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This was agreed to, and the breeze meanwhile having died away, a boat was lowered, which assisted the 1804. Intrepid's boat in running lines to the frigate. So far all had passed without exciting the slightest suspicion; but just as the Intrepid touched the side of the Philadelphia, an alarm was raised by the Turks. The Americans, however, boarded in an instant, and the frigate's guard, after a moment's resistance, were driven over her opposite side, a few being killed, but most of them jumping into the water. With equal promptitude, combustibles, ready prepared, and their distribution arranged beforehand, were hurried on board, and in less than half an hour the vessel was in a light blaze. Dried as she was by exposure to the sun, she burned with such rapidity that it was not without difficulty and danger that the Intrepid and her crew got themselves clear. As the men put out their sweeps, it being a perfect calm, they raised a shout, which was answered by the guns of the batteries on shore and by the armed vessels at anchor inside. The burning frigate lighted up the whole harbor like day; and as the heat increased, her guns, which were loaded and shotted, began to explode. But the Intrepid swept on unharmed, and soon reached the mouth of the harbor, where she found the boats of the Syren ready to aid in towing her off. A breeze soon sprung up, and both vessels sailed for Syracuse, where they were received by the American squadron with great exultation, shared also by the people of the town, the two Sicilies being then at war with Tripoli.

Almost the only important measure in which both sides of the House seemed heartily to concur was the repeal of the Bankruptcy Act. That act had been produced by the acknowledged necessity of some relief to a large number of embarrassed persons, including many

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men of energy and capacity, irretrievably involved by CHAPTER over-venturous commercial hazards, by a course of desperate speculations in wild lands, by the depredations of 1804. the belligerents, or by the great commercial fluctuations which had attended the closing years of the late European war. But when the immense amount of debts thus contracted came to be exhibited, the nominal sum greatly swelled by the amounts due from one speculator to another, but not representing any real value; and when this vast sum of debts was contrasted with the very small amount of assets to meet it, a loud cry was raised against the law, as if that, somehow, had led to this discrepancy, or, at least, as if it held out an encouragement to rash speculation and fraudulent bankruptcy. Hence it was repealed by almost unanimous consent before there had been any chance to test its ordinary and regular operation. It is curious to remark that another Bankruptcy Act, which originated, many years after, under like circumstances, suffered precisely the same fate. But both had at least the advantage of sweeping off a great mass of hopeless debts, and of assimilating nominal to real values, much resembling, in that respect, some laws for the abolition of debts recorded in ancient history, which have proved great stumbling-blocks to many modern inquirers. It was one effect of the present repeal to throw back the subject of insolvency upon the state Leg-islatures. But state legislation upon this difficult subject was found hardly more satisfactory than that of Congress. It is, indeed, very hard to make up by legis lation for the lack of individual honesty or judgment, or to furnish out of the empty coffers of bankrupts any liquidation of debts satisfactory to creditors.

Just at the close of the preceding Congress, the judge of the District Court of New Hampshire had been im

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CHAPTER peached before the Senate by order of the House. At the present session articles of impeachment were sent up, 1804. charging him with a willful sacrifice of the rights of the United States in a certain revenue case tried before him, and also, generally, with drunkenness and profanity on the bench. The judge did not appear; but his son presented a petition, setting forth that his father was insane, and praying to be heard by counsel. This was granted, not without opposition, and several depositions were put in going to establish the fact of insanity. The reply was, that if insanity did exist, it had been occasioned by habitual drunkenness. The impeachment was sustained by a pure party vote, all the Federal senators in the negative, and the judge was removed from his seat.

What excited a much greater interest was the impeachment against Judge Chase, of the Supreme Court, resolved upon by the Democratic majority of the House, after a good deal of discussion and the taking of evidence. Notwithstanding the defeat of the Federal party, of which, of late years, he had been a very zealous member, Chase was by no means disposed to forego the privilege of appending to his charges to the grand juries of his circuit such political disquisitions as the posture of affairs might seem to call for a privilege claimed after the fashion of the English judges, and which, in the case of Drayton's famous charge to the grand juries of South Carolina, just on the eve of the American Revolution, had elicited no little applause from the American patriots. In a recent charge to a Maryland grand jury, Chase had dwelt with indignant eloquence on the repeal by Congress of the late Judiciary Act, a proceeding, in his opinion, not consistent with the constitutional independence of that department. Thence he had passed to the late change in the Constitution of Maryland, dispensing with the property

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qualification of voters, which he thought likely to effect CHAPTER the security of property. He deprecated, also, certain other proposed amendments in relation to the state ju- 1804. diciary as tending to shake its independence. While very decided in the expression of his opinions, Chase, like M Kean and John Adams, whom in many respects he much resembled, was also exceedingly able, and, of course, an object of terror as well as of hatred to his opponents. In hopes to get rid of him, a committee was appointed, on Randolph's motion, to investigate his offi cial conduct. An impeachment had been resolved upon; but to find plausible matter on which to rest it, five years had to be retraced, his conduct in the cases of Callender and Fries being selected by the committee as the most vulnerable points in his judicial administration.

The Federalists opposed the whole proceeding as a mere piece of party spite and vengeance. They alleged that, not content with the regular course of things, which had already given to the party in power one judge on the Supreme bench-William Johnson, of South Carolina, having been appointed in place of Moore, who had resigned -the design was prematurely to remove at least a majority of the present Federal incumbents. There were also some among the Republicans who thought that, however Chase's conduct might have been somewhat precipitate and overbearing, there existed no grounds for any formal proceedings against him. The majority, however, led by Randolph, decided otherwise; an impeachment was voted; and preparations were made for its prosecution at the next session.

This idea of impeachment for frivolous or insufficient causes, with a reliance upon party prejudice to make up any deficiency in the evidence, thus clearing the bench of obnoxious judges, was by no means original with Ran

CHAPTER dolph. Like the proscription of office-holders for politXVII. ical opinions, to which it was the natural supplement, it 1804. had been derived from Pennsylvania, an example having

lately been set there in the impeachment and removal from office of Addison, president judge of the Common Pleas for the Western District of Pennsylvania. There were five such districts in that state, for each of which there was a president judge, learned in the law, holding office under the state Constitution during good behavior. He held stated courts in all the counties of his district, assisted in each county by a number of local associates, generally not lawyers. Of course, the leadership and management of business devolved mainly on the president. judge. In one of the counties of Addison's district a certain Lucas had been appointed by M'Kean as county. judge, an ignorant and self-sufficient man, who seemed to think that the vindication of Democratic principles rested on his shoulders. In charging a grand jury shortly after Lucas's appointment, Addison had seen fit to append to his charge certain observations about the alleged conspiracy of the Illuminati. Lucas felt called upon to reply; but his right to do so being questioned by Addison, he had at that time desisted. Having consulted with Brackenridge, who resided in the county, and who had an old feud with Addison, as, indeed, he seems to have had with most of the noted men on both sides of politics in that quarter, Lucas, at the next court, though Addison had then confined himself to mere matters of law, rose with a long written protest in his hand against the politics of the former charge, which, however, he was prevented from reading by Addison, with whom the other judges concurred. After attempting in vain to bring the matter before the Supreme Court, as if he had been illegally deprived of his right to address the jury, Lucas had

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