History of the United States of America, Volume 2 (of 9) : $b During the first administration of Thomas JeffersonAdams, Henry
History
History of the United States of America, Volume 2 (of 9) : $b During the first administration of Thomas Jefferson
Adams, Henry
United States -- History -- 1801-1809; United States -- History -- 1809-1817
Before this audience Justice Chase at last appeared with his array of
counsel at his side,--Luther Martin, Robert Goodloe Harper, Charles
Lee, Philip Barton Key, and Joseph Hopkinson. In such a contest
weakness of numbers was one element of strength; for the mere numbers
of Congressmen served only to rouse sympathy for the accused. The
contest was unequal in another sense, for the intellectual power of the
House was quite unable on the field of law to cope with the half-dozen
picked and trained champions who stood at the bar. Justice Chase alone
was a better lawyer than any in Congress; Luther Martin could easily
deal with the whole box of managers; Harper and Lee were not only
lawyers, but politicians; and young Hopkinson’s genius was beyond his
years.
In the managers’ box stood no lawyer of corresponding weight. John
Randolph, who looked upon the impeachment as his personal act, was not
only ignorant of law, but could not work by legal methods. Joseph H.
Nicholson and Cæsar A. Rodney were more formidable; but neither of them
would have outweighed any single member of Chase’s counsel. The four
remaining managers, all Southern men, added little to the strength of
their associates. John Boyle of Kentucky lived to become chief-justice
of that State, and was made district judge of the United States by a
President who was one of the Federalist senators warmly opposed to
the impeachment. George Washington Campbell of Tennessee lived to be
a senator, Secretary of the Treasury, and minister to Russia. Peter
Early of Georgia became a judge on the Supreme Bench of his own State.
Christopher Clark of Virginia was chosen only at the last moment to
take the place of Roger Nelson of Maryland, who retired. None of them
rose much above the average level of Congress; and Chase’s counsel
grappled with them so closely, and shut them within a field so narrow,
that no genius could have found room to move. From the moment that
the legal and criminal character of impeachment was conceded, Chase’s
counsel dragged them hither and thither at will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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