This in some degree
obviated the necessity of a supreme court for the correction of errors;
but was very unsatisfactory to the Bar, who were almost universal in
their desire for the establishment of a tribunal for this purpose. But
there was another feature peculiar to the judicial system of the State,
to which her people were greatly attached: that of special juries. They
feared the creation of a supreme court would abolish this, and for many
years resisted it. This system of special juries, in the organization
of her judiciary, was intended to obviate the necessity of a court of
chancery. The conception was a new one, and in Georgia, with her
peculiar population, its effects were admirable. It was an honest,
common-sense adjudication of equity cases, and rendered cheap and
speedy justice to litigants. It was unknown in the judiciary system of
any other State, and I will be excused by the reader, who may not be a
Georgian, for a brief description of it here.
By direction of the law of 1798, the justices of the Inferior Court
took the tax list, which contained the name of every white man of
twenty-one years and upwards in the county, and, from this list,
selected a certain number of names, and placed them in a box marked
"The grand-jury box.
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