Mr. Harper. Please, sir, to state to this Court your recollection respecting a charge delivered by Judge Chase in the circuit court of Maryland in May, 1803.
Mr. Winchester. As already stated, that Court sat in May, 1803, in a room in Evans’s tavern. The Court and gentlemen of the bar sat round several dining tables. I sat on the left of Judge Chase, and the jury were on his right. He addressed a charge to them, the beginning of which was in the usual style of such addresses. He then commenced what has been called the political part of the charge, with some general observations on the nature of government. He afterwards adverted to two measures of the Legislature of Maryland; the first related to an alteration of the constitution on the subject of suffrage; the other contemplated an alteration in the judiciary. He commented on the injurious tendency of the principle of universal suffrage, and deprecated the evil effects it was likely to have. Incidental to these remarks, he adverted to the repeal of the judiciary law of the United States. I say incidental, for my impression was that his object was to show the dangerous consequences that would result to the people of Maryland from a repeal of their judiciary system, and to show that as the act of Congress had inflicted a violent blow on the independence of the federal judiciary, it was more necessary for the State of Maryland to preserve their judiciary perfectly independent. I was very attentive to the charge for several reasons. I regretted it as imprudent. I felt convinced that it would be complained of; and I am very confident from my recollection, and from the publications respecting it, which I afterwards perused, that all the political observations of the judge related to the State of Maryland.
Tuesday, February 20.
Walter Dorsey, sworn.
Mr. Harper. Please to inform the Court whether you were at a circuit court held at Baltimore in 1803.
Mr. Dorsey. I was.
Mr. Harper. Were you present when Judge Chase delivered a charge to the grand jury?
Mr. Dorsey. I was.
Mr. Harper. Were you in such a situation as to hear that charge?
Mr. Dorsey. I was.