Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers, no. 65, where Hamilton said that impeachment should result from the misconduct of public men or abuse of the public trust. That is, impeachment did not depend solely on an indictable offense per se. “At the present moment,” Boutwell explained, “we have no law which declares that it shall be a high crime or misdemeanor for the President to decline to recognize the Congress of the United States, and yet should he deny its lawful and constitutional existence and authority, and thus virtually dissolve the Government, would the House and Senate be
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