four years, and Judge Wagner that of two years, and the Chief-Justiceship. Judge Wagner was re-elected in 1870 for six years. Judge Currier resigned in December, 1871; and Washington Adams, by appointment and subsequently by election, was commissioned for the unexpired portion of the term.
5. In 1872 the membership of the court was increased to five judges, and the term to ten years. One judge was provided to be elected at each regular biennial election, and the oldest in commission was designated as the Chief-Justice. At the election of 1872 Henry M. Vories was elected to succeed Judge Bliss, whose term had expired; Ephraim B. Ewing and Thomas A. Sherwood were elected to the newly created judgeships, and for eight and ten years respectively; Judges Vories, Ewing, and Sherwood, in connection with Judges Wagner and Adams, composed the re-organized court. Judge Ewing died shortly afterward (June 21, 1873), and William B. Napton was appointed and subsequently elected for the remainder of his term. Judge Adams resigned in September, 1874, and Edward A. Lewis was appointed to fill the four months of the term. In 1874, Warwick Hough was elected for the full term of ten years. On Oct. 4, 1876, Judge Vories resigned, and was succeeded by Elijah H. Norton. At the general election of 1876, John W. Henry was elected for ten years, to succeed Judge Wagner, whose term had expired, and who had been Chief-Justice continuously since 1865. Judge Sherwood now became Chief-Justice (the death of Judge Ewing and the resignation of Judge Vories making him the oldest in commission), and served as such until January, 1883. Since that date the general elections biennially held have resulted in the choice of the following, each for a full term of ten years: In 1878, Judge Norton re-elected; in 1880, Robert D. Ray, to succeed Judge Napton; in 1882, Judge Sherwood re-elected; in 1884, Francis M. Black, to succeed Judge Hough; in 1886, Theodore Brace, to succeed Judge Henry; in 1888, Shepard Barclay, to succeed Judge Norton; and in 1890, James B. Gantt, to succeed Judge Ray. Since 1883, Judges Hough, Henry, Norton, and Ray have been successively Chief-Justices of the court.
It was evident to the framers of the Constitution of 1875 that the Supreme Court would be unable either to clear off the accumulated cases, or to dispose of those which would come to it in the usual course of events. Accordingly provision was made for the St. Louis Court of Appeals, an intermediate appellate court of three judges, whose territorial jurisdiction was confined to the city of St. Louis and four neighboring counties. In all matters involving over twenty-five hundred dollars, the construction of constitutional provisions, or of federal treaties and statutes, or of the revenue laws of the State, and titles to an office or to real estate, and cases to which a State officer or any county was a party, and of felony, an appeal was permitted to the Supreme Court. As to all other matters, the decision of the Court of Appeals was final. The validity of this arrangement, tested by the Fourteenth Amendment, was upheld in Missouri v. Lewis, 101 U. S. 22. It was demonstrated that the system had many good features, especially in that it largely reduced the number of cases coming to the Supreme Court. It also had its disadvantages: it involved the " toll-gate idea " of passing through one appellate court to reach the one of ultimate jurisdiction, and it was lame in failing to provide a remedy for the conflicts of opinion which were unavoidable. While the lower court was not obdurate in yielding to a reversal of one of its decisions, there was no remedy in those cases which it had finally decided to the same effect pending the appeal from its former one. The desire to extend the benefits of the system throughout the State, and to remedy the defects noted, moved the Constitutional Amendment of 1883. This extended the scope of the St. Louis court to fifty-one additional counties, and established a similar court, to be called the Kansas City Court of Appeals, to be located at that city, and to exercise jurisdiction over
