"Memoirs of Elbridge Gerry," II, 296, note.]

In 1800, Justice Chase of the Supreme Court of the United States
made several charges in Maryland hardly less objectionable, one
of which was afterward unsuccessfully set up by the House of
Representatives as a ground of his impeachment. The article
stating it described the charge as "an intemperate and
inflammatory political harangue with intent to excite the fears
and resentment of the said grand jury and of the good people of
Maryland against their state government and Constitution." He
had, indeed, used this language:

You know, gentlemen, that our State and national institutions
were framed to secure to every member of the society, equal
liberty and equal rights; but the late alteration of the
federal judiciary by the abolition of the office of the sixteen
circuit judges, and the recent change in our State
constitution, by the establishment of universal suffrage, and
the further alteration that is contemplated in our State
judiciary (if adopted) will, in my judgment, take away all
security for property and personal liberty. The independence
of the national judiciary is already shaken to its foundation,
and the virtue of the people alone can restore it. The
independence of the judges of this State will be entirely
destroyed if the bill for the abolition of the two supreme
courts should be ratified by the next general assembly. The
change of the State constitution, by allowing universal
suffrage, will, in my opinion, certainly and rapidly destroy
all protection to property, and all security to personal
liberty; and our republican constitution will sink into a