Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/224

 216 impeachment against those, who offend against the state. An American commentator has hazarded the extraordinary remark, that, "If the want of a proper tribunal for the trial of impeachments can endanger the liberties of the United States, some future Machiavel may perhaps trace their destruction to the same source." The model, from which the national court of impeachments is borrowed, is, doubtless, that of Great Britain; and a similar constitutional distribution of the power exists in many of the state governments.

§ 743. The great objects, to be attained in the selection of a tribunal for the trial of impeachments, are, impartiality, integrity, intelligence, and independence. If either of these is wanting, the trial must be radically imperfect. To ensure impartiality, the body must be in some degree removed from popular power and passions, from the influence of sectional prejudice, and from the more dangerous influence of mere party spirit. To secure integrity, there must be a lofty sense of duty, and a deep responsibility to future times, as well as to God. To secure intelligence, there must be age, experience, and high intellectual powers, as well as attainments. To secure independence, there must be numbers, as well as talents, and a confidence resulting at once from permanency of place, and dignity of station, and enlightened patriotism. Does the senate combine, in a suitable degree, all these qualifications? Does it combine them more perfectly, than any other tribunal, which could be constituted? What other tribunal could be entrusted with the authority? These are questions of the highest importance, and of the most frequent occurrence. They arose in the convention, and underwent