Professional and Political Career
Rodney served six terms as State Representative, from the 1797 session through the 1802 session. There he became one of the leaders of the Jeffersonian party, now known as the Democratic-Republican Party. Encouraged by Jefferson to compete for the U.S. House against the staunch Federalist James A. Bayard, Rodney ran and won a lively campaign by fifteen votes. While in the U.S. House, he was a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, and established a national reputation as one of the managers appointed in January 1804 to prepare the articles of impeachment against John Pickering, judge of the United States District Court for New Hampshire. Pickering was charged with conduct unbecoming a judge, and his acquittal was viewed as strengthening the independence of the judiciary. In December of the same year, Rodney led another such case against Samuel Chase, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
After serving one term in the U.S. House from March 4, 1803 until March 3, 1805, he was defeated for reelection in 1804 by Bayard, by nearly as close a vote. The two men, always vigorous political opponents, remained good friends throughout their tumultuous political careers.
While Rodney spent most of his legal career in public service, he took on at least one notable case as a private advocate during the year before his appointment as Attorney General. In 1806, he made an appearance before the Mayor's Court of Philadelphia to defend the Philadelphia Cordwainers against a common law charge of conspiracy. The conspiracy charge was instituted by retail shoe merchants, based on attempts by the journeyman shoe and boot makers, to organize for the purpose of setting their wages and hours. Rodney was unsuccessful in attaining an acquittal for the workers.
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