[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 Constitutional 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 associate. "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. Mass. 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.