he highest contemporary authority on the
construction of the Constitution, and in the sixty-fourth number the
functions of the Senate "sitting in their judicial capacity as a court
for the trial of impeachments" are examined.

In a paragraph explaining the reasons for not uniting "the Supreme Court
with the Senate in the formation of the court of impeachments" it is
observed that--

To a certain extent the benefits of that union will be obtained from
making the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court the president of the court
of impeachments, as is proposed by the plan of the Convention, while the
inconveniences of an entire incorporation of the former into the latter
will be substantially avoided. This was, perhaps, the prudent mean.

This authority seems to leave no doubt upon either of the propositions
just stated; and the statement of them will serve to introduce the
question upon which I think it my duty to state the result of my
reflections to the Senate, namely, At what period, in the case of
an impeachment of the President, should the court of impeachment be
organized under oath, as directed by the Constitution?

It will readily suggest itself to anyone who reflects upon the abilities
and the learning in the law which distinguish so many Senators that
besides the reason assigned in the Federalist there must have been still
another for the provision requiring the Chief Justice to preside in the
court of impeachment. Under the Constitution, in case of a vacancy in
the office of President, the Vice-President succeeds, and it was
doubtless thought prudent and befitting that the next in succession
should not preside in a proceeding through which a vacancy might be
created.

It is not doubted that the Senate, while sitting in its ordinary
capacity, must necessarily receive from the House of Representatives
some notice of its intention to impeach the President at its bar,
but it does not seem to me an unwarranted opinion, in view of this
constitutional provision, that the organization of the Senate as
a court of impeachment, under the Constitution, should precede the
actual announcement of the impeachment on the part of the House.

And it may perhaps be thought a still less unwarranted opinion that
articles of impeachment should only be presented to a court of
impeachment; that no summons or other process should issue except
from the organized court, and that rules for the government of the
proceedings of