It is because it did not assume the form of an
impeachment that it is the more palpably repugnant to the Constitution,
for it is through that form only that the President is judicially
responsible to the Senate; and though neither removal from office nor
future disqualification ensues, yet it is not to be presumed that the
framers of the Constitution considered either or both of those results
as constituting the whole of the punishment they prescribed. The
judgment of _guilty_ by the highest tribunal in the Union, the stigma it
would inflict on the offender, his family, and fame, and the perpetual
record on the Journal, handing down to future generations the story of
his disgrace, were doubtless regarded by them as the bitterest portions,
if not the very essence, of that punishment. So far, therefore, as some
of its most material parts are concerned, the passage, recording, and
promulgation of the resolution are an attempt to bring them on the
President in a manner unauthorized by the Constitution. To shield him
and other officers who are liable to impeachment from consequences
so momentous, except when really merited by official delinquencies,
the Constitution has most carefully guarded the whole process of
impeachment.
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