The Life of John Marshall Volume III Part 25

[476] See _supra_, chap. I. For the articles of impeachment see _Annals_, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 85-88; _Chase Trial_, 10-11.

The Republicans, for a time, contemplated the impeachment of Richard Peters, Judge of the United States Court for the District of Pennsylvania, who sat with Chase during the trial of Fries. (_Annals_, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 823-24, 850, 873-74.) But his name was dropped because he had not "so acted in his judiciary capacity as to require the interposition of the Const.i.tutional powers of this House." (_Ib._ 1171.)

Peters was terrified and turned upon his fellow judge. He showered Pickering and other friends with letters, complaining of the conduct of his judicial a.s.sociate. "If I am to be immolated let it be with some other Victim--or for my own Sins." (Peters to Pickering, Jan. 26, 1804, Pickering MSS. Ma.s.s. Hist. Soc.)

[477] J. Q. Adams to his father, March 14, 1805, _Writings, J. Q. A._: Ford, III, 116.

[478] Dec. 20, 1804, _Memoirs, J. Q. A._: Adams, I, 321.

[479] Plumer to Cogswell, Jan. 4, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.; and see Plumer to Sheafe, Jan. 9, 1805, Plumer MSS. _loc. cit._

[480] Bayard to Harper, Jan. 30, 1804, _Bayard Papers_: Donnan, 160.

[481] Pickering to Lyman, March 14, 1804, Lodge: _Cabot_, 450; also _N.E. Federalism_: Adams, 359.

[482] Ames to Dwight, Jan. 20, 1805, Ames, I, 338.

[483] The Yazoo fraud. No other financial scandal in our history equaled this, if one considers the comparative wealth and population of the country at the times other various great frauds were perpetrated. For an account of it, see _infra_, chap. X.

[484] For Randolph's frantic speech on the Yazoo fraud and Marshall's opinion in Fletcher _vs_. Peck, see _infra_, chap. X.

[485] This form was adopted in the trial of Judge Pickering. See _Annals_, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 319.

[486] See Plumer, 323.

[487] Channing: _U.S._ IV, 287.

[488] Marshall to James M. Marshall, April 1, 1804, MS.

[489] William Marshall. See _infra_, 191-92.

[490] John Wickham, leader of the Richmond bar and one of Marshall's intimate friends.

[491] See _supra_, chap. I; and _infra_.

[492] See 1 Kings, XII, 10.

[493] Marshall to Chase, Jan. 23, 1804, Etting MSS. Pa. Hist. Soc.

[494] See _infra_, 192-96.

[495] See _supra_, chap. III, 113.

[496] "M^r Burr had the sole power of making the arrangements ... for the trial." (Plumer to Sheafe, Jan. 9, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

[497] _Annals_, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 100; _Chase Trial_, 2-5.

[498] Plumer to Norris, Nov. 7, 1804, Plumer, 329.

[499] See _infra_, chap. VI.

[500] See J. Q. Adams to his father, Jan. 5, 1805, _Writings, J. Q. A._: Ford, III, 104.

[501] Plumer, 274. "John S. Sherburne, Jonathan Steele, Michael McCleary and Richard Cutts Shannon were the princ.i.p.al witnesses against Pickering. Sherburne was appointed Judge [in Pickering's place]; Steele, District Attorney; McCleary, Marshal; and Shannon, Clerk of the Court.... Steele, expecting to have been Judge refused to accept his appointment, a.s.signing as the reason his agency in the removal of Pickering."

[502] Plumer, 329-30; and see Adams: _U.S._ II, 220.

[503] Nov. 26, 1804, _Memoirs, J. Q. A._: Adams, I, 317-18; and Adams, _U.S._ II, 220-22.

"Burr is flattered and feared by the administration." (Plumer to Thompson, Dec. 23, 1804, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.; and Plumer to Wilson, Dec. 7, 1804, Plumer MSS. _loc. cit._)

[504] Davis, II, 360; also Adams: _U.S._ 218-44.

"It must be acknowledged that Burr has displayed much ability, and since the first day I have seen nothing of partiality." (Cutler to Torrey, March 1, 1805, Cutler: _Life, Journals and Correspondence of Mana.s.seh Cutler_, II, 193.)

At the beginning of the trial, however, Burr's rigor irritated the Senate: "Mr. Burr is remarkably testy--he acts more of the tyrant--is impatient, pa.s.sionate--scolds--he is in a rage because we do not sit longer." (Plumer, Feb. 8, 1805, "Diary," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.)

"Just as the time for adjourning to morrow was to be put ... Mr. Burr said he wished to inform the Senate of some irregularities that he had observed in the Court.

"Some of the Senators as he said during the trial & while a witness was under examination walked between him & the Managers--others eat apples--& some eat cake in their seats.

"Mr. Pickering said he eat an apple--but it was at a time when the President had retired from the chair. Burr replied he did not mean him--he did not see him.

"Mr. Wright said he eat cake--he had a just right to do so--he was faint--but he disturbed n.o.body--He never would submit to be schooled & catechised in this manner.

"At this instance a motion was made by Bradley, who also had eaten cake, for an adjournment. Burr told Wright he was not in order--sit down. The Senate adjourned--& I left Burr and Wright scolding.

"Really, _Master Burr_, you need a ferule, or birch to enforce your lectures on polite behavior!" (_Ib._ Feb. 12, 1805; also _ib._ Jan. 2, 1805.) Burr was sharply criticized by the _Washington Federalist_, January 8, for his rude conduct at the beginning of the trial.

[505] Plumer to Sheafe, Jan. 1805, Plumer, 330-31.

[506] _Annals_, 8th Cong. 2d Sess. 92; _Chase Trial_, 4.

[507] Dwight: _Signers of the Declaration of Independence_, 245-52.

[508] Hudson: _Journalism in the United States, 1690-1872_, 214; and see Story to Bramble, June 10, 1807, Story, I, 154.

[509] "In person, in manners, in unwieldy strength, in severity of reproof, in real tenderness of heart; and above all in intellect," he was "the living, I had almost said the exact, image of Samuel Johnson."

(Story to Fay, Feb. 25, 1808, Story, I, 168.)

Chase's career had been stirring and important. Carefully educated by his father, an Episcopal clergyman, and thoroughly grounded in the law, he became eminent at the Maryland bar at a very early age. From the first his aggressive character a.s.serted itself. He was rudely independent and, as a member of the Maryland House of Burgesses, treated the royal governor and his Tory partisans with contemptuous defiance.

When the British attempted to enforce the Stamp Act, he joined a band of high-spirited young patriots who called themselves "The Sons of Liberty," and led them in their raids upon public offices, which they broke open, seizing and destroying the stamps and burning in effigy the stamp distributor.

His violent and fearless opposition to British rule and officials made young Chase so popular that he was elected as one of the five Maryland delegates to the first Continental Congress that a.s.sembled during the winter of 1774. He was reelected the following year, and was foremost in urging the measures of armed defense that ended in the appointment of Washington as Commander-in-Chief of the American forces. Disregarding the instructions of his State, Chase hotly championed the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and was one of the signers of that doc.u.ment.

On the floor of Congress he denounced a member as a traitor--one Zubly, a Georgia parson--who in terror fled the country. Chase continued in the Continental Congress until 1778 and was appointed a member of almost every important committee of that body. He became the leader of his profession in Maryland, was appointed Chief Justice of the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and elected a member of the Maryland Convention, called to ratify the National Const.i.tution. Thereafter, he was made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. In 1796, President Washington appointed Chase as a.s.sociate Justice of the National Supreme Court of which he was conceded to be one of the ablest members. (Dwight, 245-52.)

[510] See Plumer to his brother, Feb. 25, 1805, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.