MS (DLC: TJ Papers, 105:17952); entirely in TJ’s hand; endorsed by TJ: “Impeachment.”

TJ’s outline above summarizes the arguments pursued by the defense in William Blount’s trial, which commenced on 17 Dec. 1798, more than 17 months after he was impeached by the House and expelled from the Senate (see Resolution on William Blount, printed at 4 July 1797). During TJ’s absence in December, John Laurance, president pro tempore of the Senate, was in charge of the proceedings. After the resignation of Samuel Sitgreaves, leader of the Blount investigation, the House elected Pennsylvania Federalist John W. Kittera to serve as a manager, and James A. Bayard and Robert Goodloe Harper assumed leadership of the prosecution. When Blount failed to appear before the Senate in person to face the charges, the trial managers questioned whether to proceed, but after debate in the House on 21 Dec. they accepted the Senate’s decision authorizing defense attorneys Jared Ingersoll and Alexander J. Dallas to appear on Blount’s behalf. On 24 Dec. Ingersoll presented Blount’s plea, and it was read by the secretary of the Senate. Challenging the Senate’s jurisdiction, he argued that impeachment proceedings were to be held only for high crimes and misdemeanors and only against the president, vice president, and civil officers of the United States. Even if members of Congress could be impeached, Blount was “not now a Senator” so the proceedings could not apply to him. Relying on Henry Tazewell’s earlier argument (see TJ to Tazewell, 27 Jan. 1798), Blount pleaded that an amendment to the Constitution guaranteed a jury trial for criminal prosecutions, thus overriding a Senate trial. The subject of jurisdiction framed the rest of the impeachment proceedings (JHR, description begins Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1826, 9 vols. description ends 3:406–7, 415; JS description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820–21, 5 vols. description ends , 3:483–8; Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 9:2470–87; Melton, First Impeachment description begins Buckner F. Melton, Jr., The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount, Macon, Ga., 1998 description ends , 196–208).

When the court reconvened on 3 Jan. 1799, TJ took the prescribed oath and presided at the trial. On that day Bayard presented arguments for the managers upholding the jurisdiction of the court. The next day, TJ notified the defense counsel to proceed and Dallas presented arguments for three and one-half hours in support of Blount’s plea (JS, description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820–21, 5 vols. description ends 3:488–90; Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 8:2248–78; Melton, First Impeachment description begins Buckner F. Melton, Jr., The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount, Macon, Ga., 1998 description ends , 214). On 5 Jan. Ingersoll completed the case for the defense. While both Dallas and Ingersoll addressed the points in TJ’s notes, Ingersoll’s arguments on constitutional matters carried additional weight because he had served as a member of the Philadelphia Convention. He began his argument by noting that while English legal sources contained much praise for a trial by jury in criminal cases, he found “none on proceedings by impeachment.” Trial by jury had “preserved the liberties of the British nation during the shocks of conquest from abroad, the convulsions of civil wars within, and the more dangerous period of modern luxury,” and while he acknowledged that trial by jury, “like every human institution, is liable to abuse,” he thought it was “less so, infinitely less so, than trial by impeachment.” Recognizing this, the framers of the Constitution designed an impeachment power that was to be “strictly construed.” The Constitution provided for the “purity of the Legislature” by giving to each house the power of expulsion of its members. Blount had been expelled, and Ingersoll asked whether he could be “removed at one trial, and disqualified at another, for the same offence?” But rather than concluding that a second trial might have contradictory issue, Ingersoll closed his defense with the query: “Would not error in the first sentence naturally be productive of error in the second instance? Is there not reason to apprehend the strong bias of a former decision would be apt to prevent the influence of any new lights brought forward upon a second trial?” (Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 8:2279–94; Melton, First Impeachment description begins Buckner F. Melton, Jr., The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount, Macon, Ga., 1998 description ends , 219).

Best feature in the constn: concluding the case for the House managers, on 5 Jan. Harper praised the Senate as “the sheet-anchor of our vessel of state.” The more “permanent and independent” structure of the Senate rendered it “far less influenced by popular opinion or popular feeling” than the executive office (Annals description begins Annals of the Congress of the United States: The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States … Compiled from Authentic Materials, Washington, D.C., Gales & Seaton, 1834–56, 42 vols. All editions are undependable and pagination varies from one printing to another. The first two volumes of the set cited here have “Compiled … by Joseph Gales, Senior” on the title page and bear the caption “Gales & Seatons History” on verso and “of Debates in Congress” on recto pages. The remaining volumes bear the caption “History of Congress” on both recto and verso pages. Those using the first two volumes with the latter caption will need to employ the date of the debate or the indexes of debates and speakers. description ends , 8:2315).

Martens: Georg Friedrich von Martens, Précis du droit des gens moderne de l’Europe, translated by William Cobbett and published by Thomas Bradford in 1795 under the title Summary of the Law of Nations, Founded on the Treaties and Customs of the Modern Nations of Europe. Harper probably referred to this work during his remarks when he cited TJ’s reference, while secretary of state, to the “‘worm-eaten volumes’ of the law of nations” (Annals, 8:2295). At the end of the arguments, TJ inquired whether the trial managers had any additional observations. None being offered, the court adjourned until Monday, 7 Jan. (JS, description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States, Washington, D.C., 1820–21, 5 vols. description ends 3:490). For an analyses of arguments presented during the trial, see Melton, First Impeachment description begins Buckner F. Melton, Jr., The First Impeachment: The Constitution’s Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount, Macon, Ga., 1998 description ends , 207–30; Raymond Walters, Jr., Alexander James Dallas: Lawyer—Politician—Financier, 1759–1817 (Philadelphia, 1943), 109–10; Morton Borden, The Federalism of James A. Bayard (New York, 1955), 47–61; and Peter C. Hoffer and N. E. H. Hull, Impeachment in America, 1635–1805 (New Haven, 1984), 155–63. For the conclusion of the case, see Senate Resolution on William Blount, [11 Jan. 1799].