Fractured Into Factions? What The Founders Feared About Impeachment
The Founding Fathers saw impeachment as a release valve from another "crisis of a national revolution." But they also worried it would devolve into partisan bickering if put into action.
As the Founding Fathers were drafting the U.S. Constitution, they were explicitly trying to avoid a repeat of the situation they had just fought a war to free themselves from — a ruler with unchecked power.
While they wrote a bare minimum about impeachment in the country's essential governing document, other writings from the time provide rich insights about their intentions.
In Federalist No. 69, Alexander Hamilton described impeachment essentially as a release valve from another "crisis of a national revolution." He and other Founders grappled with how best to execute such a check, and eventually they settled on the system we have today.
Even more than 230 years ago, they were eerily prescient in fearing how the impeachment
