“I have submitted, in the course of my argument, that the sound principle of construction to be adopted, in relation to the construction of an instrument having in view the vast object of settling the powers of the Government and the rights of the people, is to give it such an interpretation as is best calculated to give effect generally to all its parts according to its true design. If I am supported in this principle, I shall be able to show, by strong cases under the Constitution, that its undeniable intention must be frustrated, if a Senator be not considered an officer of the United States. “I find it provided in the seventh clause of the third section of the first article, that conviction on impeachment disqualifies the party convicted from holding any _office_ of honor, trust, or profit under the United States. If a seat in the Senate be not an office, the disqualification does not extend to it. And yet can it reasonably be contended that the policy which incapacitates a citizen, if convicted on impeachment, from holding an office the most mean and humble, does not apply to the case of a Senator? The wisdom of the Constitution, Sir, has considered a conviction as an evidence of moral unfitness for public trust. It never can happen but in the case of a great national offence. And shall such an offender, degraded from the capacity of even being doorkeeper of this Chamber, yet retain the capacity of being a member of a body of the most dignity, trust, and power in the country? This is a solecism in politics, an absurdity in reason, which I trust this honorable court will not willingly by their act attach to an instrument so highly and justly revered as the Constitution of our Government.