John Pickering was an established, respected, and experienced justice who was appointed to the New Hampshire Superior Court in 1790. After he became a member, he was eventually elected to become the Chief Justice of the court but was shortly appointed to a lower court due to illness. After recovering from his illness in 1800, he began to skip out on scheduled court dates which caused the court staff to believe that he had gone insane. They sent a temporary replacement for him, where he eventually returned in 1802, and adjourned court for the day, and then disappeared again. This sparked a controversy as the Democratic-Republicans tried to force him out office due to his lack of appearance, but Federalists accused the Democratic-Republicans
