him Justice of the Supreme Court and
presiding Judge of the Fifth District. He resigned the office of
Secretary and began his judicial career, establishing his residence
at Quincy.

This appointment to the bench was one of the most fortunate incidents
in his busy and feverish life. He was not twenty-eight years old.
Adroit, nimble-witted and irrepressibly energetic as he was, he
had not yet developed much solid strength. His stock of knowledge
was scanty and superficial. From force of circumstances he
had devoted little time to calm thought or serious study. Early
convinced that all truth lay on the surface, patent to him who had
eyes to see, he had plunged into the storm of life and, by his
aggressive and overmastering energy, had conquered a place for
himself in the world. He was an experienced politician, a famous
campaign orator, and a Justice of the Supreme Court at a period
when most boys are awkwardly finding their way into the activities
of the world. The younger Pitt was Chancellor of the Exchequer
at twenty-three; but he was the son of Chatham, nurtured in
statesmanship from the cradle. the younger Adams was Minister to
the Hague at twenty-five; but he was already a ripe scholar and heir
to his father's great fame. Douglas was a penniless adventurer, a
novus homo, with none of those accidents of fortune which sometimes
give early success to gifted men.