CHASE, Samuel, Americanurist, one of I the signers of the Declaration of Independence: b. Somerset County, Md., 17 April 1741; d. 19 June 1811. His father, a learned clergyman, in structed him in the classics; later he studied law at Annapolis, being admitted to the bar at the age of 20. Having become a member of the colonial legislature,. he distinguished him self by his bold opposition to the royal gov ernor and the court He took the lead in denouncing and resisting the Stamp Act, and became a most active adversary of the British government in his State. The Maryland Con vention of 22 June 1774 appointed him to attend the meeting of the General Congress at Phila delphia in September of that year. He was also present and conspicuous in the subsequent Con during the most critical periods of the Revolutionary War. That of 1776 deputed him on a mission to Canada along with Dr. Frank lin, Charles Carroll of Carrollton and the Rev. John Carroll. He signed the Declaration of Independence without hesitation. In June 1783 the legislature of Maryland sent him to London as a commissioner to recover stock of the Bank of England and large sums of money which belonged to the State. In 1791 he accepted the
appointment of chief justice of the General Court of Maryland. Five years afterward Presi dent Washington made him an associate judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. Political cases of deep interest having been tried when he presided in the Circuit Courts, and his conduct having given much displeasure to the Democratic party, he was impeached by the national House of Representatives. The trial of the judge before the Senate is mem orable on account of the excitement which it produced, the ability with which he was de fended himself and the nature of his acquittal. He continued to exercise his judicial functions with the highest reputation till 1811, in which year his health failed. Consult 'The Impeach ment Trial of Judge Samuel Chase> (tn the American Low Review, Vol. XXX1II, Saint Louis 1899) ; Smith and Lloyd, 'The Trial of Samuel Chase' (Washington 1805); Adams, 'History of the United States' (New York 1889).