Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/59

 fountain of public security." Channeling Locke, American revolutionaries vehemently objected to King George III's electoral shenanigans; ultimately, they listed several election-related charges in the Declaration of Independence. Those who wrote our Constitution knew, and feared, that the chief executive could threaten their plan of government by corrupting elections.

The true nature of this threat is its rejection of government by "We the People," who would "ordain and establish" the Constitution. The beating heart of the Framers' project was a commitment to popular sovereignty. At a time when "democratic self-government existed almost nowhere on earth," the Framers imagined a society "where the true principles of representation are understood and practised, and where all authority flows from, and returns at stated periods to, the people." That would be possible only if "those entrusted with [power] should be kept in dependence on the people." This is why the President, and Members of Congress, must stand before the public for re-election on fixed terms. It is through free and fair elections that the American people protect their right to selfgovernment, a right unforgivably denied to many as the Constitution was ratified in 1788 but now extended to all American citizens over the age of 18. When the President concludes that elections threaten his continued grasp on power, and therefore seeks to corrupt or interfere with them, he denies the very premise of our constitutional system. The American people choose their leaders; a President who wields power to destroy opponents or manipulate elections is a President who rejects democracy itself.

In sum, the Framers discussed the risk that Presidents would improperly conspire with foreign nations; they also discussed the risk that Presidents would place their interest in retaining power above the integrity of our elections. Both offenses, in their view, called for impeachment. That is doubly true where a President conspires with a foreign power to manipulate elections to his benefit—conduct that betrays American self-governance and joins the Framers' worst nightmares into a single impeachable offense.

D. Conclusion

Writing in 1833, Justice Joseph Story remarked that impeachable offenses "are of so various