027 Page – American State Trials 1918 Volume X Leo Frank Document

Here is the translated text as follows:

PREFACE TO VOLUME TEN

xxiii

Despite the significance of the issues at stake, it was not these momentous matters that primarily attracted the attention of the legal profession. Instead, it was the personality of the judge who was set to preside over the case that drew the majority's interest. His Honor was likely the most violent, the most feared, and the most despised partisan ever to sit on the Federal bench.

The following account pertains to Judge Samuel Chase:

Samuel Chase's reputation was not solely built on his judicial role. In the turbulent times leading up to the Revolution, he was one of the "Sons of Liberty" who attacked the public offices in Baltimore during the Stamp Act. Later, he and his group compelled a group of old malcontents, including his own father, to swear an oath of allegiance to the Continental Congress. These were not the only instances of such spirited behavior attributed to him. When certain Pennsylvania Quakers refused to light their houses in celebration of a Revolutionary victory, Chase and his followers swooped down on the offending citizens, bundled them into carts, and deported them in the dead of winter to Virginia, where they were unceremoniously dumped and left to fend for themselves.

All this youthful boisterousness might have been chalked up to exuberant vitality and misdirected zeal had his conduct as a member of the Maryland Colonial Legislature and the Continental Congress not been equally turbulent and provocative of riot. However, the man was an incorrigible bully with a genius for offense. At the close of the war, when he found himself a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, he immediately became embroiled in political disputes that led to an attempt at his impeachment. Yet, his fighting qualities served him well; not only did he fend off his enemies, but he also secured for himself first the Chief Justiceship of the Criminal Court of Baltimore, and then the Chief Justiceship of the General Court. He held and administered both offices tenaciously and in flagrant defiance of the law until his actions were officially declared unconstitutional. Nevertheless, his name was prominently featured in the Declaration of Independence, and his personal honesty, courage, and patriotism were unquestioned. Although he initially opposed the Constitution, he eventually became one of the most ardent Federal enthusiasts.

Such was the man whom Washington appointed to the Federal bench in 1796, and there was nothing in his conduct of that office to belie his previous record. Domineering, fearless, vain, confident, and honest, he possessed many of the qualities necessary to establish the authority of the new court. However, no one did more than he to make his tribunal objectionable to the bar. With a good classical education...