The
Impeachment of the President
Until
Andrew Johnson in 1868, no President of the United States had ever been
impeached. The impeachment of the President was of utmost controversy and was a
consequence of the President’s actions in regard to reconstruction policies.
After the conclusion of the American Civil War, it was unquestionable that a
plan was needed to readmit the Southern States and begin the process of
patching the country back together to recreate the Union that had previously
been.
Prior
to his assassination, Lincoln had recommended and supported his 10% plan. The
plan that Lincoln stood so adamantly by would not come to pass. Many in
Congress wanted to see stiffer penalties imposed upon the Rebel States and not
allow such an easy readmission process to the Union. Johnson would support this
same plan upon his succession to the Oval Office. Both men agreed that even
after readmission to the Union, former Confederates could not resume or be
newly elected to chairs in Congress.
Nevertheless,
as the history books read, Johnson was not well liked and historians report
that the President had a very unfriendly, hateful, serious, and solemn tone
about him. He was not the most personable of people and was often cross and
unwilling to reach across the spans of political parties to accomplish
legislation. Throughout 1866, he fought to the nail with Congress over control
of the route reconstruction was going to take.
To
further the process and goals of reconstruction, Congress passed two bills in
1866 that would effectively put a stop to the “black codes” and increase the
powers of the Freedmen’s Bureau. However, Johnson would veto both bills.
Consequently, the moderate Republicans joined leagues with the radical
Republicans to get under Johnson’s skin. By this point, even white Unionists in
the south favored the bills and the expansion of black rights for the
readmitting of the south, and shortly after the moderates moved to side with
the radicals, the radicals shifted more toward the moderate side after the
Massacre at New Orleans. Aside from vetoing the 2 bills proposed by Congress,
Johnson also detested the addition of the 14th Amendment which
provided for equal protections of the law.
The
following year, in 1867, saw the time when Congress gained full control of the
route of reconstruction, and by 1868, 7 southern states had been readmitted to
the Union. In an attempt to get work done and deal with the President, Congress
passes the Tenure of Office Act (1867), against Johnson’s veto, which stated
that the President could not dismiss his Secretaries until the Senate had
approved their replacement. Congress passed the act to safeguard the
secretaries that were allies to Congress. Johnson tried, then, to dismiss
Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, which was in clear violation of the Tenure of
Office Act, and was consequently brought up on those charges in the form of an
impeachment. He was tried in 1868, and the trial would last from March to May
of 1868. As documented on a website of the National Park Service, “In the end,
the Senate voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson by a margin of 35 guilty to
19 not guilty – one vote short of the two-thirds needed to convict” (National
Park Service).
In
the end, the President served the remainder of his term. After his accession to
the White House, he never appointed a Vice-President, in which case, had he
been dismissed; the new President would have been Benjamin Wade, President Pro-Tempore of the Senate. Johnson would serve quietly, while
Congress continued down the path of reconstruction and healing a broken and
still-healing nation.
United
States of America. National Park Service. Andrew Johnson National Historic
Site. National Park Service.
U.S. Department of the Interior, n.d. Web. 26 Apr. 2013. http://www.nps.gov/resources/story.htm?id=192.
Weise,
Rob. “Impeachment of Andrew Johnson and the Politics of Reconstruction.”
History 424.
Eastern Kentucky University.
Richmond, 17 April, 2013.
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