Impeachment Powers

II. ENGLISH COMMON LAW AND HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

The power of impeachment originated in England during the late 1300s. The KingÆs ministers and others who held favor with the Crown enjoyed immunity from punishment for private wrongs. Their relationship with the King made them virtually untouchable, unless they fell out of favor with the Crown. Parliament, after a long power struggle with the King, won the right in 1376 to prosecute those charged with ôtreason or other high crimes and misdemeanors.ö The House of Commons served as accuser, filing the complaint, and the House of Lords, usurping the judiciary, served as the trier. Eventually, all ministers chosen by the monarch became accountable to Parliament rather than the Crown.

After less than a century, this power waned and the Crown became ascendant again. Indeed, for 160 years, from 1459 to 1621, no impeachments took place

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olitics into impeachments. The modern view holds that the Republican-dominated Senate, when faced with the ominous task of removing a judge simply because of his political beliefs, backed away from the precipice and did not convict Chase. In so doing, the Senate set a standard for impeachment that lasts to this day. In truth, politics secured ChaseÆs acquittal, and not high-minded ethics. The small Federalist minority in the Senate (9 seats out of 34) successfully lobbied a disaffected faction of Republicans to avert conviction. The Republicans needed 23 votes to oust Chase, but never tallied more than 19. Ironically, the Vice President of the United States who presided over the Chase trial was himself facing judicial scrutiny. In 1804, Burr, then running for governor of New York, had killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel that took place in New Jersey. He fled warrants from both states to return to his job in Washington, where he received a surprisingly warm welcome from President Jefferson. Burr and Jefferson did not have much of a relationship. Both had run for President in 1800, and each received an equal number of Electoral College votes. That left the decision to the House, which selected Jefferson as President
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Some common words found in the essay are:
House Lords, Senate Johnson, Confederate Texas, Radical Republicans, Vice President, North CarolinaÆs, Civil War, Johnson Administration, Potter StewartÆs, Crown Parliament, crimes misdemeanorsö, ôhigh crimes misdemeanorsö, ôhigh crimes, vice president, impeachment proceedings, civil war, impeachable offenses, removed office, november 9 1998, committee judiciary, constitution house, subcommittee constitution house, judiciary 105th, house committee judiciary, committee judiciary 105th,
Approximate Word count = 6591
Approximate Pages = 26 (250 words per page)

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