Federalist No. 66

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist No. 66, authored by Alexander Hamilton under the pen name Publius, is the sixty sixth of 85 essays. Titled "Objections to the Power of the Senate To Set as a Court for Impeachments Further Considered", Hamilton continues the discussion started in Federalist 65 on the issue of presidential impeachment.

It was published on March 8, 1788.

## Objections[edit]

Hamilton responds to four objections made by the Anti-Federalists about the Senate:

1. That the provision in question confounds legislative and judiciary authorities in the same body, in violation of that important and well established maxim which requires a separation between the different departments of power.
2. That the Senate as a court of impeachments contributes to an undue accumulation of power in that body, tending to give to the government a countenance too aristocratic.
3. That the Senate as a court of impeachments is drawn from the agency they are to have in the appointments to office.
4. That the Senate in the capacity of a court of impeachments, is derived from its union with the Executive in the power of making treaties. This would constitute the senators their own judges in every case of a corrupt or perfidious execution of that trust.

## External links[edit]

* Full text of Federalist #66, The Avalon Project

v • d • e

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