their circuits. At first the justices rode in pairs and were
assigned to particular circuits. As a result of this practice,
the Southern justices were forced each year to make two trips of
nearly two thousand miles each and, in order to hold court for
two weeks, often passed two months on the road. In 1792, however,
Congress changed the law to permit the different circuits to be
taken in turn and by single justices, and in the meantime the
Court had, in 1791, followed the rest of the Government to
Philadelphia, 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.