Samuel Chase

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Samuel Chase (April 14, 1741–June 19, 1811), was a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Maryland. He was well-known as a Federalist-partisan.

He was born in Maryland and educated in Baltimore. He studied law and practiced it in Annapolis. In 1774 he represented Maryland at the Continental Congress, and was re-elected in 1775, serving until 1778. In 1786, living in Baltimore, he was appointed chief justice of the District Criminal Court, and became chief justice of Maryland. In 1796 he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving there until his death.

Chase was served with 6 articles of impeachment by the House of Representatives in late 1804. Two more articles would later be added. The Jeffersonian Republican-controlled United States Senate began an impeachment trial against Justice Chase in early 1805. He was charged with political bias but was acquitted by the Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805. To this day, he remains the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached.

He is not to be confused with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, the man on the $10,000 bill.