[Sidenote:  Impeachment in the United States.] In the United States the House of Representatives has the sole power of impeachment, and the Senate has the sole power to try all impeachments.  When the president of the United States is tried, the chief-justice must preside.  As a precaution against the use of impeachment for party purposes, a two thirds vote is required for conviction; and this precaution proved effectual (fortunately, as most persons now admit) in the famous case of President Johnson in 1868.  In case of conviction the judgment cannot extend further than “to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honour, trust, or profit under the United States;” but the person convicted is liable afterward to be tried and punished by the ordinary process of law.

[Sidenote:  Veto power of the president] The provisions of the Constitution for legislation are admirably simple.  All bills for raising revenue must originate in the lower house, but the upper house may propose or concur with amendments, as on other bills.  This provision was inherited from Parliament, through the colonial legislatures.  After a bill has passed both houses it must be sent to the president for approval.  If he approves it, he signs it; if not, he returns it to the house in which it originated, with a written statement of his objections, and this statement must be entered in full upon the journal of the house.  The bill is then reconsidered, and if it obtains a two thirds vote, it is sent, together with the objections, to the other house.  If it there likewise obtains a two thirds vote, it becomes a law, in spite of the objections.  Otherwise it fails.  If the president keeps a bill longer than ten days (Sundays excepted) without signing it, it becomes a law without his signature; unless Congress adjourns before the expiration of the ten days, in which case it fails to become a law, just as if it had been vetoed.  This method of vetoing a bill just before the expiration of a Congress, by keeping it in one’s pocket, so to speak, was dubbed a “pocket veto,” and was first employed by President Jackson in 1829.  The president’s veto power is a qualified form of that which formerly belonged to the English sovereign but has now, as already observed, become practically obsolete.  As a means of guarding the country against unwise legislation, it has proved to be one of the most valuable features of our Federal Constitution.  In bad hands it cannot do much harm, it can only delay for a short time a needed law.  But when properly used it can save the country from, laws that if once enacted would sow seeds of disaster very hard to eradicate; and it has repeatedly done so.  A single man will often act intelligently where a group of men act foolishly, and, as already observed, he is apt to have a keener sense of responsibility.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT.

What is to be said with regard to the following topics?