This article discusses some of the reasons our founders felt impeachment was a critical component to the Constitution and a tool to be used to reign in out of control Executives of the the United States. It also references the Constitution and calls for your input and discussion regarding beginning Impeachment against both the Vice President and President.

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John Nichols wrote, "The Genius of Impeachment: The founders cure for Royalism".  His wonderfully written book discusses the importance of the checks and balances of our nations government.  The genius behind the design set forth in our Constitution.  The separation of powers and the reasons that our founders found them to be so critically important to our nations long-term success and to prevent the creation of a "Royal" or "Unitary Executive".

Here are a few excerpts from a speech John Nichols gave promoting the book:

James Madison said, "A Nation in continual warfare will not long be free"

"No American should ever be honored to fight in a coloniel war" Abraham Lincoln

"The Provision of the Constitution giving the war making power to Congress was dictated by the following reasons:

 - Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object of the war.  This, our Constitutional convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions.  And they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no man should hold the power of bringing this oppression on the American people.  

Your suggestion that Presidents should be allowed to make war as they choose and they should not be sanctioned in a time of war destroys the whole matter of the American Experiment and places our President where Kings have always stood."

Sincerely, 

Abraham Lincoln 

Benjamin Franklin argued that the impeachment power was in the President's best interest.  History furnishes only one example of a Magistrate being formally brought to public  Justice.

Prior to that, the only recourse was to assassinate an out of control rogue Monarch.  Impeachment is a better way, and it is provided for in the Constitution for the regular punishment of the Executive when his misconduct deserves it.  

James Madison considered the impeachment power, "indispensable.. for defending the Community [against] the incapacity, negligence or perfidy of the chief Magistrate. 

Madison felt that limiting a President's time in office simply did not provide sufficient security against the potential abuse of power.  During his tenure in office the president may "lose his capacity and pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression.. or betray his trust to foreign [or domestic] powers.  

Madison concluded that "Impeachment is a necessary check because the President's "loss of capacity or corruption" could be fatal to the nation.   

The Framers took impeachment seriously, here are some excerpts from the Constitution:

Article. I. Section. 2. The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Article I. Section 3. The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Article II. Section. 2. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Articleu II. Section. 4. 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.

Article III. Section 2. The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the Trial shall be at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have directed. 

And, in the book, "ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH", Michael Ratner, Bill Goodman and other experts at one of our nation's leading institutions of constitutional scholarship, the Center for Constitutional Rights, set out the legal arguments for impeachment in a clear, concise, and objective discussion. In four separate articles of impeachment detailing four separate charges –warrantless surveillance, misleading Congress on the reasons for the Iraq war, violating laws against torture, and subverting the Constitution’s separation of powers – it is, say the CCR attorneys, a case of black letter law, with abundant evidence.

ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH details that evidence, the relevant laws and the legal precedents. It also explains what the Constitution says about impeachment – an informative discussion further illuminated by supplemental material that includes a history of impeachment, explanation of its procedures, and the previous articles of impeachment brought against Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

With leading Republicans calling for investigations of the domestic spying campaign, a special prosecutor investigating the suppression of evidence used to launch the Iraq war, and hearings on innumerable instances of torture, ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT AGAINST GEORGE W. BUSH may be more timely than any of us would like to admit.

Please add your thoughts and let us begin a discussion on the merits of Impeachment, your thoughts on "taking impeachment off the table" and your thoughts on why you believe or do not believe that impeachment would be detrimental to our nations future. 

Authors Bio:
August Adams is a CPA and holds a Masters Degree in Psychology. He is an activist striving to create a fair and just world for all.