Impeachment
the act of accusing, In England impeachments are provides that the House of Representatives shall have the sole power of impeachment; and that the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. Section 4 of Article II. provides that the President and Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States The Constitution of the United States IMPEACHMENT shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors. The Blount case was the first. William Blount, United States Senator from Tennessee, was charged in 1797 with conspiring with British officers to steal part of Louisiana from Spain for England's benefit. The House prepared articles of impeachment. The Senate expelled him, after putting him under bonds for trial.
Judge John Pickering, of the Federal District Court for New Hampshire, was impeached in 1803 for drunkenness and profanity on the bench. The defense was insanity. On trial before the Senate, Pickering was convicted by a party vote, and and removed from his office.
In 1804, Samuel Chase of Maryland, a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was charged with improper conduct on the bench. The impeachment proceedings, instigated and managed by John Randolph of Virginia, were political in their origin and animus. Judge Chase was acquitted through the failure of the prosecution to obtain a two-thirds vote against him in the Senate, on any one of the eight articles of impeachment.. He resumed his seat on the beach, and held it as long as he lived.
About a quarter of a century later, James H. Peck, a Federal district judge in Missouri, was impeached for oppressive treatment of an attorney. The case was of no importance; the judge was acquitted.
Thirty years afterward, at the beginning of the Civil War, Judge West H. Humphreys of the Federal District Court of Tennessee, joined the Confederacy and accepted judicial office under it, without taking the trouble to send his resignation to Washington. He was impeached, mainly in order to vacate the office, and convicted on June 26, 1862.
Andrew Johnson was impeached on March 4, 1868, the 11 articles charging the President in various forms with violation of the Tenure of Office act, with violation of the Constitution, with conspiracy to prevent the execution of of act, etc. No vote was taken except on the three strongest articles and impeachment failed by a single vote.
The seventh Federal impeachment was that of William W. Belknap, Grant's Secretary of War. He was justly charged in 1876 with corruption in office, and the House voted unanimously to impeach him. He resigned hastily a few IMPERIAL hours before the passage of the impeachment resolution. The eighth impeachment was that of Charles Swayne, Judge of the U. S. District Court in Florida. He was impeached for misconduct in office and was tried from Feb. 6 to Feb. 27, 1905. Both impeachment proceedings failed by the lack of a twothirds majority in the Senate for conviction. In 1913 William Sulzer, Governor of New York, was impeached for filing a false statement of receipts and expenditures during his campaign. He was found guilty of filing a false statement but exonerated from the charge of perjury, and removed from office. Political animosity brought about the trial. In the same year Robert W. Archbald, United States Circuit Judge of Pennsylvania, was impeached and found guilty of using his office for his personal profit.