REPORT OF THE TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL OF EDWARD SHIPPEN, ESQUIRE, CHIEF JUSTICE, AND JASPER YEATES AND THOMAS SMITH, ESQUIRES, ASSISTANT JUSTICES, OF THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA, ON AN IMPEACHMENT, BEFORE THE SENATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH. JANUARY, 1805. BY...EDITOR OF THE LANCASTER JOURNAL.

Lancaster: Printed by the Reporter, [1805]. 491, [1 blank], 96 pp. Covers removed. Untrimmed and uncut. Scattered foxing, very light blindstamp, corner wear to last leaf affecting one letter. Good+.

The impeachment of Shippen and his colleagues was sparked by widespread distrust of the legal profession, as well as democratic opposition to the Common Law, i.e., law made by judges from the Bench rather than by duly elected legislatures. The ground of impeachment was the judges' sentencing Thomas Passmore to jail for thirty days and their imposition of a $50 fine for a "supposed contempt." It was argued that punishment for contempt of court was a piece of the loathed English Common Law, and unsuited to the more egalitarian American social order.
This Report contains all the proceedings, from soup to nuts, with debates focusing on the inherent power of the people to make the laws and to call their rulers to account; the nature and proper use of the remedy of impeachment; the role of the Common Law in the adjudication of cases in a democratic republic.
FIRST EDITION. Cohen 14527. Marvin 363. II Harv. Law Cat. 1188. Item #28627

Price: $250.00

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