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affirmed to do impartial justice upon the impeachment, according to the Constitution and laws of the United States. The person impeached is then called to appear and answer the articles. If he does not appear in person or by attorney, his default is recorded, and the Senate may proceed ex parte to the trial of the impeachment. If he does appear in person or by attorney, his appearance is recorded. Counsel for the parties are admitted to appear and to be heard upon an impeachment.1

§ 810. When the party appears, he is entitled to be furnished with a copy of the articles of impeachment, and time is allowed him to prepare his answer thereto. The answer, like the articles, is exempted from the necessity of observing great strictness of form. The party may plead that he is not guilty as to part, and make a further defence as to the residue; or he may, in a few words, saving all exceptions, deny the whole charge or charges;2 or he may plead specially, in justification or excuse of the supposed offences, all the circumstances attendant upon the case. And he is also indulged with the liberty of offering argumentative reasons, as well as facts, against the charges, in support and as part of his answer to repel them. It is usual to give a full and particular answer separately to each article of the accusation.

§ 811. When the answer is prepared and given in, the next regular proceeding is for the House of Representatives to file a replication to the answer in writing, in substance denying the truth and validity of the defence stated in the answer, and averring the truth and sufficiency of the charges, and the readiness of the House to prove them at such convenient time and place as shall be appointed for that purpose by the Senate. A time is then assigned for the trial, and the Senate, at that period or before, adjust the preliminaries and other proceedings proper to be had before and at the trial, by fixed regulations, which are made known to the House of Representatives and to the party accused. On the day appointed for the trial, the House of Representatives appear at the bar of the Senate, either in a body or by the managers selected for that purpose, to proceed with the trial. Process to compel the attendance

1 Jefferson's Manual, sect. 53.

2 2 Woodeson, Lect. 40, pp. 606, 607; Com. Dig. Parliament, L. 23.

82 Woodeson, Lect. 40, p. 607; Jefferson's Manual, sect. 53.

* See 2 Woodeson, Lect. 40, p. 607; Com. Dig. Parliament, L. 24.
6 See 2 Woodeson, Lect. 40, p. 610.
• Jefferson's Manual, sect. 53.

of witnesses is previously issued at the request of either party, by order of the Senate, and at the time and place appointed they are bound to appear and give testimony. On the day of trial, the parties being ready, the managers to conduct the prosecution open it on behalf of the House of Representatives, one or more of them delivering an explanatory speech, either of the whole charges or of one or more of them. The proceedings are then conducted substantially as they are upon common judicial trials, as to the admission or rejection of testimony, the examination and crossexamination of witnesses, the rules of evidence, and the legal doctrines as to crimes and misdemeanors.1 When the whole evidence has been gone through, and parties on each side have been fully heard, the Senate then proceed to the consideration of the case. If any debates arise, they are conducted in secret; if none arise, or after they are ended, a day is assigned for a final public decision by yeas and nays upon each separate charge in the articles of impeachment. When the court is assembled for this purpose, the question is propounded to each member of the Senate by name, by the president of the Senate, in the following manner upon each article, the same being first read by the secretary of the Senate: "Mr., how say you, is the respondent guilty or not guilty of a high crime and misdemeanor, as charged in the article of impeachment?" Whereupon the member rises in his place and answers guilty or not guilty, as his opinion is. If upon no article two-thirds of the Senate decide that the party is guilty, he is then entitled to an acquittal, and is declared accordingly to be acquitted by the president of the Senate. If he is convicted of all or any of the articles, the Senate then proceed to fix and declare the proper punishment. The pardoning power of the President does not, as will be presently seen, extend to judgments upon impeachment; and hence, when once pronounced, they become absolute and irreversible.

§ 812. Having thus gone through the whole subject of impeachments, it only remains to observe that a close survey of the system,

1 2 Woodeson, Lect. 611; Jefferson's Manual, sect. 53.

2.This summary, when no other authority is cited, has been drawn up from the practice, in the cases of impeachment already tried by the Senate of the United States, namely, of William Blount, in 1798; of John Pickering, in 1804; of Samuel Chase, in 1804; and of James H. Peck, in 1831. See the Senate Journals of those Trials. See also Jefferson's Manual, sect. 202.

Art. 2, sect. 2, clause 1.

unless we are egregiously deceived, will completely demonstrate the wisdom of the arrangements made in every part of it. The jurisdiction to impeach is placed, where it should be, in the possession and power of the immediate representatives of the people. The trial is before a body of great dignity and ability and independence, possessing the requisite knowledge and firmness to act with vigor and to decide with impartiality upon the charges. The persons subjected to the trial are officers of the national government, and the offences are such as may affect the rights, duties, and relations of the party accused to the public in his political or official character, either directly or remotely. The general rules of law and evidence applicable to common trials are interposed to protect the party against the exercise of wanton oppression and arbitrary power. And the final judgment is confined to a removal from and disqualification for office, thus limiting the punishment to such modes of redress as are peculiarly fit for a political tribunal to administer, and as will secure the public against political injuries. In other respects, the offence is left to be disposed of by the common tribunals of justice, according to the laws of the land, upon an indictment found by a grand jury, and a trial by a jury of peers, before whom the party is to stand for his final deliverance, like his fellow-citizens.

§ 813. In respect to the impeachment of the President and VicePresident, it may be remarked that they are, upon motives of high state policy, made liable to impeachment while they yet remain in office. In England, the constitutional maxim is that the king can do no wrong. His ministers and advisers may be impeached and punished; but he is, by his prerogative, placed above all personal amenability to the laws for his acts.1 In some of the State constitutions, no explicit provision is made for the impeachment of the chief magistrate; and in Delaware and Virginia he was not (under their old constitutions) impeachable until he was out of office. So that no immediate remedy in those States was pro vided for gross malversations and corruptions in office, and the only redress lay in the elective power, followed up by prosecutions after the party had ceased to hold his office. Yet cases may be imagined where a momentary delusion might induce a majority of the people to re-elect a corrupt magistrate, and thus the remedy

1 1 Black. Comm. 246, 247.

The Federalist, No. 39.

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would be at once distant and uncertain. The provision in the Constitution of the United States, on the other hand, holds out a deep and immediate responsibility, as a check upon arbitrary power; and compels the chief magistrate, as well as the humblest citizen, to bend to the majesty of the laws.

CHAPTER XI.

ELECTIONS AND MEETINGS OF CONGRESS.

§ 814. THE first clause of the fourth section of the first article is as follows: "The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legislature thereof. But the Congress may, at any time, by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the place of choosing senators.” (a)

(a) See Ex parte Siebold, 100 U. S. 371; Ex parte Clarke, ib. 399; United States v. Gale, 109 U. S. 65. An act regulating the election of senators has been passed. "The legislature of each State which shall be chosen next preceding the expiration of the time for which any senator was elected to represent said State in Congress, shall, on the second Tuesday after the meeting and organization thereof, proceed to elect a senator in Congress, in the place of such senator so going out of office, in the following manner: Each house shall openly, by a viva voce vote of each member present, name one person for senator in Congress from said State; and the name of the person so voted for, who shall have a majority of the whole number of votes cast in each house, shall be entered on the journal of each house by the clerk or secretary thereof; but if either house shall fail to give such majority to any person on said day, that fact shall be entered on the journal. At twelve o'clock meridian of the day following that on which proceedings are required to take place as aforesaid, the members of the two houses shall convene in joint assembly, and the journal of each house shall then be read; and if the same person shall have received a majority of all the votes in each house, such person shall be declared duly elected senator to represent said State in the Congress of the United States; but if VOL. I.-38

the same person shall not have received a majority of the votes in each house, or if either house shall have failed to take proceedings as required by this act, the joint assembly shall then proceed to choose, by a viva voce vote of each member present, a person for the purpose aforesaid; and the person having a majority of all the votes of the said joint assembly, a majority of all the members elected to both houses being present and voting, shall be declared duly elected; and in case no person shall receive such majority on the first day, the joint assembly shall meet at twelve o'clock meridian of each succeeding day during the session of the legislature, and take at least one vote, until a senator shall be elected.

"Sec. 2. That, whenever on the meeting of the legislature of any State, a vacancy shall exist in the representation of such State in the Senate of the United States, said legislature shall proceed, on the second Tuesday after the commencement and organization of its session, to elect a person to fill such vacancy, in the manner herein before provided for the election of a senator for the full term; and if a vacancy shall happen during the session of the legislature, then on the second Tuesday after the legislature shall have been organized and shall have notice of such vacancy.

"Sec. 8. That it shall be the duty of

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