IMPEACHMENT, the act of accusing, or charging with a crime or misde meanor; the arraignment of a minister of state for maladministration or trea son. In England impeachments are made in the House of Commons, and tried by the House of Lords.
The Constitution of the United States provides that the House of Representa tives shall have the sole power of im peachment; and that the Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach ments. Section 4 of Article II. provides that the President and Vice-President and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeach ment for and conviction of treason, brib ery, or other high crimes or misde meanors.
The Blount case was the first. Wil liam Blount, United States Senator from Tennessee, was charged in 1797 with conspiring with British officers to steal part of Louisiana from Spain for Eng land'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 Sen ate, Pickering. was convicted by a party vote, 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 Ran dolph of Virginia, were political in their origin and animus. Judge Chase was acquitted through the failure of the pros ecution 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 oppres sive treatment of au attorney. The case
was of no importance; the judge was acquitted.
Thirty years afterward, at the begin ning of the Civil War, Judge West H. Humphreys of the Federal District Court of Tennessee, joined the Confederacy and accepted judicial office under it, with out taking the trouble to send his resigna tion 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 the Tenure of Office 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 im peach him. He resigned hastily a few hours before the passage of the im peachment resolution. The eightb im peachment was that of Charles Swayne, Judge of the U. S. District Court in Florida. He was impeached for miscon duct in office and was tried from Feb. 6 to Feb. 27, 1905. Both impeachment proceedings failed by the lack of a two thirds majority in the Senate for con viction.
In 1913 William Sulzer, Governor of New York, was impeached for filing a false statement of receipts and expendi tures during his campaign. He was found guilty of filing a false statement but exonerated from the charge of per jury, and removed from office. Political animosity brought about the trial. In the same year Robert W. Archbald, United States Circuit Judge of Penn sylvania, was impeached and found guilty of using his office for his personal profit.