Abstract
The Chase Impeachment was a critical event in the early development of the
impeachment power, and scholars have cast it as a contest between a political and a legal
understanding of the impeachment power. Moreover, since the two understandings of
impeachment correspond to masked partisan contests over the relationship between
judicial and legislative departments, the acquittal of Chase has been interpreted as a
victory for the legalistic understanding of impeachment and for an independent judiciary
with judicial review. This paper builds upon recent scholarship which questions this
standard account. Specifically, this paper examines Thomas Jefferson’s participation in
the Chase impeachment within the context of his understanding of the impeachment
power and thus offers a fuller account of the alternative paths for the Chase
impeachment. By presenting Jefferson’s understanding of impeachments, it presents a
third way for the impeachment power and improves upon current discussions of
executive power and constitutionalism.
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