Impeachment

the accusation and prosecution for removal from office of a judge or administrative officer whose position places him above the ordinary courts. In Great Britain the House of Commons impeaches; the House of Lords hears the case. The practice arose in the Middle Ages as a means of getting rid of undesirable royal favorites, and has been greatly extended in more modern times. Warren Hastings, it may be remembered, was impeached by the House of Commons in 1787. A committee headed by Edmund Burke presented the case to the Lords. The trial lasted eight years. In the United States the impeachment is presented, that is to say, the charges are drawn up, by the House. A committee of representatives is appointed to conduct the prosecution. The case is heard by the Senate with the chief justice presiding. A two-thirds vote is necessary to convict.

There have been eight cases of impeachment in the history of the United States:

1. William Blount, United States senator from Tennessee, was impeached in 1797 for entering into a conspiracy with British officers to divert part of Louisiana from Spain to England. He was acquitted on a technicality, but was expelled from the Senate.

2. In 1803 John Pickering, a judge of the Federal Court for New Hampshire, was impeached, convicted, and removed from office, on account of drunkenness and profanity on the bench.

3. In 1804 Samuel Chase, a justice of the Supreme Court, was impeached. The proceedings were instituted by John Randolph of Virginia, on the ground of partisanship on the bench. The necessary two-thirds vote was not obtained.

4. In 1830 Judge Peck, of the Federal Court of Missouri, was impeached for arbitrary conduct in punishing an attorney for contempt of court. He was acquitted by a vote of 21 to 24.

5. In 1862 Judge Humphreys, of the Federal Court of Tennessee, joined the Confederacy without sending in his resignation. In order to clear the way for the appointment of a successor, he was impeached and removed from office.

6. The most stirring impeachment in the history of the United States was that of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. He was charged with violating the constitution, and with making statements tending "to bring the high office of president into contempt, ridicule, and disgrace." The trial afforded one of the worst exhibits of partisanship ever witnessed in this country. Today no one believes that the facts justified impeachment. At the time, however, the Republican party almost unanimously demanded the president's removal. To their credit be it said, four Republican senators voted for acquittal and barely prevented a national disgrace. When their terms expired, not one of them was permitted to return to the senate.

7. In 1876 Secretary of War Belknap was impeached. He resigned; the senate failed to convict.

8. In 1905 Judge Charles Swayne of the northern district of Florida, was impeached for favoritism and excessive charges.

The constitutions of the various states make similar provisions for the impeachment of local judges and state officers. In the case of minor officers the president or governor has authority to remove from office for cause.

Impeachment is the heaviest piece of artillery in the congressional arsenal. but because it is so heavy it is unfit for ordinary use. It is like a hundred-ton gun which needs complex machinery to bring it into position, an enormous charge of powder to fire it and a large mark to aim at. It is an extreme remedy, proper to be applied against an official guilty of political crimes, but ill-adapted for the punishment of small transgressions.--Bryce.