Impeachment

“ Having found from experience that impeachment is an impracticable thing, a mere scarecrow, they consider themselves secure for life; they skulk from responsibility; . . . an opinion is huddled up in conclave, perhaps by a majority of one, delivered as if unanimous, and with the silent acquiescence of lazy or timid associates, by a crafty chief-judge who sophisticates the law to his mind by the turn of his own reasoning." The acquittal of Chase proved that impeachment was a scarecrow; but its effect on impeachment as a principle of law was less evident. ”

“ It appears to me, sir, to be the most horrid ignorance to suppose that every officer, however trifling his office, is to be impeached for every petty offence; and that every man, who should be injured by such petty officers, could get no redress but by this mode of impeachment, at the seat of government, at the distance of several hundred miles, whither he would be obliged to summon a great number of witnesses. I hope every gentleman in this committee must see plainly that impeachments cannot extend to inferior officers of the United States. ”

“ We most certainly—having no other motive or interest than to serve our country and our duty in the matter referred to us—have never once in the taking of testimony, or the examination of witnesses, supposed that any question other than the impeachment was properly before us. The impeachment of the President, the chief officer of this great Republic, the bare inquiry with a view to ascertain whether he had committed any offence for which he ought, or might be put upon trial before the most august tribunal of the world, impressed us from the beginning with most solemn awe. ”

“ To this House is given by the Constitution the sole power of impeachment; and this power of impeachment furnishes the only means by which we can secure the execution of the laws, and those of our fellow citizens who desire the administration of the law ought to sustain this House while it executes that great law which is in its hands and which is nowhere else, while it performs a high and solemn duty resting on it by which that man who has been the chief violator of law shall be removed, and without which there can be no execution of the law any where. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In this judicature of the lords, an impeachment there, is one singularity, an exception to the grand rule, that every man is to be tried by his peers, and that is, that a commoner impeached by the commons shall be tried by the lords. ”

“ An impeachment is a solemn accusation in writing, formally charging a public officer with crime. "The articles of impeachment are a sort of indictment; and the House, in presenting them, acts as a grand jury, and also as a public prosecutor." [Footnote: Story's Exposition of the Constitution of the United States.] ”

“ Impeachment, however, was too serious a matter for Congress to enter upon lightly. Art. II, sec. iv, of the Constitution provides for impeachment as follows: “The President, Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” ”

“ In truth, it is impossible to deny that impeachment, though it is a fine ceremony, and though it may have been useful in the seventeenth century, is not a proceeding from which much good can now be expected. ”

“ If this is right, then our government is under the control of a despicable and vexatious aristocracy.
The Judge contends that we must extend our doctrine to cases of impeachment, or give it up. It must embrace every thing or nothing. If the State Legislature has the power of exception, it may instruct in some cases of impeachment, and forbear in others. ”

“ Impeachment.—The violation of the “Tenure-of-Office” act being a “high misdemeanor,” the House resolved, February 24th, to impeach the President, the Democrats opposing. The articles of impeachment were mainly for violating the “Tenure-of-Office” act. The trial, resulting in the President’s acquittal, was begun in the Senate, on the 5th of March, 1868, and continued until May 16th. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One of the gentlemen, indeed, who conduct this prosecution, (Mr. Campbell,) contends for the reverse of this proposition, and holds that for such official acts as are the subject of impeachment no indictment will lie or can be maintained. For, says he, it would involve us in this monstrous oppression and absurdity, that a man might be twice punished for the same offence—once by impeachment, and then by indictment. And so most surely he may; and the limitation of the punishment on impeachment takes away the injustice and oppression the gentleman dreads. ”

“ It would be found very inconvenient to have a man continued in office after being impeached, and when all confidence in him was suspended or lost. Would not the end of impeachment be defeated by this means? If Mr. Hastings, who was mentioned by the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Vining) preserved his command in India, could he not defeat the impeachment now pending in Great Britain? If that doctrine obtains in America, we shall find impeachments come too late; while we are preparing the process, the mischief will be perpetrated, and the offender will escape. ”

“ For experience has already shown that the impeachment it has provided is not even a scare-crow; that such opinions as the one you combat, sent cautiously out, as you observe also, by detachment, not belonging to the case often, but sought for out of it, as if to rally the public opinion beforehand to their views, and to indicate the line they are to walk in, have been so quietly passed over as never to have excited animadversion, even in a speech of any one of the body entrusted with impeachment. ”

“ Impeachment was replaced with bill of attainder during the swift succession of parliaments during the civil war. This was a more rapid and efficient technique of bringing down unpopular ministers or political foes. There was no introduction of evidence, nor opportunity for the person accused to defend himself, nor any court procedure, as there was with impeachment. ”

“ Also, an act prior to inauguration as President may constitute a ground for impeachment. (2) The authority to determine whether an act of the President in violation of the Constitution or statutes in the performance of his or her official duties is of such gravity to justify the removal from the office lies in the National Assembly directly constituted by the national constituents. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If insanity or any other misfortune was to bar impeachment, the absurdity followed that unless a judge committed some indictable offence the people were powerless to protect themselves. Even Federalists might reasonably assume that the people had never placed themselves in such a situation, but that in making their judges subject to impeachment for misdemeanors they had meant to extend the scope of impeachment, and to include within it all cases of misbehavior which might require a removal from office for the good of the public service. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Had the responsibility arising from impeachment been formed sufficient in England, the tenure of royal pleasure would simply have been exchanged for that of good beha viour; but its insufficiency, suggested an exchange of a complete dependency upon the will of the king, for a complete dependency upon the will of the sovereignty.
The reason is obvious. The functionaries in every considerable branch of government, may innocently injure a nation. Erroneous opinion is not less injurious because it is honest. Impeachment is a remedy for crime ”

“ In speaking of this text, he says that impeachment “is not so much designed to punish an offender as to secure the State against gross official misdemeanors; it touches neither his person nor his property, but simply divests him of his political capacity.” [152] All this seems forgotten by certain apologists on the present trial, who, assuming that impeachment was a proceeding “according to law,” have treated the Senate to the technicalities of the law, to say nothing of the law’s delay. ”