The nation is the midst of an historic time with the ongoing Senate impeachment trial of President Donald J. Trump. However, it is not unprecedented.

While the Gazette-Journal files don’t go back to 1868 (for the impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson), we did take a peek at our back issues from 1974 and 1998-99 to see how we attempted to make sense, editorially, of the resignation of Richard M. Nixon and the impeachment and trial of William J. Clinton.

Nixon

On Aug. 15, 1974, in an editorial titled “Watergate His Waterloo,” the Gazette-Journal reflected on the fast-moving events that led to Nixon’s resignation.

“From Monday on, after President Nixon disclosed that he had withheld certain evidence in the Watergate coverup from not only investigating bodies but his own counsel as well, his fate was sealed,” the editorial stated. “The only question after that was whether he would remove himself from office by resigning or wait for removal by...