“He shall be removed from his office on impeachment from the House of Representatives, and conviction by the Senate, for treason, or bribery.”54
Having now formally and for a second time agreed upon impeachment’s necessity, the group once again postponed further discussion of its practical mechanics. Yet they’d critically honed the issue, moving the criteria for impeachment away from the ambiguity of “maladministration,” a term that undoubtedly came naturally to those in the room—five states already employed this criteria for impeaching a governor. New York’s constitution offered the similarly vague “malconduct,” while North Carolina’s cited “misbehavior.” Madison had suggested “incapacity, negligence, or perfidy” as reasons for removal, which the convention’s committees for style and detail—so named because they molded the majority’s consent into usable language—revised by September 4 to read: “He shall be removed from his office on impeachment from the House of Representatives, and conviction by the Senate, for treason, or bribery.”54
Footnote
54. Madison’s Notes, July 20.
