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In the crucial years between 1755 and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, impeachment was used as a weapon against abuses of authority that came from imperial policy. In this way, impeachment was a tool for the exercise of popular sovereignty, ensuring a close link between impeachment and republicanism in the colonies.
Informed by the reasonable and clear arguments made by Madison and Morris, the discussion seemed to be moving toward a distinctive view: the president should be impeachable, but only for a narrow and specified category of abuses of the public trust.
If there is a bipartisan consensus, more rather than less, that a president needs to go because of a host of genuinely erratic decisions, we can fairly speak of gross neglect of duty, to a degree that makes impeachment legitimate.
