If you or anyone is looking for the Constitutional meaning of "high crimes and misdemeanors" this discussion, though longer and more complex than most here are able to conscience, is excellent. It deals with the intent and consequence more than the meaning, as meanings change over time.
Democracy In America
Alexis De Tocqueville sunsite.unc.edu
In particular, here he discusses the considerable thought that went into removal of those in high office and makes comment on the dangers of power held by the majority to do evil to the republic if removal is used as a political tool. Please read the following:
"It is
to be observed, in the first place, that in the United States the
tribunal which passes sentence is composed of the same elements,
and subject to the same influences, as the body which impeaches
the offender, and that this uniformity gives an almost
irresistible impulse to the vindictive passions of parties. If
political judges in the United States cannot inflict such heavy
penalties as those of Europe, there is the less chance of their
acquitting a prisoner; and the conviction, if it is less
formidable, is more certain. The principal object of the
political tribunals of Europe is to punish the offender; the
purpose of those in America is to deprive him of his authority.
A political condemnation in the United States may, therefore, be
looked upon as a preventive measure; and there is no reason for
restricting the judges to the exact definitions of criminal law.
Nothing can be more alarming than the excessive latitude with
which political offences are described in the laws of America.
Article II., Section 4, of the Constitution of the United States
runs thus: - "The President, Vice-President, and all civil
officers of the United States shall be removed from office on
impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other
high crimes and misdemeanors." Many of the Constitutions of the
States are even less explicit. "Public officers," says the
Constitution of Massachusetts, *b "shall be impeached for
misconduct or maladministration;" the Constitution of Virginia
declares that all the civil officers who shall have offended
against the State, by maladministration, corruption, or other
high crimes, may be impeached by the House of Delegates; in some
constitutions no offences are specified, in order to subject the
public functionaries to an unlimited responsibility. *c But I
will venture to affirm that it is precisely their mildness which
renders the American laws most formidable in this respect. We
have shown that in Europe the removal of a functionary and his
political interdiction are the consequences of the penalty he is
to undergo, and that in America they constitute the penalty
itself. The consequence is that in Europe political tribunals
are invested with rights which they are afraid to use, and that
the fear of punishing too much hinders them from punishing at
all. But in America no one hesitates to inflict a penalty from
which humanity does not recoil. To condemn a political opponent
to death, in order to deprive him of his power, is to commit what
all the world would execrate as a horrible assassination; but to
declare that opponent unworthy to exercise that authority, to
deprive him of it, and to leave him uninjured in life and limb,
may be judged to be the fair issue of the struggle. But this
sentence, which it is so easy to pronounce, is not the less
fatally severe to the majority of those upon whom it is
inflicted. Great criminals may undoubtedly brave its intangible
rigor, but ordinary offenders will dread it as a condemnation
which destroys their position in the world, casts a blight upon
their honor, and condemns them to a shameful inactivity worse
than death. The influence exercised in the United States upon the
progress of society by the jurisdiction of political bodies may
not appear to be formidable, but it is only the more immense. It
does not directly coerce the subject, but it renders the majority
more absolute over those in power; it does not confer an
unbounded authority on the legislator which can be exerted at
some momentous crisis, but it establishes a temperate and regular
influence, which is at all times available. If the power is
decreased, it can, on the other hand, be more conveniently
employed and more easily abused. By preventing political
tribunals from inflicting judicial punishments the Americans seem
to have eluded the worst consequences of legislative tyranny,
rather than tyranny itself; and I am not sure that political
jurisdiction, as it is constituted in the United States, is not
the most formidable weapon which has ever been placed in the rude
grasp of a popular majority. When the American republics begin
to degenerate it will be easy to verify the truth of this
observation, by remarking whether the number of political
impeachments augments.*d
foot note to last sentence d. "[The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 - which was resorted to by his political opponents solely as a means of turning him out of office, for it could not be contended that he had been guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, and he was in fact honorably acquitted and reinstated in office - is a striking confirmation of the truth of this remark. - Translator's Note, 1874.]]"
Jim |
