CHASE, SAMUEL American jurist, was born in Somerset county (Md.), April 17, 1741. He was admitted to the bar at Annapolis in 1761, and for more than 20 years was a member of the Maryland legislature. He took an active part in the resistance to the Stamp Act, and from 1774 to 1778 and 1784 to 1785 was a member of the Continental Congress. He did much to persuade Maryland to advocate a formal separation of the 13 colonies from Great Britain, and signed the Declaration of Inde pendence on Aug. 2, 17 76. In 179i he became chief judge of the Maryland general court, but resigned in 1796 to become associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Because of his activities on behalf of the Federalist party, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution of impeachment in March, 1804, and on Dec. 7, 1804, the House managers, chief among whom were John Ran dolph, Joseph H. Nicholson (1770-1817), and Caesar A. Rodney (1772-1824), laid their articles of impeachment before the Senate. The trial, which lasted from Jan. 2 to March 1, 1805, ensued on an indictment of eight articles, dealing with his conduct in the Fries and Callender trials, with his treatment of a Delaware grand jury, and (in article viii.) with his making "highly indecent, extra judicial" reflections upon the national administration. On only three articles was there a majority against Judge Chase, the larg est, on article viii., being four short of the necessary two-thirds to convict.
"The case," says Henry Adams, "proved impeachment to be an impracticable thing for partisan purposes, and it decided the permanence of those lines of constitutional development which were a reflection of the common law." Judge Chase resumed his seat on the bench, and occupied it until his death, June 1g, 1811.
See The Trial of Samuel Chase (2 vols., Washington, 18o5), re ported by Samuel H. Smith and Thomas Lloyd; an article in The American Law Review, vol. xxxiii. (St. Louis, 1899) ; and Henry Adams's History of the United States, vol. ii. (1889). See also J. H. Hazelton, The Declaration of Independence (1906) ; and The Maryland Signers of the Declaration of Independence (Baltimore, 1912).