By Curtis W. Caine, Sr., M.D.
In the September/October 1998 issue of the Medical Sentinel, this column explored the Constitutional provisions for “Voter Requirements” — intentionally, as a prologue to this logical sequel on “Office Holder Requirements.” Get out your copy and follow along:
Article I, Section 2, paragraph 2 stipulates, “No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.” These yardsticks are strictly adhered to.
Article I, Section 3, paragraph 3 orders, “No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.” These criteria are meticulously followed.
Article II, Section 1, paragraph 4 directs, “No Person except a natural born Citizen…shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” These rules are also precisely obeyed.
But that is not all. The matter does not stop there. Accordingly, Article VI, paragraph 3 provides, “The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution….” This they do, frequently with one hand on the Bible and sealing the pledge with the phrase, “So help me, God.”
In addition, Article II, Section 1, paragraph 7 requires the President, “Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: ‘I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’ ” This he does, adding, hand on Bible, “So help me, God.”
There is more. Article II, Section 4 instructs, “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and conviction of, (1) Treason, (2) Bribery, or (3) other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” But this requirement is not honored.
Bribery is universally understood, so it requires no further elucidation.
Treason: The Constitution in Article III, Section 3, paragraph 1 defines, “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Treason is a serious violation of the oath of office. According to paragraph 2, “The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason…”
That leaves “other high Crimes and Misdemeanors” which include lying, perjury, suborning perjury, abuse of power, immorality, obstruction of justice, etc. The President and other high government officials may be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors” which may be official or personal misconduct not amounting to a crime.
In his influential Commentaries on the Constitution, Chief Justice Joseph Story explained the history of impeachment in England as follows: “The offenses to which the remedy of impeachment has been and will continue to be principally applied are of a political nature…[W]hat are aptly termed political offenses, growing out of personal misconduct, or gross neglect, or usurpation, or habitual disregard of the public interest.”
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, explained requirement for impeachment as “some provision should be made for defending the community against the incapacity, negligence, or perfidy of the chief magistrate. He might pervert his administration into a scheme of peculation or oppression. He might betray his trust to foreign powers.”
And Alexander Hamilton noted in The Federalist Papers (No. 65) that impeachment of the President should take place “for those offenses which proceed from the misconduct of public men, or in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust. They are of a nature which may with peculiar propriety be denominated political, as they relate chiefly to injuries done immediately to society itself.”
Thus, any time any officer in the United States violates the Constitution, thereby breaching his oath, he has committed an impeachable offense. For instance, nowhere in the Constitution is the central government given authority to legislate on or dabble in health, education, welfare, entitlements, banking, agriculture, police, crime, art, pay foreign debts, i.e., Mexico’s or Asia’s, defend Germany, protect Japan, and a thousand and one other current actions and activities of the Federal government. Since these operations are without Constitutional permission, they are illegal. Therefore, anyone who has voted for an unConstitutional activity, or who participates in it, or administers it is a felon; he has committed a crime; he has violated the Constitution, which Article VI, paragraph 2 declares to be “the supreme Law of the Land” and everybody is “bound thereby.”
Which brings us around to the object of this commentary — impeachment. Article I, Section 2, paragraph 5 charges that “The House of Representatives… shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.” Article I, Section 3, paragraphs 6 and 7 lay it out like this, “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.
“Judgement 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, Judgement and Punishment, according to Law.” As John Adams wrote in 1798: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
I bet you that impeachment of just one violator would promptly make strict, circumspect, upright adherents to the Constitution of all the rest of incumbents and aspirants. To rescue, save, and then preserve the Republic, let’s get on with the task.
As serious as all of this is temporally, there is yet a more grievous crime that deals with eternity. Ponder this: to take the name of the Lord in vain by swearing in His name and then breaking that promise to Him. For by the Third Commandment, found in Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11, God declared, “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.”
Dr. Caine is an anesthesiologist in Jackson, Mississippi, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Medical Sentinel. His address is 712 Forest Point Drive, Brandon, MS 39047.
The editor also researched and contributed to this article on the writings of the Founding Fathers on impeachment.
Originally published in the Medical Sentinel 1998;3(6):224-225. Copyright © 1998 Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).
(This column on the Constitution appears in the Medical Sentinel to remind us that it is the unConstitutional (and thus illegal) activities in medicine and all other facets of our lives that have trampled on and outlawed our God-endowed freedom and liberty.)
