cal condemnations of their
severest penalties. Every link of the system may easily be traced from
this point; we at once perceive why the American constitutions subject
all the civil functionaries to the jurisdiction of the Senate, whilst
the military, whose crimes are nevertheless more formidable, are
exempted from that tribunal. In the civil service none of the American
functionaries can be said to be removable; the places which some of
them occupy are inalienable, and the others are chosen for a term which
cannot be shortened. It is therefore necessary to try them all in order
to deprive them of their authority. But military officers are
dependent on the chief magistrate of the State, who is himself a civil
functionary, and the decision which condemns him is a blow upon them
all.

If we now compare the American and the European systems, we shall meet
with differences no less striking in the different effects which each of
them produces or may produce. In France and in England the jurisdiction
of political bodies is looked upon as an extraordinary resource, which
is only to be employed in order to rescue society from unwonted dangers.
It is not to be denied that these tribunals, as they are constituted in
Europe, are apt to violate the conservative principle of the balance of
power in the State, and to threaten incessantly the lives and liberties
of the subject. The same political jurisdiction in the United States is
only indirectly hostile to the balance of power; it cannot menace the
lives of the citizens, and it does not hover, as in Europe, over the
heads of the community, since those only who have submitted to its
authority on accepting office are exposed to the severity of its
investigations. It is at the same time less formidable and less
efficacious; indeed, it has not been considered by the legislators of
the United States as a remedy for the more violent evils of society, but
as an ordinary means of conducting the government. In this respect it
probably exercises more real influence on the social body in America
than in Europe. We must not be misled by the apparent mildness of the
American legislation in all that relates to political jurisdiction. 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 irresisti