Impeaching Everyone - Joseph Taylor's Argument From North Carolina
Joseph Taylor was an Anti-Federalist who had the clearest argument against the way impeachment was presented in the Constitution.
Joseph Taylor
Joseph Taylor was an officer in the Revolutionary War who had spent time in the North Carolina Senate when he was sent as a Delegate to Hillsborough Convention.
This meeting was North Carolina’s first convention aimed at ratifying the US Constitution.
At Hillsborough, North Carolina became one of the only States to vote against the new government.
A big reason for this was the overwhelming Anti-Federalist sentiment and Joseph Taylor emerged as one of the leaders attacking the Constitution.
Impeachment
Although Taylor’s opinions were given orally at Hillsborough, they have been written down and are now counted among the Anti-Federalist Papers under the title From North Carolina
His strongest argument was made against the means of impeachment in the Constitution.
Joseph noticed that Congress was given the “sole power of impeachment” in the new government. Did this mean that only the Federal Government could impeach members of the State Governments, or could they do that themselves? In Taylor’s estimation this was not clear.
Furthermore, hundreds of government officials (AKA tax collectors) would be sent out in the several States. If one of these employees abused their power, would someone from North Carolina be forced to travel all the way to the national capital to accuse them? This would entail paying for the travel of any witnesses also, making it nearly impossible for an average citizen to address their grievances.
A Great Distance
As for the impeachment at the highest levels, Taylor found that to be unlikely.
In his estimation, if tyranny were to arise under this Constitution it would be with the assistance of both the House of Representatives and Senate.
The idea that these institutions would both impeach someone when they were involved in creating any problems was silly.
You The People?
There is another statement Taylor made at Hillsborough which is not included in From North Carolina that warrants attention.
Joseph was curious as to why the Delegates at the Constitutional Convention used the phrase ‘we the people’.
The Delegates had been selected by the State Legislatures, not elected by the people. Taylor was unhappy that these men had the gaul to claim they were representatives of the people when they should have acknowledged themselves as ‘we the State Representatives.’
If you made it this far you might also enjoy another of my Anti-Federalist articles:
Montezuma’s Sarcastic Approval of the Constitution
The Decent of the Pennsylvania Minority
We Have Been Told of Phantoms - William Grayson’s Constitutional Skepticism
Want to learn more about Anti-Federalist Papers?
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