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Show IMPEACHMENT CASES. THERE HAVE BEEN SEVEN! SUCH IN THE UNITED STATES. The First Was In 1797 and the latest In 1876 The Memorable Attempt at the Impeachment of President Andrew Johnson Two Successful Cases. The removal of federal officers by impeachment im-peachment proceedings, under section 4 of article 2 of the constitution, has been attempted seven times. The Blount case was the first. "William "Wil-liam Blount, United States senator from Tennessee, was charged in 1797 with conspiring with British officers to steal part of Louisiana from Spain for England's Eng-land's benefit. The house prepared articles ar-ticles of impeachment. The senate expelled ex-pelled him, after putting him under bonds for trial. Blount's defense was that a senator was not a civil officer liable to impeachment, and on the question ques-tion of jurisdiction only he was acquitted. ac-quitted. Judge John Pickering of the federal district aourt for New Hampshire was impeached in 1803 for drunkenness and profanity on the bench. The defense was insanity. On trial before the senate, sen-ate, Pickering was convicted by a party vote and removed from his office. In 1804, Samuel Chase of Maryland, a justice of the supreme court of the United States and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was charged with improper conduct on the bench; among other things, with having indulged in "highly indecent aDd extra judicial reflections upon the United States government" in the course of a charge to a Maryland grand jury. The impeachment proceedings, instigated and managed by John Randolph of "Virginia, "Vir-ginia, were political in their origin and animus. Judge Chase was acquitted through the failure of the prosecution tc obtain a two-thirds vote against him in the senate on any one of the eight articles arti-cles of impeachment. He resumed his seat on the bench and held it , as long as he lived. . ' About a -qnartor, f . t'$ t.y later .-James .-James H. Peck, a federal district judge in Missouri, was impeached.for oppressive oppress-ive treatment of an attorney. The case was of no importance. The judge was acquitted. Thirty years afterward, at the beginning begin-ning of the war of the rebellion, Judge West H. Humphreys of the federal district dis-trict court of Tennessee joined the Confederacy Con-federacy and accepted judicial office under un-der it, without taking the trouble to send his resignation to Washington. He was impeached mainly in order to vacate the office and convicted on June 26, 1863. One of the witnesses summoned o appear ap-pear against Judge Humphreys was Andrew An-drew Johnson, then governor of Tennessee, Tennes-see, destined himself to be the next subject sub-ject of impeachment proceedings before be-fore the senate. One of the four senators sena-tors who voted not guilty on tho article charging Judge Humphreys with high treason was William Pitt Pessend6n, whose vote five years later saved Andrew An-drew Johnson. Andrew Johnson was impeached on March 4, 1868, the 11 articles charging the president in various forms with violation vio-lation of the tenure of office act, with violation of the constitution, with conspiracy con-spiracy to prevent the execution of the tenure of office act, with conduct and utterances ut-terances tending "to bring the high office of-fice of president into contempt, ridicule and disgrace," and with the public de claration in his speeches while swinging around the circle that the Thirty-ninth congress was no constitutional legislature. legisla-ture. It is not necessary to recite the history of the memorable trial, which, lasted for nearly three months and in which the hottest of political passions were enlisted. Thirty-six votes were needed to convict. No vote was ever taken except on the three strongest articles ar-ticles the second, third and eleventh and on each of these the senate stood 35 for conviction to 19 for acquittal, impeachment im-peachment failing by a single vote. One of the counsel who defended President Johnson was the Hon. William M. Evarts of New York. The seventh and last federal impeachment impeach-ment was that of William W. Belknap, Grant's secretary of war. He was charged in 1876 with corruption in office, and the house voted unanimously to impeach him. He resigned hastily a few hour3 before the passage of the impeachment resolution, and his resignation was promptly accepted by Grant. The trial proceeded nevertheless. Belknap's defense de-fense was a denial of jurisdiction, based on the circumstance that when the im- peaenment resolution passed the house he had ceased to be a civil officer of the United States. The impeachment proceedings pro-ceedings failed by the lack of a two-thirds two-thirds majority in the senate for conviction. convic-tion. It will be observed that in only two cases have impeachment proceedings against a civil officer of the United States been prosecuted successfully be fore the senate by the house of representatives. repre-sentatives. One of these was for the removal re-moval of a drunken and profane judge, whose presence upon the benoh was a public scandal. The other was a purely formal proceeding to vacate the office of a judge actually engaged in open rebellion rebel-lion against the government, but technically tech-nically still an incumbent of his office under the government. Of the five unsuccessful un-successful impeachment proceedings on record, two failed for want of jurisdiction. juris-diction. Of the whole seven cases, four concerned judicial officers. Only once has there been an attempt to punish by impeachment a cabinet officer. Only once has there been an attempt to punish pun-ish and remove by impeachment a president presi-dent of the United States. New York Sun. |