Description
Missouri’s first federal judge, James Hawkins Peck, was impeached by the United States Congress in 1830. He was accused of judicial tyranny, and undoubtedly, he was an eccentric, sometimes holding court with a handkerchief over his face. But his actual sin may have been his threat to dubious French land claims. In Congress, Southern pro-slavery fire-eaters turned Peck’s impeachment into a weapon in their struggle with the federal judiciary. Presenter Dr. Kenneth H. Winn is a retired Missouri State Archivist.