Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol II).djvu/225

 CH. X.] a full discussion there. They were again deliberately debated in the state conventions; and they have been at various times since agitated by jurists and statesmen, and political bodies. Few parts of the constitution have been assailed with more vigour; and few have been defended with more ability. A learned commentator, at a considerable distance of time after the adoption of the constitution, did not scruple to declare, that it was a most inordinate powder, and in some instances utterly incompatible with the other functions of the senate; and a similar opinion has often been propagated with an abundance of zeal. The journal of the convention bears testimony also to no inconsiderable diversity of judgment on the subject in that body.

§ 744. The subject is itself full of intrinsic difficulty in a government purely elective. The jurisdiction is to be exercised over offences, which are committed by public men in violation of their public trust and duties. Those duties are, in many cases, political; and, indeed, in other cases, to which the power of impeachment will probably be applied, they will respect functionaries of a high character, where the remedy would otherwise be wholly inadequate, and the grievance be incapable of redress. Strictly speaking, then, the power partakes of a political character, as it respects injuries to the society in its political character; and, on this account, it requires to be guarded in its exercise against the spirit of faction, the intolerance of party, and the sudden movements of popular feeling. The prosecution will seldom fail to agitate the passions of the whole community, and to 28