p, however, in such procedure is by the House of
Representatives, as the grand inquest of the nation, presenting
articles of impeachment, the Senate possessing the sole power of
trial. Six times only in our history has the Senate been resolved
into a Court of Impeachment, and only twice--in the case of district
judges--has there been a conviction. The earliest trial, more than
a century ago, was that of a supreme justice, Chase of Maryland.
Apart from the high official position of the accused, and the august
tribunal before which he was arraigned, this trial is of
historic interest from the fact that it involved the once famous
Alien and Sedition Laws; that John Randolph was chief of the managers
on the part of the House; Pinckney, Martin, and William Wirt of
counsel for the defence; and Vice-President Aaron Burr, the presiding
officer of the court.

The trial of Belknap, Secretary of War, is still within the memory
of many. As a member of the House, I attended it from the beginning.
It appearing from the evidence that Belknap had resigned his office
before the presentation of the articles of impeachment, he was
acquitted. The fate of General Belknap was indeed a sad one, that
of a hitherto honorable career suddenly terminated under a cloud.
Morally guiltless himself, his chivalric assumption of responsibility
for the act of one near to him, and his patiently abiding the
consequence, has invested with something of pathos, and even romance,
the memory of his trial.

An impeachment that has left its deep impress upon history, and
before which all others pale into insignificance, was that of
President Johnson, charged by the House of Representatives with
the commission of "high crimes and misdemeanors." He had been
elected to the second place upon the ticket with Mr. Lincoln in
1864, and upon the death of the latter, succeeded to the Presidency.
Radical differences with the majority in the Congress, upon questions
vital and far-reaching, ultimately culminated in the presentation of
articles of impeachment. Partisan feeling was at its height,
and the excitement throughout the country intense. The trial
was protracted for many weeks without jot or tittle of abatement
in the public interest. The chief managers on the part of the
House were Benjamin F. Butler and Thaddeus Stevens. The array
of counsel for the accused included the names of Benjamin R. Curtis,
Henry Stanberry, and William M. Evarts. The Senate, in i