On July 25, 1974, U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan delivered her opening statement as a member of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee then beginning hearings to consider whether to impeach President Richard M. Nixon. In this excerpt, Rep. Jordan observes that the Constitution's framers intended impeachment to be a method of national inquest into the actions of public men in cases involving allegations only of the most serious offenses against the law and the Constitution. She believed that the questions surrounding President Nixon's actions were serious enough to warrant his impeachment. The House Judiciary Committee agreed and Nixon resigned the presidency August 9, 1974 before the full House voted on his impeachment.