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- This article is about the signer of the Declaration of Independence. For the U.S. Congressman, see Samuel Chase (congressman). For the Chief Justice, see Salmon P. Chase.
Samuel Chase (April 17, 1741 – June 19, 1811), was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland. He was well-known as a Federalist-partisan.
His youth and early career
Samuel was the son of the Rev. Thomas Chase, an Episcopal priest who had immigrated to Somerset County, Maryland. In 1743 the family moved to Baltimore where his father took up a new pulpit. Samuel was educated at home until he was eighteen when he left for Annapolis to read law. He was admitted to the bar in 1761 and started a law practice in Annapolis.
His service as a justice
In 1774 he represented Maryland at the Continental Congress, and was re-elected in 1775, serving until 1778. In 1786 Chase moved to Baltimore, which remained his home for the rest of his life. That same year he was appointed chief justice of the District Criminal Court in Baltimore, and then became Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court. In 1796 he was appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving there until his death. He was thought by many to suffer from recurring mental illness.
The impeachment proceedings
Chase was served with 6 articles of impeachment by the House of Representatives in late 1804, explicitly over Chase's handling of the trial of John Fries. Two more articles would later be added. The Jeffersonian Republican-controlled United States Senate began an impeachment trial against Justice Chase in early 1805. He was charged with political bias, but was acquitted by the Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805. To this day, he remains the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached. His acquittal is believed to have ensured that an independent Federal judiciary would survive partisan challenge in the U.S.
Samuel Chase in popular culture
- Patrick Hines played Samuel Chase in the Broadway musical (as well as the 1972 movie adaptation) 1776.
External links
1741 births | 1811 deaths | Founding Fathers of the United States | United States Supreme Court justices | Continental Congressmen | Signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence | Maryland politicians | American lawyers | Impeached United States officials
"Samuel Chase"