Articles of impeachment

“ The power of impeaching being the only shield provided by the Government for the protection of the citizens from judicial oppression, and this House being the only constitutional organ for obtaining information of official excesses, and bringing forward articles of impeachment, ought not to bind up their own hands from doing their duty, and this they will do if they reject the resolution now on the table. ”

“ Four years later, Justice Story emphasized that impeachable offenses ordinarily "must be examined upon very broad and comprehensive principles of public policy and duty." [179]
The American experience with impeachment confirms that lesson. A strong majority of the impeachments voted by the House since 1789 have included "one or more allegations that did not charge a violation of criminal law." [180] Several officials, moreover, have subsequently been convicted on non-criminal articles of impeachment. ”

“ A few days prior to the day set for taking the vote on the several Articles of Impeachment, and after the conclusion of testimony, it was proposed that there be a private session for conference of the Senate on a day named, May 11th, to give Senators an opportunity to declare themselves on the pending impeachment.
Neither the precise object or the utility of a conference were then apparent, but the result was somewhat of a surprise to those who had, up to that time, been undoubtingly confident of the President's conviction. Comparatively few Senators had previously declared their position. ”

“ The allegations made in the Articles of Impeachment are very serious. As a Senator-juror, I swore an Oath, before God, to exercise impartial Justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am.
I take an oath before God as enormously consequential. I knew from the outset that being tasked with judging the President, the leader of my own party, would be the most difficult decision I have ever faced. I was not wrong. ”

“ These three Articles—the Second, Third and Eleventh—being the only Articles of the entire list of eleven put to a vote, and having been taken up and passed upon out of their numerical but in the order of their supposed availability—must therefore be regarded as confessedly the strongest and most likely of the entire list to command the support of the Senate. They were selected and set out for the test. That selection was equivalent to saying, "we put the Impeachment cause to test on these three Articles. If they fail, we have nothing more to offer." ”

“ For every act so gravely condemned the President had the sanction and approval of his Cabinet, and yet, while he is arraigned before the world as a criminal of the deepest dye, they are not only not impeached, but are recognized as special favorites of the party for impeachment. ”

“ With a view to his impeachment therefore, can it be now becoming in a Committee of this House, or in the house itself, to go beyond its jurisdiction, and censure and condemn the President, than for him to censure and condemn Congress? Is not the impropriety of the one as apparent as the other? If one is impeachable, is not the other wrong? ”

“ Pulling this all together, the Framers repeatedly confirmed that Presidents can be impeached for grave abuse of power. Where the President engages in acts forbidden by law, or acts with an improper motive, he has committed an abuse of power under the Constitution. Where those abuses inflict substantial harm on our political system and are recognizably wrong, they warrant his impeachment and removal. ”

“ The Senate sitting for the trial of impeachments was not a court, and ought to discard and reject all process of analogy to a court of justice. A trial and removal of a judge upon impeachment need not imply any criminality or corruption in him. Congress had no power over the person, but only over the office. And a removal by impeachment was nothing more than a declaration by Congress to this effect: You hold dangerous opinions, and if you are suffered to carry them into effect you will work the destruction of the nation. ”

“ And however much it may fall in with the political theories of certain statesmen and jurists, to deny the existence of a common law belonging to, and applicable to the nation in ordinary cases, no one has as yet been bold enough to assert, that the power of impeachment is limited to offences positively defined in the statute book of the Union, as impeachable high crimes and misdemeanours. ”

“ Presidents wield extraordinary power, but they do so under law. That law provides the House with sole authority to impeach Presidents. It does not allow Presidents to dictate the terms on which they will be impeached or investigated for impeachable offenses, to order subordinates to break the law by ignoring subpoenas, or to use executive power to orchestrate a cover up. The Constitution confirms that the House alone, and not the President, determines what documents and testimony are relevant to its exercise of the impeachment power. ”

“ Nowhere, either in the Constitution or by statute, has the President power to create a vacancy during the session of the Senate and fill it without the advice and consent of the Senate, and yet, on the 21st day of February, 1868, while the Senate was in session, he notified the head of the War Department that he was removed from office and his successor ad interim appointed. Here is a plain, recorded violation of the Constitution and laws, which, if it stood alone, would make every honest and intelligent man give his vote for impeachment. ”

“ Those, who denounce the common law, as having any application or existence in regard to the national government, must be necessarily driven to maintain, that the power of impeachment is, until congress shall legislate, a mere nullity, or that it is despotic, both in its reach, and in its proceedings. ”

“ Common sense confirms what the law provides: a President may be impeached where he attempts a grave abuse of power, is caught along the way, abandons his plan, and subsequently seeks to conceal his wrongdoing. A President who attempts impeachable offenses will surely attempt them again. The impeachment power exists so that the Nation can remove such Presidents from power before their attempts finally succeed. ”

“ GOUVERNEUR MORRIS moved,—
"that persons impeached be suspended from their offices until they be tried and acquitted."
Mr. MADISON. The President is made too dependent already on the legislature by the power of one branch to try him in consequence of an impeachment by the other. ”

“ There seems a peculiar propriety, in a republican government at least, in confining the impeaching power to persons holding office. In such a government all the citizens are equal, and ought to have the same security of a trial by jury for all crimes and offences laid to their charge, when not holding any official character. To subject them to impeachment would not only be extremely oppressive and expensive, but would endanger their lives and liberties, by exposing them against their wills to persecution for their conduct in exercising their political rights and privileges. ”

“ These are daunting powers for any one person to wield. If put to nefarious ends, they could wreak havoc on our democracy. The Framers knew this. Fearful of tyranny in all its forms, they saw impeachment as a necessary guarantee that Presidents could be held accountable for how they exercised executive power. Many delegates at the Constitutional Convention and state ratifying conventions made this point, including Madison, Randolph, Pinckney, Stillman, and Iredell. ”

“ For all these reasons, the conduct charged in the Article of Impeachment constitutes a “high Crime and Misdemeanor” under the Constitution. “There comes a point at which a president can properly be impeached for his statements” [131] —and that point is indisputably reached when the President incites an assault on the legislature amid the constitutional process for the transfer of power. ”

“ By deciding to pursue impeachment first and build a case second, the Majority has created a challenge for itself. In the face of new information that exculpates or exonerates the President, the Majority must choose: either accept that the impeachment inquiry's findings do not merit impeachment and face the political consequences or, alternatively, ignore those facts. ”

“ It is the Framers' final and most definitive answer to a fundamental question: "Shall any man be above Justice?" [128] Urging the necessity of allowing impeachments, Elbridge T. Gerry thus emphasized: "A good magistrate will not fear them. A bad one ought to be kept in fear of them." [129] In Federalist Papers No. 69, Alexander Hamilton affirmed that the Impeachment Clause separates Presidents from kings and khans. ”

“ Even if it is necessary to limit the grounds for impeachment to an 'act of grave violation' in order to prevent abuse of the impeachment system, it is manifest that a violation of the constitutionally mandated obligation or an unfaithful performance of the official duties by the President, unlike other acts of violation, constitutes a grave violation of the Constitution or statutes. ”