ction and ability, took care to exclude the
idea that actual crime on the part of the officer was essential to
justify impeachment. Speaking for all the Managers he said, "We define
an impeachable high crime or misdemeanor to be one in its nature or
consequences subversive of some fundamental or essential principle of
government _or highly prejudicial to the public interest; and this may
consist of a violation of the Constitution, of law, of an official
oath, or of duty, by an act committed or omitted; or, without violating
a positive law, by the abuse of discretionary powers from improper
motives or for any improper purpose_." This of course would give
great latitude in proceedings against the President. It would
challenge his discretion, erect sins of omission into positive
offenses, and make inquest of his motives and purposes. There has not
been an occupant of the Executive Chair since the organization of the
Government, who did not at some period in his career commit an act
which in the judgment of his political opponents was "highly
prejudicial to the public interest," and therefore if his opponents
should happen to be in the majority they might impeach him, simply
for disagreement upon an issue of expediency upon which men equally
competent to judge might reasonable and conscientiously hold different
opinions. This was in effect the same position assumed by Mr. Thaddeus
Stevens, that "in order to sustain impeachment under the Constitution
it is not necessary to prove a crime as an indictable offense, or any
act _malum in se_. It is a purely _political_ proceeding." The
counsel for the President dissented altogether from this definition of
the grounds of Impeachment as given by the Managers. Judge Curtis
declared that "when the Constitution speaks of treason, bribery, and
other high crimes and misdemeanors, it refers to and includes only
high criminal offenses against the United states, made so by some law
of the United States existing when the acts complained of were done. .
. . _Noscitur a sociis_. High crimes and misdemeanors! so high that
they belong in this company with _treason_ and _bribery_." The
position of Judge Curtis was fortified by the fact that in the five
cases of Impeachment trial before the President was accused--the cases
of Blount, of Pickering, of Chase, of Peck, and of Humphries--the
charges preferred by the House involved criminality.

Outside of professional opinion there was supp