Those were the words of James Madison, spoken in debate in the Virginia Convention. Taken in connection with the earlier passage in the National Convention, they seem to leave little doubt with regard to the intention of the framers of the Constitution. They were unwilling to give to the other House alone the power of suspension; but they saw, that, when they authorized the Senate to try impeachments, they gave to it the power of suspension, if it should choose to exercise it; and the suspension of the President necessarily involved the withdrawal of the Vice-President from this Chamber, and the duty of supplying his place. I submit, then, on the contemporary testimony, that the special reason why the Chief Justice is called to preside, when the President is on trial, is less what learned Senators have assigned than because the Vice-President under certain circumstances would not be able to be present. It was to provide for such a contingency, being nothing less than his necessary absence in the discharge of the high duties of Chief Magistrate, that a substitute was necessary, and he was found in the Chief Justice. All this was reasonable. It would have been unreasonable not to make such a provision. But this is not all. There is an incident, immediately after the adoption of the Constitution, which is in harmony with this authentic history. The House of Representatives at an early day acted on the interpretation of the Constitution given by Mr. Madison. The first impeachment, as we all know, was of William Blount, a Senator, and in impeaching him the House of Representatives demanded that he should “be sequestered from his seat in the Senate.” This was in 1797. The Senate did not comply with this demand; but the demand nevertheless exists in the history of your Government, and it illustrates the interpretation which was given at that time to the powers of the Senate. The language employed, that the person impeached should be “sequestered,” is the traditional language of the British Constitution, constantly used, and familiar to our fathers. In employing it, the House of Representatives gave their early testimony that the Senate could suspend from his functions any person impeached before them; and thus the House of Representatives unite with Madison in supplying a sufficient reason for the provision that on the trial of the President the Chief Justice shall preside.