Founding Principles

WE know what Congress wants to do about impeachment. Democrats, who have defended President Clinton in every investigation, from Whitewater to campaign finance, will do it again, while the demoralized Republicans wish the whole thing would go away, before they do.

History has been invoked to foster the do-nothing mood. Alexander Hamilton admitted to having had an adulterous affair while he was Treasury Secretary with Maria Reynolds, whose husband, a small-time crook, then blackmailed him; Thomas Jefferson, recent DNA tests suggest, fathered a child by his slave, Sally Hemings. Defenders of the President, in and out of the White House, cite the Founding Fornicators and ask: since scandal did not destroy the Founders’ careers then, why should it end Clinton’s now? (What Clinton’s equivalent of the “Report on Credit” or the Louisiana Purchase might be, is not at issue.) But the First Congress has other messages for the 105th.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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WE know what Congress wants to do about impeachment. Democrats, who have defended President Clinton in every investigation, from Whitewater to campaign finance, will do it again, while the demoralized Republicans wish the whole thing would go away, before they do.

History has been invoked to foster the do-nothing mood. Alexander Hamilton admitted to having had an adulterous affair while he was Treasury Secretary with Maria Reynolds, whose husband, a small-time crook, then blackmailed him; Thomas Jefferson, recent DNA tests suggest, fathered a child by his slave, Sally Hemings. Defenders of the President, in and out of the White House, cite the Founding Fornicators and ask: since scandal did not destroy the Founders’ careers then, why should it end Clinton’s now? (What Clinton’s equivalent of the “Report on Credit” or the Louisiana Purchase might be, is not at issue.) But the First Congress has other messages for the 105th.