This was a point on which there had been some difference of opinion between Hamilton and Madison.

The former held that it was within the competency of Congress, when instituting tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court, to adopt the state courts for that purpose.
Madison held that nothing less than a system of federal courts quite distinct from the state courts would satisfy the requirements of the Constitution.

When the bill was taken up in the House, there was a long debate over this matter.

The costly duplication of judicial establishments that has ever since existed in the United States is certainly not necessary to a federal system, but is an American peculiarity.

The advocates of a unified system were hampered by the fact that this view was pressed by some in a spirit of hostility to the Constitution.