Imatges de pàgina
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bunal seems, therefore, useful and necessary; an institution of a liberal and comprehensive character; confined as little as possible to strict forms; enabled to continue its sessions as long as the nature of the case before it may require; qualified to view the charge in all its bearings and dependances, and to appreciate, on sound principles of public policy, the defence of the accused. To compose this court of persons wholly distinct from the other branches of the government, and forming a permanent body for the single purpose of exercising this jurisdiction, would have been as inconvenient as to appoint and collect temporary judges whenever an impeachment may be determined on. The Convention who formed the Constitution thought it most fit and safe to make the Senate the depositary of this important trust; and, upon a review of all the departments of the government, no other could have been found so suitable for the exercise of this important jurisdiction. The model from which this institution was borrowed was the British House of Peers, and it had been previously adopted in several of the state constitutions. Besides the reasons already suggested against vesting it in the ordinary courts, there remains this farther consideration, that the punishment consequent upon conviction is not the only one to which the offence is liable. The judgment, in cases of impeachment, extends no farther than removal from office, and disqualification to hold in future any office of trust or profit under the United States. But the party convicted is, nevertheless, subject to prosecution according to the usual course of administering the law; and it would be obviously improp

er, if not in a high degree dangerous, that the same tribunal who had already disposed of the fame and character of the accused, and of his most valuable political rights as a citizen, should, in another trial for the same offence, be also the ́arbiter of his life, liberty, or property.

The only persons liable to impeachment with us are those, we have seen, who are, or have been, in public office. But a construction has been given to the Constitution, by which a member of the Senate was held not to be liable to impeachment. The deliberations of the court being held in secret, we can only infer from the arguments urged at the bar, that the term "officers" used in the Constitution was held not to include senators; and on the same principle, members of the House of Representatives would also be exempt from liability to this jurisdiction. The grounds of the distinction may probably have been that the power of impeachment was considered merely as a check given to the Legislature upon the other two departments, and that, as each house of Congress was the judge of its own members, all the ends of punishment might be attained by expelling a delinquent member.

When sitting as a court for the trial of impeachments, the senators are put under oath or affirmation faithfully and impartially to discharge. their judicial functions. No person can be convicted but with the concurrence of two thirds of the members of the court; the Vice-president of the United States, as President of the Senate, being a member of the court, with a constant instead of a contingent vote, presides in it, except when the President of the United States is tried; on which occasion the chief-justice presides.

The Senate, moreover, in its exclusive connexion with the executive department, has a negative upon the appointment of all officers of the United States whose appointment is not otherwise provided for in the Constitution; and the advice and consent of two thirds of the senators present are requisite to all treaties which are submitted by the consideration of the Senate alone. The Senate, however, is not consulted in the first instance; but when a treaty is agreed on by the agents employed for its negotiation, the President, unless he disapprove it, submits it to the Senate, and renders to them from time to time such information relative to it as they may require. The Senate may wholly reject a treaty, or they may ratify it in part, or recommend additional or explanatory articles, which, if the President approve, again become the subject of negotiation with the foreign power; when the whole receives the sanction of the Senate, the ratifications are exchanged, and the treaty becomes obligatory upon both nations. Although not expressly required by the Constitution, yet, from the fitness and exigency of the case, the proceedings of the Senate on these occasions are always with closed doors; and the contents of the treaty, and the information connected with it, are, from motives of delicacy and good policy, kept secret until the publication, or other termination of the negotiations in regard to it, render such reserve no longer necessary. From the superior weight and delicacy of the trusts thus confided to the Senate, the Constitution requires that a senator should be thirty years of age, nine years a citizen, and, at the time of his election, an inhabitant of the state for which he is chosen.

The Constitution directs that Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and that such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless another day be appointed by law. So that, until the time fixed, either by the Constitution or the law, the action of Congress cannot commence, unless the President, in the exercise of his constitutional power, shall, on an extraordinary occasion, think proper to convene them sooner. Congress also, by a concurrent resolution, to which, in this case, the assent of the President is not required, fixes the time of its own adjournments. But during a session neither house, without the consent of the other, can adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in which it is sitting.

Although Congress may be convened by the President, and in cases of disagreement between` the two houses as to the time of their adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he may think proper, yet our National Legislature possesses this great advantage over all others, which may in all cases be adjourned or dissolved at the pleasure of the executive authority, that if, in the opinion of Congress itself, the public good may require it, they may continue uninterruptedly in session until the expiration of the term for which the House of Representatives is elected; and it may appoint as early a day as it thinks proper for the meeting of the next Congress. And among the benefits of our written Constitution, it may be accounted as one of the most valuable, that no act of Congress can prolong its own existence beyond the time fixed by that fundamental law.

LECTURE IV.

OF THE EXECUTIVE POWER.

IN the construction of a Republican government, there is no point more difficult of adjustment than the proper constitution of the executive power. The object of this department being the execution of the laws, good policy requires that it should be organized in the mode best calculated to effect that end with precision and fidelity. In the proceedings of the other branches of the government, deliberation is necessary. Both in making and expounding the laws, caution and consultation are implied as indispensable duties. But when laws are duly made and promulgated, they only remain to be executed. No discretion is vested in the executive officer in regard to their wisdom and expediency. What has been declared, under the forms of deliberation prescribed by the Constitution, to be the meaning and intention of the Legislature, should be carried into prompt execution, and due effect given to it by the executive department, until repealed by the legislative power, or pronounced unconstitutional by the judiciary, in which latter case, the act of the Legislature is ascertained to be void, and neither public officers nor private citizens are responsible for its neglect or violation.

But every individual is bound to obey a constitutional law, however objectionable in other respects it may appear to him; and whosoever refuses or withholds obedience to a law on the ground even of its unconstitutionality, does so at his peril; for if the question be judicially decided, by a competent tribunal, in favour of its validity, he is liable to all the le

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