To Thomas Jefferson from Anonymous, 28 January 1805
From Anonymous
Lancaster, Jan 28, 1805
The following is the State of the Votes in the case of the Judges—Guilty or not guilty—
Ayes— | Mesrs | Hart | Noes— Messrs | Brady Quid | |
G. | Heister | Gamble Quid | |||
Hartzell | Harris | ||||
Morton. | (Son a Prothonotary | John Heister | |||
Montgomery | looking for Comptrollers office | John Kean | |||
M’Arthur | P. C. Lane | ||||
Steele | Mewhorter | ||||
Spangler | Dr. | Pennell | |||
Reed | Heston | ||||
Dr. G. | Porter | (brother of Jacob) | Mayer | ||
Piper | (British Treaty— | Richards—11 | |||
Vance | |||||
R. | Whitehill. Speaker 13 |
Two thirds being necessary to condemnation—they were acquitted—One Member (Poe a republican) absent
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as an anonymous letter received 1 Feb. and “votes on impeachmts. judges” and so recorded in SJL.
case of the Judges: on 28 Jan., the Pennsylvania Senate acquitted state supreme court judges Edward Shippen, Thomas Smith, and Jasper Yeates of charges arising from their use of the common law of contempts in a case that intensified political divisions in the state (Andrew Shankman, “Malcontents and Tertium Quids: The Battle to Define Democracy in Jeffersonian Philadelphia,” Journal of the Early Republic, 19 [1999], 52-3).