I should here close my remarks, if it were not necessary to direct the attention of the committee for a few minutes to the details of the bill. And here permit me to express my regret that my friend from Kentucky (Mr. Wickliffe) has thought proper to propose an amendment to add three, instead of two, judges to the Supreme Court. Had a majority of the Committee on the Judiciary believed ten judges, instead of nine, to be necessary, I should have yielded my opinion, as I did upon a former occasion, and given the bill my support in the House. This I should have done to prevent division among its friends, believing it to be a mere question of time: for ten will become necessary in a few years, unless the number of the Eastern circuits should be reduced to five.
Another important matter which devolved upon Mr. Buchanan as Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, related to the impeachment of Judge James H. Peck, the United States district judge for the district of Missouri. The facts of this singular case were briefly these: Judge Peck had decided a land-cause against certain parties who were represented in his court by an attorney and counsellor named Lawless. Lawless published in a St. Louis newspaper some comments on the Judge’s opinion, by no means intemperate in their character. The Judge thereupon attached Lawless for a contempt, caused him to be imprisoned twenty-four hours in the common jail, and suspended him from practice for a period of eighteen months. Upon these facts, when brought before the House of Representatives by Lawless’ memorial, there could be but one action. The Judiciary Committee voted an impeachment of the Judge, and Mr. Buchanan reported their recommendation on the 23d of March, 1830. He said that the committee deemed it most fair towards the accused not to report at length their reasons for arriving at the conclusion that the Judge ought to be impeached, but that they thought it advisable to follow the precedent which had been established in the case of the impeachment of Judge Chase. A desultory discussion followed upon a motion to print the report and the documents, and upon an amendment to include the address which it seems that the Judge had been allowed to make to the committee. But before any vote was taken, the Speaker, on the 5th of April, presented a memorial from Judge Peck, praying the House to allow him to present a written exposition of the facts and law of the case, and to call witnesses to substantiate it, or else to vote the impeachment at once on “the partial evidence” which the committee had heard. In the course of these proceedings the House, if it had not been better guided, might have established an unfortunate precedent. While the resolution reported by the Judiciary Committee for the impeachment of the Judge was pending in Committee of the Whole, Mr. Everett moved a counter-resolution that there was not sufficient evidence of evil intent to authorize the House to impeach Judge Peck of high misdemeanors in office. This, in effect, would have converted the grand inquest into a tribunal for the determination of the whole question of guilt or innocence, upon allegations and proofs on the one side and the other. It was opposed by Mr. Storrs, Mr. Ellsworth, Mr. Wickliffe and others, and was negatived. The resolution reported by Mr. Buchanan for the impeachment of the Judge was then adopted by the Committee of the Whole, and reported to the House, after which Mr. Buchanan demanded the yeas and nays, which resulted in a vote of 123 for the impeachment and 49 against it. An article of impeachment was prepared by Mr. Buchanan, and was by order of the House presented to the Senate. The managers appointed to conduct the impeachment on the part of the House were Mr. Buchanan, Henry R. Storrs of New York, George McDuffie of South Carolina, Ambrose Spencer of New York, and Charles Wickliffe of Kentucky.