3859. IMPEACHMENT, Juries and.—
The Senate have before them a bill for regulating
proceedings in impeachment. This will
be made the occasion of offering a clause for
the introduction of juries into these trials.
(Compare the paragraph in the Constitution
which says, that all crimes, except in cases
of impeachment, shall be by jury, with the
eighth amendment, which says, that in all
criminal prosecutions the trial shall be by
jury.) There is no expectation of carrying this;
because the division in the Senate is of two to
one, but it will draw forth the principles of
the parties, and concur in accumulating proofs
on which side all the sound principles are to
be found.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. iv, 208.
Ford ed., vii, 192.
(Pa.,
Jan. 1798)
