The Constitution could have empowered the Senate to elect a President from their own number. It can hardly be supposed that it would have taken the Chief Justice of the United States to make him a dummy in the highest tribunal for a specific purpose known to the law. But whatever the correct view, the motives of Judge Chase, it seems to us, should be quite above harsh suspicion. We certainly do not see the force of the Chief Justice's opinion that the Senate should be organized as a Court of Impeachment before the announcement of impeachment is made from the House. But that when the Senate proceeds to organize as a court it should adopt its rules under the presidency of its constitutional chief does not seem a very rash or disorganizing proposition.
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