TO THE CITIZENS OF BALTIMORE-TOWN [caption title].
Chase, Samuel:
[Baltimore: Printed by James Angell & Paul J. Sullivan, 1794]. Broadside, 11 1/2 x 7 inches. Early ink note on verso, "Mr. Thornton." Old folds, small separation at one crossfold, affecting two letters of text. Unevenly trimmed around the text. Very good. A very rare Federal-era broadside - only the second located copy - printing the text of an open letter from Judge Samuel Chase to the citizens of Baltimore in the wake of a riot in 1794. Chase, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a future Supreme Court Justice, defends his actions in detaining the leaders of the mob, and appeals to the citizens of Baltimore to value order and government over their destructive passions. The occasion for the uprising was Congress's declaration of a thirty-day embargo on foreign trade, issued in March, 1794. A local shipmaster, Capt. Ramsdell, expressed his displeasure at the end of the embargo and he and another man, named Senton (described in the broadside as an "American pirate"), were attacked by a mob. Among the leaders of the mob was Captain David Stodder, the owner of a local shipyard, and Captain William Reeves. The mob set upon Ramsdell and Stenton at Fells Point and tarred and feathered them. Chase, who at the time was Chief Justice of the District Criminal Court in Baltimore and Chief Justice of the Maryland General Court, ordered that Stodder and Reeves, as the ringleaders, should be held in custody pending charges unless they could offer up bail. Stodder and Reeves refused to post bail, and their supporters threatened to tear down the jail and to raze Chase's home. After giving them a day to cool down, the prisoners agreed to post bail and the tense situation abated. In the present broadside Chase describes and justifies his actions, making an eloquent case for the rule of law over the mentality of the mob. He lays out the details of the events, explains his actions in detail, and describes the threats made against him, his family and property, and against public order. Chase concludes by stating that he is doing his duty as a judge and following the oath of his office, and that he is not appealing to the citizens of Baltimore to protect himself, "but that you may determine whether you ought to suffer an outrage to your laws, so fatal to the prosperity of this town, so destructive of all order, and so subversive of your government." This broadside is without an imprint, and the identity of the printers is based on the attribution by Evans. Evans, NAIP, and Minick all locate only a single copy, at the Maryland Historical Society. Rare and quite interesting for the history of law and civic culture in the early American Republic. EVANS 26762. NAIP w000729. MINICK 159. Francis F. Beirne, THE AMIABLE BALTIMOREANS (New York, 1951), pp.144-45.
(Item ID: WRCAM39446) $4,500.00