Report of the Trial by Impeachment of James Prescott, Judge of the Probate of Wills, &c. for the County of Middlesex for Misconduct and Maladministration in Office, Before the Senate of Massachusetts in the Year 1821: With an Appendix, Containing an Account of Former Impeachments in the Same State

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Office of the Daily Advertiser, 1821 - Trials (Impeachment) - 225 pages

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Page 117 - The senate shall be a court with full authority to hear and determine all impeachments made by the house of representatives, against any officer or officers of the commonwealth, for misconduct and mal-administration in their offices.
Page 139 - The judges of probate of wills, and for granting letters of administration, shall hold their courts at such place or places, on fixed days, as the convenience of the people shall require; and the legislature shall, from time to time, hereafter, appoint such times and places...
Page 119 - This trial, though it varies in external ceremony, yet differs not in essentials from criminal prosecutions before inferior courts. The same rules of evidence, the same legal notions of crimes and punishments, prevail. For impeachments are not framed to alter the law, but to carry it into more effectual execution against too powerful delinquents.
Page 122 - All the laws which have heretofore been adopted, used, and approved in the Province, Colony or State of Massachusetts Bay, and usually practised on in the courts of law, shall still remain and be in full force, until altered or repealed by the Legislature ; such parts only excepted as are repugnant to the rights and liberties contained in this Constitution.
Page 129 - Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws.
Page 186 - The respondent is now brought, a single, unprotected individual, to this formidable bar of judgment, to stand against the power and authority of the State. I know you can crush him, as he stands before you, and clothed as you are with the sovereignty of the State. You have the power " to change his countenance and to send him away.
Page 134 - A crime, or misdemeanor, is an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law, either forbidding or commanding it.
Page 118 - But an impeachment before the lords by the commons of Great Britain, in parliament, is a prosecution of the already known and established law, and has been frequently put in practice; being a presentment to the most high and supreme court of criminal jurisdiction by the most solemn grand inquest of the whole kingdom.
Page 132 - No subject shall be held to answer for any crime or offence, until the same is fully and plainly, substantially and formally, described to him; or be compelled to accuse, or furnish evidence against himself.
Page 19 - ... and in whichsoever way you perform the service, let it be done at least days before the appearance day mentioned in the said writ of summons.

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