that the Senate was being called upon "to aid in an
audacious attempt to pry into Executive secrets by
a tribunal which had no authority to do any such thing,
and to enable the Supreme Court to assume an unheard
of and unbounded power, if not despotism. It is to
enable the Judiciary to exercise an authority over the
President which he can never consent to. It is well
known that the persons applying are enemies to the
President, and that the Court are not friendly to
him. . • . No Court on earth can control the Legis-
lature, and yet it has been held here on the floor that
they can, and this is a part of the same attempt to set
the Court above the President and to cast a stigma upon
him.'* Jackson of Georgia hoped that the Senate "will
not interfere in it and become a party to an accusation
which may end in an impeachment, of which the Sen-
ate were the constitutional Judges.'* Breckenridge of
Kentucky repeated the arguments which he had made
the previous spring. "The Senate should not counte-
nance,'* he said, "the Judiciary in their attack on the
Executive power which is not constitutionally amenable
to the Judges. ... It is dangerous to coimtenance
the pretensions set up by the Judges to examine into
the conduct of the other branches of the Government ;
for if they have a right to examine, they must have, as
a necessary incident, the right to control the other de-
partments of Government. Such right is inconsistent
with every idea of good government, and must neces-
sarily degrade those branches which the Judiciary
should thus undertake to direct. The present suit is
therefore levelled at the dignity of the first Executive
Magistrate, and the Senate is bound to protect that dig-
nity."[1] Jefferson's friends succeeded in causing the
- ↑ See especially Aurora, Feb. 2, 4, 1803; National Intelligencer, Feb. 2, 180S; Salem Register (Mass.), Feb. 21» 1808. It has been a source of wonder to many
