[460] Feb. 18, 1803, Plumer, 253.
[461] Annals, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 365.
[462] See Memoirs, J. Q. A.; Adams, i, 302-04, for a vivid account of the whole incident.
[463] Plumer, March 10, 1804, "Congress," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.
[464] Annals, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 367. "The independence of our judiciary is no more ... I hope the time is not far distant when the people east of the North river will manage their own affairs in their own way; ... and that the sound part will separate from the corrupt." (Plumer to Morse, March 10, 1804, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.) On the unconstitutional and revolutionary conduct of the Republicans in the Pickering impeachment trial see Adams: U.S. ii, 158.
[465] Senators John Armstrong of New York, Stephen R. Bradley of Vermont, and David Stone of North Carolina. Jonathan Dayton of New Jersey and Samuel White of Delaware, Federalists, also withdrew. (Annals, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 366.) And see Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, i, 308-09; J. Q. Adams to his father, March 8, 1805, Writings, J. Q. A.: Ford, iii, 110; Plumer to Park, March 13, 1804, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.
Senator John Brown of Kentucky, a Republican, "could not be induced to join the majority, but, unwilling to offend them, he obtained & has taken a leave of absence." (Plumer to Morse, March 10, 1804, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.) Senator Brown had been elected President pro tem. of the Senate, January 23, 1804.
Burr "abruptly left the Senate" to attend to his candidacy for the governorship of New York. (Plumer, March 10, 1804, "Congress," Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong.) Senator Franklin of North Carolina was then chosen President pro tem. and presided during the trial of Pickering. But Burr returned in time to arrange for, and preside over, the trial of Justice Chase.
[466] The Republicans even refused to allow the report of the proceedings to be "printed in the Appendix to the Journals of the Session." (Memoirs, J. Q. A.: Adams, I, 311.)
The conviction and removal of Pickering alarmed the older Federalists almost as much as did the repeal of the Judiciary Act. "The demon of party governed the decision. All who condemned were Jeffersonians, and all who pronounced the accused not guilty were Federalists." (Pickering to Lyman, March 4, 1804, N.E. Federalism: Adams, 358-59; Lodge: Cabot, 450.)