The Short ConstitutionWade, Martin J. (Martin Joseph)
History
The Short Constitution
Wade, Martin J. (Martin Joseph)
United States. Constitution
Impeachment is the manner of trial fixed by the Constitution for the
trial and removal of Federal officers who are accused of treason,
bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Congress alone has
the power of conducting an impeachment of Federal officers. The
legislature of a State has the power of impeaching State officers.
Impeachment, as the word is commonly used, includes both accusation
and trial. The “Impeachment” or accusation is brought by a
two-thirds vote of the lower house, and the trial and conviction or
acquittal is carried on by the upper house. Andrew Johnson,
President of the United States, was impeached—i.e. he was formally
accused, but he was acquitted in his trial in the Senate. Conviction
in an impeachment proceeding causes an officer to be removed from
office and disqualified from ever holding any office of honor or
trust under the government again. A person may be convicted and not
given the full penalty. He may be only removed from office, but not
disqualified from again holding office.
It is possible that a crime may be committed on a river that forms
State boundaries. Where a river forms a boundary the middle of the
main channel is made the boundary line. It is often difficult to
determine on which side of the line the crime was committed, and
both States may then claim to have jurisdiction over the case. This
must be decided as any other fact in the case.
The manner of the trial in use, before jury trial was established,
was by ordeal or by battle. In trial either by ordeal or by battle
the issue was left to God to decide and He was thought to perform a
miracle to reveal the guilt or innocence of the accused person. One
form of ordeal was to compel the accused to plunge his arm into
boiling water and if innocent the Lord would protect him from being
scalded. Another form of ordeal was to compel the accused to walk
barefoot over hot plow shares. If innocent the Lord would again
protect his feet from being burned.
The first form of jury to displace the old ordeal or battle as a
means of deciding guilt or innocence was the “compurgators” or “oath
bearers”. They comprised a group of men who would appear before the
court and give oath that the accused was not a bad man and had
committed no crime. They did not investigate the accusation, they
only testified to the good character of the accused. If a man
accused could not produce compurgators, he must undergo the ordeal.
The duty of these oath bearers gradually became more extended until
they became investigators, and finally became a grand jury.
91 Constitution of the United States, Art. IV, Sec. 2, Cl. 1.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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