“After a definition of the offences cognizable by the grand jury, Judge Chase said he hoped he should be pardoned for making a few additional observations. He had, he remarked, been uniformly attached to a free republican government, and had actively participated in our revolutionary struggle to obtain it. He still remained warmly attached to the principles of government then established. Since that period, however, certain opinions had sprung up which threatened with ruin the fair fabric then raised. It had been contended that all men had equal rights derived from nature, of which society could not rightfully deprive them. This he denied. He could conceive of no rights in a state of nature, which was in fact entirely a creature of the imagination, as there was no condition of man in which he was not, under some modification, subject to a particular leader or particular species of government. True liberty did not, in his opinion, consist in the possession of equal rights, but in the protection by the law of the person and property of every member of society, however various the grade in society he filled. Nor did it consist in the form of government in any country. A monarchy might be free, and a republic in slavery. Wherever the laws protected the person and property of every man, there liberty existed, whatever the government was. Such, said he, is our present situation. But much I fear that soon, very soon our situation will be changed. The great bulwark of an independent judiciary has been broken down by the Legislature of the United States, and a wound inflicted upon the liberties of the people which nothing but their good sense can cure. Judge Chase here went into an assertion of the right of the judiciary to decide on the constitutionality of laws. He then adverted to the proceedings of the Legislature of Maryland. He commented on the wisdom and patriotism of those who had framed the constitution of that State. That wisdom and patriotism had never conceived liberty to consist in every man possessing equal political rights. To secure property, the right of suffrage had been limited. The convention had not imagined, according to the new doctrine, that property would be best protected by those who had themselves no property. The great rampart established in the limitation of suffrage was now demolished by the principle of universal suffrage ingrafted in the constitution. In addition to this, a proposition was now submitted, whose ratification depended upon the next Legislature and which, if ratified, would destroy the independence and respectability of the judiciary, and make the administration of justice dependent upon legislative discretion. If this shall, in addition to that which establishes universal suffrage, become part of the constitution, nothing will remain that will be worth protecting. Instead of being ruled by a regular and respectable government, we shall be governed by an ignorant mobocracy. When he reflected on the ruinous effects of these measures, he could not but blush at the degeneracy of sons, who destroyed the fair fabric raised by the patriotism of their fathers.”]
President. Did you hear any reflections cast on the Administration?
Mr. Smith. I do not recollect any other beside those contained in the statement I have read.
John Stephen, sworn.
I was at Baltimore when the charge was delivered by Judge Chase. My recollection of its contents is extremely vague. But, with regard to some of it, it coincides with that of Mr. Montgomery, Mr. Mason, and Mr. Smith. He spoke of the repeal of the judiciary law, and said that it was injurious to the independence of the judges. He also mentioned the general suffrage law as injurious; and said no man ought to be permitted to vote unless he had a property in, a common interest with, and an attachment to, the community; that the act violated this principle, and would be attended with very injurious consequences; he denied the doctrine of natural rights; and said that they were altogether derived from convention; and at the end of the charge he exhorted the jury to use their efforts to prevent the injury likely to result from the temper of the times. I cannot say whether Judge Chase confined himself to a written paper or not. He declared that the independence of the judiciary of the United States had been injured by the repeal of the judiciary system; and that the bill then pending before the Legislature of Maryland, if adopted, would have the same effect upon the judiciary of that State.
Mr. Nicholson stated, that all the witnesses present on the part of the prosecution had been examined; the managers would therefore proceed to offer certain records; but, as several material witnesses were absent, he hoped they would not be precluded from calling them, should they attend, at a future stage of the trial.
Mr. Randolph offered in evidence a copy of the record in the case of J. T. Callender; also in the case of Fries.
Mr. Randolph then stated that the Managers had submitted all the evidence they were prepared to adduce. Whereupon the Court rose.
Friday, February 15.
The Court was opened at 10 A. M.