Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment

[babylonsister]

http://theconversation.com/founders-removal-from-office-is-not-the-only-purpose-of-impeachment-124254?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=facebookbutton&fbclid=IwAR0Uqt5LzXug6wp0aCEGMz7RobVbg8wcfK2hCAruLo9PtJ220hX7un8wDBM


Founders: Removal from office is not the only purpose of impeachment
September 26, 2019 5.33pm EDT
Author Clark D. Cunningham


snip//

One of the Founders’ greatest fears was that the president would abuse his power. George Mason described the president as the “man who can commit the most extensive injustice.” James Madison thought the president might “pervert his administration into a scheme of [stealing public funds] or oppression or betray his trust to foreign powers.” Edmund Randolph, governor of Virginia, said the president “will have great opportunitys of abusing his power; particularly in time of war when the military force, and in some respects the public money will be in his hands.”

snip//

Good for the president and the country

Benjamin Franklin told his fellow delegates the story of a recent dispute that had greatly troubled the Dutch Republic.

One of the Dutch leaders, William V, the Prince of Orange, was suspected to have secretly sabotaged a critical alliance with France. The Dutch had no impeachment process and thus no way to conduct “a regular examination” of these allegations. These suspicions mounted, giving rise to “to the most violent animosities & contentions.”

The moral to Franklin’s story? If Prince William had “been impeachable, a regular & peaceable inquiry would have taken place.” The prince would, “if guilty, have been duly punished — if innocent, restored to the confidence of the public.”

Franklin concluded that impeachment was a process that could be “favorable” to the president, saying it is the best way to provide for “the regular punishment of the Executive when his misconduct should deserve it and for his honorable acquittal when he should be unjustly accused.”

[Turbineguy]

1. Honorable acquittal

By Moscow Mitch

[Karadeniz]

2. Ben assumes a Congress interested in truth and justice.