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with an indictment for murder hanging over his head, he CHAPTER nevertheless presided with all his accustomed self-possession, dignity, and grace.

During the judge's interval for preparation, a debate came on in the House which seemed to threaten very seriously the harmony of the administration party, shaken already by the impeachment of Chase. To a proposition for a settlement of the Mississippi claims, Randolph, as at the former session, moved as an amendment a series of resolutions excluding from any compensation whatever the claimants under the Georgia Yazoo grants of 1795.

Quite a number of the Democrats, of whom the leaders were Matthew Lyon, of Kentucky, Elliot, of Vermont, Findley, of Pennsylvania, and Bidwell, of Massachusetts, had, even at the last session, become totally disgusted at the caprices, eccentricities, and insolent, overbearing demeanor of Randolph, whom it had been customary to toast as "the man who speaks what he thinks," but whose excessive freedom in expressing his contempt for his Northern party associates was by no means so agreeable as had been his virulent abuse of the Federalists. The idea of throwing off the Virginia ascendency, though it had produced no effect upon the presidential election, was not abandoned. All were willing to put up with the fair-spoken Jefferson; but the petulant and waspish, the insolent and acrid Randolph, who had involved himself, during the late session, in several violent personal quarrels, was not to be endured.

Yet declamation against the frauds of land speculators was well suited to a certain class of minds. Almost all the Southern members-the Yazoo claims being chiefly held at the North-went with Randolph, as did some of the Northern ones, especially Leib and Clay, of Philadelphia, and Philip Sloan, of New Jersey, a wealthy butch

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CHAPTER er employed in the supply of the Philadelphia market, whose oddity of appearance, incorrectness of language, 1805. ultra Jeffersonian democracy, and tediously pertinacious harangues exposed him to much ridicule, though he was by no means destitute of sense, and unquestionably was honest and sincere. Randolph, more outrageous than ever, did not hesitate to insinuate that all who opposed him were interested in the claims, or bribed by those who were. They retorted with the courteous epithets of calumniator, madman, despotic demagogue, popular tyrant. He poured out a torrent of abuse on Granger, agent of the claimants, whom he accused of bribing members. Nor did Madison, Gallatin, and Lincoln, who, as commissioners, had recommended a compromise of the claims, entirely escape. Granger thought it necessary Feb. 1. to send a letter to the House, asking an investigation into his conduct a request which was got rid of by a postponement. With the help of the Federalists, the opponents of Randolph voted down his resolutions by a majority of five; but Randolph, on his side, succeeded in defeating the passage of a bill. He complained bitterly —and it was a curious instance of political mutation— that Lyon and Griswold, who had once come into such fierce collision, should now be united against the leader of the Republicans in the House.

This violent struggle was not yet entirely over when Chase appeared at the bar of the Senate with his counsel, of whom the most eminent were Luther Martin, like Chase himself, originally opposed to the Constitution, but who had become long since a warm Federalist, Charles Lee, late Attorney General of the United States, and Robert Goodloe Harper, the former distinguished Federal leader in the House.

For these, the ablest advocates in the Union, to take

Martin's

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no account of Chase, who was a host in himself, the man- CHAPTER agers on the part of the House were no match. massive logic, and Lee's and Harper's argumentative el- 1805. oquence, directed always to the point, stood in striking contrast to the tingling but desultory surface strokes of Randolph, upon whom the main burden of the prosecution fell. A great number of witnesses were examined on both sides. Chase's counsel admitted that he might have fallen into some casual heats and indiscretions, but they totally denied the proof of any thing that would at all justify an impeachment; and in spite of the strong administration majority in the Senate, he was acquitted on five out of the eight charges against him by March. decided majorities-on one of them unanimously. Of three other articles, two relating to Callender's trial and the third to his charge to the Maryland grand jury, a majority of the senators present held him guilty; but as this majority did not amount to two thirds, his acquittal was pronounced on all the charges.

This acquittal of Chase was deemed by the Federalists a great triumph, tending to show that there were limits even to the power of party discipline. The managers and chief instigators of the prosecution were excessively mortified. After a speech full of intemperate and indecent reflections on the Senate, in which he spoke of Chase as "an acquitted felon," Randolph proposed to amend the Constitution so as to make judges removable by joint resolution of the two houses. Nicholson, on his part, proposed to give to the state Legislatures the power to vacate at pleasure the seats of their senators. these splenetic ebullitions came to nothing. Even the majority of the House were guilty, under Randolph's leadership, of the contemptible meanness of refusing to pay Chase's witnesses. The Senate, to their honor, in

But

CHAPTER Sisted unanimously that, as Chase had been acquitted, XVII. all the witnesses should be paid alike. The House re1805. fused to yield, and this disagreement caused the loss of

the bill. It was then attempted, on the last day of the session, to pay the witnesses for the prosecution out of the contingent fund of the House; but this failed for want of a quorum, and the whole business went over to the next Congress. In that Congress provision was made, though not without very serious opposition from Randolph and his followers, for the payment of all the witnesses alike.

Both in the matter of the Mississippi claims and in his other controversies with the more moderate Democrats, Randolph had been warmly supported by the Aurora. But the violent assaults of Duane upon several of his late political associates did not go unpunished. was deprived of the public printing and of the stationery contract, which, by the help of the Federal votes, were offered to the lowest bidder.

He

Though the proceedings against Chase were no doubt dictated by violent party spirit, without sufficient foundation in fact or law, yet they were not entirely without good results. They served to check that overbearing and insolent demeanor on the bench, handed down from colonial times, which many judges seem to have thought it essential to the dignity of their office to exhibit.

Early in the session, a very vehement petition, drawn by Edward Livingston, had been presented to Congress from the inhabitants of the Territory of Orleans, complaining of the arbitrary government established over them, and claiming, under the treaty of cession, the privilege enjoyed by the other citizens of the United States, of choosing their own legislators; in fact, immediate organization as an independent state. This was not

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granted; but an act was passed giving to the Territory CHAPTER of Orleans the same government in every respect with that of Mississippi-the government, that is, of a terri- 1805. tory of the first class, having a Legislature chosen by the inhabitants, with the privilege, when they should reach the number of 60,000, of erecting themselves into a state, forming a constitution, and claiming admission into the Union.

The District of Louisiana, hitherto annexed to Indiana, was now erected into a separate territory of the second class, the power of legislation being vested in the governor and judges. A section of this act, by continuing in force, until altered or repealed by the Legislature, all existing laws and regulations, gave a tacit confirmation to the system of slavery already established in the settlements on the Arkansas and Missouri.

The Territory of Indiana underwent a further curtailment in the erection of Michigan into a new and separate territory of the second class. Of this new territory the Indian title had been extinguished only to a small tract, formerly ceded to the French, about the ancient town of Detroit, with another like tract on the main land opposite Mackinaw; and the total white population did not exceed four thousand. But their wide separation, by impassable swamps, from the other settled districts of Indiana, made a separate government expedient.

The government of the Orleans Territory had all along been reserved for Monroe; but as he was now otherwise provided for, Claiborne was continued as governor, his other government of Mississippi being given to Robert Williams. The government of Michigan was given to William Hull, of Massachusetts, who had served with honor in the Revolutionary army, having specially distinguished himself in the storming of Stony Point. Gen

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