The Supreme Court first met in February, 1790. Since its organization it
has had eight chief justices, in the following order.

John Jay, 1789-1795.
Oliver Ellsworth, 1795-1801.
John Marshall, 1801-1835.
R.B. Taney, 1836-1864.
S.P. Chase, 1864-1873.
M.R. Waite, 1873-1888.
M. Fuller, 1888.

In 1795 John Rutledge was appointed to succeed Jay, received his
commission, and held one term of the court, but was not confirmed by the
Senate.

During the early years of the existence of the Supreme Court few cases
arose requiring its jurisdiction. During the first term there was no
business to be transacted. In 1801 there were only ten cases on the
docket, and for some years the average annual number of cases was
twenty-four; but in later years the number rapidly increased. From 1850
the average number of cases decided was seventy-one, while from 1875 to
1880 the average was three hundred and ninety-one per annum, and now
there are more than a thousand cases awaiting a hearing, and the court
is so far behindhand in its work that it takes from three to four years
for a case to come up for trial after having been entered upon the
docket. At present there are about four hundred cases granted a hearing
yearly.

Almost immediately after the adoption of the Constitution began