How many impeachments do you think there have been in American History thus far?
Was it 1? Maybe 3?
There have been upwards of 60 impeachments in the United States.
With coverage of the impeachment process of sitting President Donald Trump taking up most of our headlines today, we don't really hear much about other impeachments in U.S. History. It's important to remember that impeachment is:
Not exclusive to the President
Not the removal of a sitting civil official from their position
Extreme, but probably more common than you think
Impeachment actually originated in England as a way in which the legislative body - Parliament - kept the executive body - the king's administrators - in check.
The Constitution in Article 2 Section 4 outlines the qualifications for impeachment thusly:
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.
The impeachment process begins in the House of Representatives, in which articles of impeachment are introduced to the floor, much like a bill. The article then goes to the House Committee on the Judiciary, after which, if approved, is then led to the floor. A simple majority moves the inquiry to the Senate. At this point, the relevant official has been impeached. Whether or not they are removed depends on how the Senate rules in the conviction.
In the Senate, an appointed group of "managers" by the House of Representatives acts as the prosecution, as they definitionally agree to the charges against the official. Members of the Senate, generally those on the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, hear witnesses, consider evidence, and vote to either convict - remove - or acquit - let go - the accused official by a supermajority (two-thirds of the Senate rather than the simple one-half) . In presidential impeachments, the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court presides.
In sum, there have been upwards of 60 motions for impeachment, only about a third of which have led to actual removals from office. According to the U.S. House of Representatives Online Archives, here are some of the impeachments of the past that have gone to the Senate:
1. William Blount, a U.S. Senator from Tennessee who was accused of conspiring with the British in their "attempt to seize Spanish-controlled territories in modern-day Florida and Louisiana." The idea was the the French victory over the Spanish in the War of the Pyrenees would lead to the French taking control of modern-day Louisiana, cutting off American access to the Mississippi River. Blount and a co-conspirator John Chisholm offered that land to the British in exchange for free access to the river. The charges were dismissed in the Senate, as Blount had earlier been expelled from the Senate.
2. In 1803, John Pickering, U.S. district court, District of New Hampshire, was accused of intoxication on the bench and extra-legal rulings and dealings in civil suits regarding property claims. He was accused of high misdemeanors and conduct unfit for a man of his office, a charge of which he was convicted by the U.S. Senate. You can actually read the original impeachment process documents here.
3. Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court Samuel Chase was accused of "arbitrary and oppressive conduct of trials" after he acted as if he was a prosecutor rather than a judge. The truth is that Jefferson, after the landmark case Marbury v. Madison, which established the precedent of judicial review, wished to appoint as many non-Federalist judges to the bench as possible, and Chase, being a Federalist, was impeached as per Jefferson's recommendation. He was acquitted in the Senate.
4. James H. Peck was a U.S. district court judge in the West district of Tennessee, impeached April 24,1830, on charges of abuse of the office. He ruled against a lawyer named Luke Lawless (you can make the joke yourself here) regarding a property case, and published his opinion a year later in a newspaper. Lawless anonymously published a rebuttal in an article soon thereafter. He was discovered and was given 24 hours in jail, having been accused thusly:
" Intent to impair the public confidence in the upright intentions of said court, and to bring odium upon the court, and especially with intent to impress the public mind, and particularly many litigants in this court, that they are not to expect justice in the cases now pending therein."
Lawless began a campaign against Peck, trying and failing to get him removed from office via impeachment.
5. William W. Belknap was a U.S. Secretary of War (the Department of War is now called the Department of Defense) who was accused of "criminal disregard for his office and accepting payments in exchange for making official appointments." In 1876, what is now known as the Trader Post Scandal was a deal made between Belknap's first and luxury-loving wife and Caleb Marsh, a maritime trader. The deal was that Grant would appoint a favorable manager of the Fort Still trading post. Marsh made regular payments of $20,000 to Grant - $347,578.38 today. He was impeached but not removed, because he only received a simple majority.
There have been a lot more impeachments in U.S. History, and I encourage you to explore them here. I included the most interesting to me, for the sake of entertainment and simplicity.
Thanks for reading,
Aayush Murarka
I love the podcast