Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson by David O. Stewart

★★★½

Genre: History

Subject:impeachment of President Johnson

Setting: Washington, D.C.

Main Characters: Pres. Johnson, Ben Butler, Ben Wade,Thadeus Stevens

Series: no

Dates Read: March 5 - March

Number of pages: 343

Off the Shelf (pre-2012)? Source?: no, public library

Category for 12 in 12 challenge: History class

Until President Clinton came along President Andrew Johnson had the dubious honor of being the only US President who went through an impeachment trial. Others may have come close, but these two stand alone in that aspect.

President Johnson was in a difficult position after the assassination of Lincoln - he was a Democrat that had been elected VP on a Republican ticket. He had been chosen to help solidify the voters in the election of 1864 for the areas that may have had southern sympathies but remained in the Union.

Johnson was trying to have the Reconstruction governments in the South based on Lincoln's plans per se - generosity of spirit - reduced animosity between that "conquered" and the victorious. But the Northerners in the Congress wanted their "pound of flesh" and wanted to increase their power over the southern states.

The abolition of slavery removed the 3/5 counting of slaves for representation purposes and adjusted the negro counts to full. This would entitle the southern states to 28 additional representatives in the Congress plus 28 more electoral votes. Efforts were made to adjust this "outrage" by introducing a law that denied the southern states the right to include the counts of the blacks for representation if the blacks were denied the right to vote.

The method of Reconstruction was a point of dissention between Johnson and the Congress. During his administration Johnson used his veto power 29 times and was overridden 15 times. At this time the Congress was trying various ways to curtail the Executive power.

There were actually three different attempts at impeachment. First try at impeachment, Congressmen tried the facts that Johnson was wrong when he restored Southern railroads and when he removed men from office citing usurpation of Congressional powers. This attempt was abandoned by the Committee Chairman Wilson when he said "Political unfitness and incapacity must be tried at the ballot box, not in the high court of impeachment." The second attempt was also deemed to be a political rather than legal issue and was again abandoned.

However, Thaddeus Stevens, the driving force behind impeachment, resolved to cut Presidential powers. For example, Stevens proposed to give Grant complete control over the Reconstruction efforts in the South - something Grant didn't want. He also tried to limit the Supreme Court influence by introducing a bill requiring 3/4 approval of the Court before a law could be declared unconstitutional.

In early 1867 the Congress enacted the Tenure of Office Act which denied the president the power to remove from office anyone appointed by a past president, without the approval of the Senate during the next full session of Congress. This legislation would be the main blockade for Johnson. This struggle between Johnson and Stanton gave Stevens what he needed.

All 11 articles of impeachment were related to the ongoing struggle between Johnson and Secretary of War Stanton. Johnson wanted to remove him from office but the Tenure of Office act which allowed only the Congress to remove a high level official from his office and also that should anyone try to violate this law, they would be guilty of a "high misdemeanor". A High Misdemeanor was one of the provisions of the constitution for removal from office of the President.

Johnson was defended by Benjamin Curtis, a former Supreme Court Justice. At the beginning of Johnson's defense, Curtis dissected the Tenure of Office Act and analyzed how it could be interpreted in several different ways explaining how Johnson acted as he did. A senator from Maine praised Curtis by saying "Judge Curtis gave us the law and we followed it."

As the trial progressed, it blatantly appeared more a political dogfight that a legal battle. At times the Senate allowed certain types of evidence admitted, and then would reverse themselves again later. Because of the handling of the procedures, few had any idea of what the outcome would be.

When the time came for the vote, Senators who could barely walk or talk, suffering from strokes and other illnesses, still managed to appear in the Senate to cast their vote. By one vote, Johnson was acquitted. There was speculation that some of the votes had been purchased but no clear evidence was ever brought forward. The senators that voted for his acquitted were treated badly by their parties but in the end Johnson survived the trial.

60 years later the Tenure of Office Act was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court headed by former President William Howard Taft now Chief Justice. How ironic that the law that brought Johnson to the brink of removal from office wasn't even Constitutional.

I thought this book would be very dry and hard to get through, but it read more like a novel than historical fact. The writing was clear and concise and the information was presented so that the reader could understand the fight between Johnson and Congress. Now I really understand what the impeachment proceedings were about. I'm definitely glad I read this one.