74 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



House may expel member for acts done by him 

 before hi* election." If this analogy ii perfect 

 u that committee evidently supposed it to b< 

 the itreu of argument which they impose upon it, 

 then it become* our duty carefully to examine the pre- 

 cedent* in cue of expulsion to awx-rtaiii the nature of 

 that conatitutional power vested in both Houses of 

 Congrea* and the class of offenses upon which it may 

 operate, and what, it' any, distinction there may bo 

 between the consequences following a judgment in 

 impeachment and a vote of expulsion. 



That committee thereupon assert : " It bos never 

 been contended that the power to impeach for any 

 oauae enumerated," i. e., treason, bribery, or other 

 high crimes, " was intended to be restricted to those 

 which might occur after appointment to civil office." 



Your committee have been unable from tlicir in- 

 vestigation to find warrant for this assertion. Wo 

 have already shown that all the precedent* under 

 the Constitution show impeachment to have been 

 for acta done in the very office from which the ac- 

 cused was sought to be removed. We are unaware 

 that there is any case to the contrary in the later 

 decisions in England, or in any States of the Union, 

 and we grieve that the committee for whom we have 

 so high a respect have not seen fit to give authority 

 to the House for this so grave and important a prop- 

 osition of constitutional law. 



Knowing the accurate learning and exhaustive 

 research of that committee, and the long time which 

 they have had this matter under consideration, 

 the Committee of the Judiciary feel quite sure that 

 if any such case in precedent could have been found 

 it would have been stated in support of a proposi- 

 tion of such moment. In the more limited knowl- 

 edge of your committee and in the little time we 

 lave been able to give to this investigation, we have 

 been unable to find any authority or precedents 

 for so broad an assertion of unquestioned power. 

 And your committee take leave to suppose that the 

 immense labors of the Committee on Credit Mobilier. 

 in their investigation alone, iinn-l have permit!* ,1 

 them to the enunciation of a proposition for l.i.-li 

 it would seem to be difficult to find either precedents 

 or authority. 



And we are emboldened in our opinion upon tins 

 point because we do not fail to observe that the 

 learned committee in the analogy which they draw 

 between impeachment and expulsion have not ad- 

 verted to but have overlooked in tin ir exposition of 

 the subject, the very wide distinction of the effect 

 of proceedings by impeachment and the effect of ex- 

 pulsion of n member tor whatever cnusn. 



That constitutional distinction i thin: that im- 

 peachment nmv disqualify the impeached from ever 

 after holding office, while expulsion never has been 

 held, except under a statute of England long since 

 fallen into disuse, by which alone the case of Wilkes 

 was for a time attempted to be justified in a limited 

 degree to have such effect. The expelled member 

 may be and has been, frequently, reflected after 

 expulsion. The impeached officer never can be 

 elected or appointed to office after impeachment and 

 a full judgment upon the finding of /act. 



1 '- ;i ' ' /. therefore, thai Mi mmitti-e have 



'r-:. -. IM rtnttt ri illtV, r , .,,,-(., we ;ire permit- 

 ted to believe that they may not have carefully ob- 

 served other difference* between expulsion and Im- 

 peachment which will *how the analogy which they 

 nave drawn In their argument may aid our own 

 conclusions. Tour committee feel th'nt this analogy, 

 whatever it may be, strengthen* our argument that 

 an officer mv not be impeached for an act done be- 

 fore his election to office, because, before we heard 

 the report of the learned Committee on Credit Mo- 

 illor. we had not been led to doubt that no man 

 eonld or ought to he expelled for any act done by him 

 "tore his election as a member OfOoOfM**. 



Our first reason for not doubting on thi* point 



rhlch we drain to recall to the House and the 



country i* the plain word* of the Conatitution, 



which xem to us clearly to indicate that the power 

 of expulsion i* a protective, not a punitive provision 

 of the Constitution. It U found in section five 01 

 the first article : 



Each Hunee mar determine the rale* of Its proceed- 

 ing, puiiii-u its members for disorderly behavior sud 

 with the concurrence of two-thirds expel a member. ' 



Expel for what f For disorderly behavior, i. e., 

 for that behavior which renders him unfit to do his 

 duties as a member of the House, or that present 

 condition of mind or body which makes it unsafe or 

 improper for the House to have him in it. We sub- 

 mit with some confidence that the House might expel 

 an insane man, because it might not be sale or con- 

 venient lor the House to have him within the legis- 

 lative hall. They can also clearly expel a man for 

 i rly proceedings in the body or for nuch acts 

 outside of the body as to render it at the time mani- 

 festly improper for him to be in the House. But 

 your committee are constrained to believe that the 

 power of expelling a member for some alleged crime, 

 committed, it may be x years before his election, is 

 not within the constitutional prerogative of the 

 House. 



We do not overlook the argument presented by 

 the learned committee upon whose report we are 

 observing by the phrase : 



Every consideration of Justice and sound pollcj would 

 seem to require that the public Interests beeecnred, and 

 those chosen to be ihclr imardlanr be free In ni i 

 tlon of Mnli crime?, no matter at what time that pollu- 

 tion bad attached. 



But the answer seems to us an obvious one that 

 the Constitution has given to the House of i: 

 scntutivea no constitutional power over such con- 

 siderations of "justice and sound policy '.' as a quali- 

 fication in representation. On the contrary, the <Vn- 

 etitution has given this power to another and higher 

 tribunal, to wit, the constituency of the member. 

 Every intcndment of our form of government would 

 seem to point to that. This is a Government of the 

 people which assume* that they are the best judge* 

 of the social, intellectual, and moral qualifications of 

 their Representatives whom they are to choose, not 

 anybody else to choose for them, and we therefore 

 find In the people's Constitution and frame of gov- 

 ernment they have in the very first article and 

 n determined that " the House if ! 

 shall be composed of members chonen every 

 second year by the people of the States," not by 

 repri-sentativ< chosen for them at the will and 

 caprice of members of Congress from other States 

 according to the notions of "the necessities ol 

 preservation and self-purification " which might 

 suggest themselves to the reason or caprice of tin 

 " TS from other States in any process of "pur- 

 gation orpuriflcation " which two-thirds of the mem- 

 ber* of either House may " deem necessary" to pre- 

 vent bringing "the body into contempt and dis- 

 grace." 



Your committee are further emboldened to take 

 this view of thin very important const ilutinnal ques- 

 tion because they find that in the same section it is 

 provided what shall be the qualifications of a 1\< 

 sensitive of the people so chosen by the pi 

 themselves. On this it is solemnly enacted, un- 

 changed during the life of the nation, that 



No person shall be a Representative who shall not 

 have attained the age of twenty-live years, and been 

 seven year* a citizen of the United Slates, and who shall 

 not wheu elected be an Inhabitant of that State In w hi. Ii 

 he shall be chosen. 



Your committee believe that there U no man or 

 body of men who can add to or toko away " on 

 or tittle " of these qualifications. The enumeration 

 of such specified qualifications neceisarih 

 every other. It 1* respectfully submitted ihnt it is 

 nowhere provided that the HouM of Rrproscntr.' 

 hall consist of such members as ore left after the 

 procca* of" purgation and purification" shall have 



