Page:The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 19.djvu/98

88 though I should much have liked a little more of them.

My hostess did not seem to think she had had too much, however; for, as she muffled me up carefully from the frosty air, she said, “My child, every time I have seen you, I have found you a pleasure, — I have found you a treasure to-day.”

“Thank you, ma’am, for a very pleasant day,” stammered I in return.

I had forgotten all about the half-hour on the cliff.

Mr. Dudley put me into the barouche, with polite hopes that his sister and daughters would soon have the pleasure of seeing me again; and such were my meditations as the gray ponies, whisking their long thick tails, bowled me smoothly along through the shadows and the moonbeams: — Now, if I were Mr. Madder, I would paint a picture of the Archangel Michael saying to Adam, “ Not too much ! ” — and it would be a good likeness, too, if Mr. Dudley would sit for the head. He looks, as the gymnasts say, though in rather a different sense, like a perfectly trained man,— as if he had always had enough to eat and enough to wear, enough to do with  and enough to do, enough to enjoy and enough to learn, enough of conflict and enough of victory, — enough, but "not too much.”

THE CAUSES FOR WHICH A PRESIDENT CAN BE IMPEACHED.

The Constitution provides, in express terms, that the President, as well as the Vice-President and all civil officers, may be impeached for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” It was framed by men who had learned to their sorrow the falsity of the English maxim, that “the king can do no wrong,” and established by the people, who meant to hold all their public servants, the highest and the lowest, to the strictest accountability. All were jealous of any “squinting towards monarchy,” and determined to allow to the chief magistrate no sort of regal immunity, but to secure his faithfulness and their own rights by holding him personally answerable for his misconduct, and to protect the government by making adequate provision for his removal. Moreover, they did not mean that the door should not be locked till after the horse had been stolen.

By the Constitution, the House of Representatives has “the sole power of impeachment,” and the Senate “the sole power to try all impeachments.” When the President of the United States is tried on impeachment, the Chief Justice is to preside. The concurrence of two thirds of the members present is necessary to convict. “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.” But judgment cannot “extend further than to removal and disqualification to hold and enjoy and office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.” Thus it is obvious that the founders of the government meant to secure it effectually against all official corruption and wrong, by providing for process to be initiated at the will of the popular branch, and furnishing an easy, safe, and sure method for the removal of all unworthy and unfaithful servants.

By defining treason exactly, by prescribing the precise proofs, and limiting the punishment of it, they guarded the