; and
if the Judges of the Supreme Court should dare, as they had done, to
declare an act of Congress unconstitutional, or to send a mandamus to
the Secretary of State, as they had done, it was the unreserved right of
the House of Representatives to impeach them, and that of the Senate to
remove them, for giving such opinions, however, honest or sincere they
may have been in entertaining them." For "impeachment was not a criminal
prosecution, it was no prosecution at all." It only signified that the
impeached officer held dangerous opinions and that his office ought to
be in better hands. "I perceive," adds Adams, on his own account, "that
the impeachment system is to be pursued, and the whole bench of the
Supreme Court to be swept away, because THEIR OFFICES are wanted. And
in the present state of things I am convinced it is as easy for Mr. John
Randolph and Mr. Giles to do this as to say it."

The trial formally opened on January 2, 1805, though the taking of
testimony did not begin until the 9th of February. A contemporary
description of the Senate chamber shows that the apostles of Republican
simplicity, with the pomp of the Warren Hastings trial still fresh
in mind, were not at all averse to making the scene as impressive as
possible by the use of several different colors of cloth: "On the right
and left of the President of the Senate, and in a right line with his
chair, there are two rows of benches with desks in front, and the whole
front and seats covered with crimson cloth.... A temporary semi-circular
gallery, which consists of three ranges of benches, is elevated on
pillars and the whole front and seats thereof covered with green
cloth.... In this gallery ladies are accommodated.... On the right and
left hand of the President ... are two boxes of two rows of seats... that
facing the President's right is occupied by the managers... that on the
other side of the bar for the accused and his counsel... these boxes are
covered with blue cloth." To preside over this scene of somewhat dubious
splendor came Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States, straight
from the dueling ground at Weehawken.

The occasion brought forward one of the most extraordinary men of the
day, Luther Martin, Chase's friend and the leader of his counsel. Born
at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1744, Martin graduated from Princeton
in 1766, the first of a class of thirty-five, among whom was Oliver
Ellsworth. Five years later he began to