The Radical branch of the Republican Party was eager to impeach Johnson long before the moderates in the party were willing to. After a number of efforts to impeach Johnson failed, the House Committee on the Judiciary was authorized in January 1867 to run the first formal impeachment inquiry, which lasted until November. This inquiry saw the committee initially vote 4–5 against supporting impeachment in June 1867, reversing course in November 1867 with a 5–4 recommendation for impeachment. Despite this recommendation, the House voted 57–108 against impeachment on December 7, 1867. On January 25, 1868, a second impeachment inquiry was launched. After a February 13, 1868 committee vote to table an impeachment resolution, impeachment momentarily appeared unlikely.
After Johnson appeared to violate the Tenure of Office Act on February 21, 1868, the United States House of Representatives voted to impeach him on February 24, 1868. He was acquitted by the United States Senate in the subsequent impeachment trial.
Even while he was vice-president, there was at least some serious consideration given to the prospect of using impeachment to remove Johnson from that office. After Johnson's drunken behavior at the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln (where Johnson was first sworn in as vice president), Senator Charles Sumner considered seeking to persuade members of House of the Representatives to pursue an impeachment, of the then-vice president. Sumner went as far as researching precedent on federal impeachment.[1]
Early efforts to impeach
As early as 1866, some of the "Radical Republicans" entertained the thought of removing Johnson through impeachment.[2] However, the Republican Party was divided on the prospect of impeachment, with moderate Republicans, who held a plurality, widely opposing it at this point.[2] The radicals were more in favor of impeachment because Johnson did not want to recognize the 14th Amendment. Johnson had attempted to stop the federal government from recognizing freed black slaves as citizens, and wanted to take away their civil liberties. He was eventually known as one of the worst presidents in history by historians.[2]
One of the first Radical Republicans to explore impeachment was House Territories Committee chairman James Mitchell Ashley. Ashley was convinced of a baseless conspiracy theory that faulted Johnson for involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. Thus, Ashley had strong personal motivation for wanting to remove Johnson from office.[2] Ashley began supporting impeachment in late 1866.[3] He quietly began researching impeachment.[2]
House Military Affairs Committee chairman Robert C. Schenck began exploring the idea of impeaching Johnson after Johnson delivered demagogic attacks which questioned the legitimacy of the United States Congress. Schenk believed that Johnson's questioning of the legitimacy of Congress risked sparking another civil war.[2] Around this same time, in 1866, Benjamin Butler, a major general who was a Republican candidate for the House at the time, regularly denounced Johnson in his stump speeches and called for his removal from office.[2] Johnson, during a late summer 1866 speaking tour dubbed the "Swing Around the Circle", remarked that some members of Congress would "clamor and talk about impeachment" because he chose to wield his veto power.[4]
By the start of October 1866, prominent activist Wendell Phillips had published an opinion piece in the National Anti-Slavery Standard calling not only for Johnson to be impeached, but also proposing for Congress to act so that Johnson would be suspended from exercising his duties as president and that someone else serve as acting president in Johnson's place until the impeachment trial would be resolved. He argued that, without the suspension of the president pending the trial,
The constitutional provision for impeachment of the Executive is a sham...if the impeached President...is to be allowed to carry on his illegal schemes while on trial and until the Senate pronounces him guilty, then the whole provision is worse than useless.[5]
By October 1866, Benjamin Butler was traveling to multiple cities delivering speeches in which he promoted the prospect of impeaching Johnson.[6][7] He detailed six specific charges that Johnson should be impeached for.[6] These were:
Seeking to overthrow the government of the United States, doing so by attempting to bring Congress "to disgrace" by refusing to execute or carry out the laws that it had passed which he disagreed with, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Freedmen's Bureau bills[6]
Corruptly using his powers to appoint and remove officers[6]
Appearing at an October 17, 1866 event in Chicago where Butler delivered such a speech was Senator Lyman Trumbull. In his own speech, following Butler's, Trumbull engaged with crowds in a call and response that indicated support for impeachment.[8] Despite this, Trumbull would vote to acquit Johnson in the 1868 impeachment trial.[9]
Another Radical Republican congressman pushing for impeachment was George S. Boutwell,[2][10] who announced at an October 1866 meeting in Boston that he would push in Congress for the opening of an impeachment inquiry.[10] Among the other Radical Republicans that was an early prominent supporter of impeachment was Congress Zachariah Chandler.[11] By October, impeachment was popular with many Radical Republicans, so much so that the Richmond Examiner wrote of a, "strong probability that the President of the United States will be impeached this winter".[12] The Richmond Times argued that "there is not the shadow of a pretext for impeaching the president", but still found impeachment likely, speculating that the Radicals would perhaps attempt to suspend Johnson from office pending trial on articles of impeachment and indefinitely protract the trial while the president pro tempore of the United States Senate would fill the duties of the president.[13]
Continued efforts in the aftermath of the November 1866 elections
The results of the 1866 United States elections were favorable to the Republican Party. The Wisconsin opined that the result of the elections was unequivocally, "in favor of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson and his removal from the high office which he has dishonored."[14]
Shortly around the time of the November elections 1866, the National Intelligencer alleged that the push to impeach Johnson originated from the tarifflobby. This claim was challenged by the Chicago Tribune, which wrote, "the movement to impeach Andrew Johnson comes from the people, and not from any lobby, or any set of politicians".[15]
By the end of November 1866, congressman-elect Benjamin Butler was continuing to promote the idea of impeaching Johnson, this time proposing eight articles.[16] The articles he proposed charged Johnson with:
"Degrading and debasing...the station and dignity of the office of Vice-President and that of vice president" by being publicly drunk at "official and public occasions"[16]
"Officially and publicly making declarations and inflammatory harangues, indecent and unbecoming in derogation of his high office, dangerous to the permanency of our republican form of government, and in design to excite the ridicule, fear, hatred, and contempt of the people against the legislative and judicial departments therof"[16]
"Wickedly, tyrannically, and unconstitutionally...usurping the lawful rights and powers of the Congress"[16]
"Wickedly and corruptly using and abusing" the constitutional power of the President by making recess appointments with the "design to undermine, overthrow and evade the power" of the Congress to advice and consent on such appointments[16]
"Improperly, wickedly, and corruptly abusing the constitutional power of pardons" with his pardons for ex-Confederates; "knowingly and willfully violating the constitutionally enacted laws of the United States by appointing disloyal men to office and illegally and without right giving to them emoluments of such office from the Treasury, well knowing the appointees to be ineligible to office"[16]
"Knowingly and willfully neglecting and refusing to carry out the constitutional laws of Congress" in the former Confederate states "in order to encourage men lately into rebellion and in arms against the United States to the oppression and injury of the loyal true citizens of such States"[16]
"Unlawfully, corruptly, and wickedly confederating and conspiring with one John T. Monroe...and other evil disposed persons, traitors, and rebels" in the New Orleans massacre of 1866.[16]
In December 1866, the House Republican caucus met to plan for the lame-duck third session of the 39th United States Congress, which would expire in March 1867.[2] George S. Boutwell brought up the idea of impeachment during the caucus meeting, but moderates quickly killed discussion.[2] A number of Radical Republicans were demanding the creation of a select committee to investigate the prospect of impeaching Johnson,[17] On December 17, 1866, James Mitchell Ashley attempted to open a house impeachment inquiry, but his motion to suspend the rules to consider his resolution saw a vote of 88–49, which was short of the needed two-thirds majority to suspend the rules.[2][18] Also in December, the House ordered the House Committee on the Judiciary to create a report on the practices typical in cases of impeachment. It was seen as probable that this report might prove useful for a future impeachment of Johnson.[19] In an effort to block any further efforts to impeach Johnson, that month the moderate Republicans leading the party's House caucus adopted a rule for the House Republican caucus which required that both a majority of House Republicans and a majority of members on the House Committee on the Judiciary would be required to approve any measure regarding impeachment in party caucus prior to it being considered in the House.[2][20]
By the start of the year 1867, on a daily basis, Congress was receiving petitions demanding the removal of Johnson. These petitions came primarily from the midwestern states. The petitions were the result of an organized campaign to demand Johnson's removal. The number of signatures on these petitions varied, as some had as few signees as three signatures, while other petitions had as many as three hundred signatures.[17]
Radical Republicans continued to seek Johnson's impeachment.[2] They disobeyed the rule put in place for the Republican caucus and continued to propose a number of impeachment resolutions, which the moderate Republicans often stifled by referring to committees.[20] On January 7, 1867, Benjamin F. Loan and John R. Kelso introduced two separate impeachment resolutions against Johnson, but the House refused to hold debate or vote on either resolution.[2]
Also on January 7, 1867, ignoring the rule requiring approval of the Republican caucus, James Mitchell Ashley introduced his own impeachment-related resolution.[2] Ashley had agreed with Thaddeus Stevens to bring an impeachment resolution before the full House.[17] Unlike the other two impeachment resolutions introduced that day, Ashley's resolutions offered a specific outline of how such an impeachment process would proceed. Rather than going to a direct vote on impeaching the president, his resolution would instruct the Judiciary Committee to "inquire into the official conduct of Andrew Johnson", investigating what it called Johnson's "corruptly used" powers and "usurpation of power", including Johnson's political appointments, pardons for ex-Confederates, vetoes of legislation, selling of confiscated property, and alleged interference with elections.[2][17][21][22] While it gave the general charge of "high crimes and misdemeanors" and named numerous instances of alleged corruption, Ashley's resolution did not specify what the high crimes and misdemeanors Johnson had committed were.[23] The resolution passed in the House 108–39.[2][24] It was seen as offering Republicans a chance to register their displeasure with Johnson, without actually formally impeaching him.[2]
The resulting impeachment inquiry lasted eleven months, saw 89 witnesses interviewed, and saw 1,200 pages of testimony published.[25] President Johnson kept secret tabs on the House impeachment inquiry through the Pinkerton Detective Agency.[2] While it was begun in the 39th Congress, the committee did not complete their work by the end of that Congress, and issued a recommendation that the next Congress authorize its House Committee on the Judiciary to continue the investigation.[2] This authorization passed days into the 40th Congress, and the investigation was continued.[21][26][27]
On June 3, 1867, in a 5–4 vote, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted against sending articles of impeachment to the full house, with three moderate Republican members joining two Democratic members of the committee in voting against doing so.[2][22] However, the committee did not deliver its report to the full congress before the 1867 recess, meaning they had not yet formally closed their inquiry. By the time congress' recess ended in late November 1867, attitudes of Republicans had shifted more in favor of impeachment. John C. Churchill, a moderate Republican on the committee, had changed his mind in favor of impeachment. On November 25, 1867, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted in a 5–4 vote to recommend impeachment proceedings, and submitted a majority report with that recommendation to the House.[22][28]
House rejection of the impeachment recommendation
A copy of the December 7, 1867 vote
On December 5, 1867, the House brought the Committee on the Judiciary's impeachment recommendation to the floor for consideration, and the cases for and against impeachment were heard.[29] On December 7, the House voted against impeachment by a margin of 57–108, with 66 Republicans, 39 Democrats, and 3 other congressmen voting against impeachment; and with all votes for impeachment coming from Republicans.[29][30]
One motivating factor for Republicans' decision to vote against impeachment may have been the successes Democrats had in the 1867 elections, including winning control of the Ohio General Assembly, as well as other 1867 election outcomes, such as voters in Ohio, Connecticut, and Minnesota turning down propositions to grant African Americanssuffrage.[17][31]
On January 22, 1868, the House approved by a vote of 99–31 a resolution by Rufus P. Spalding which launched an impeachment inquiry run by House Select Committee on Reconstruction.[32][33] Despite Thadeus Stevens being the chair of the committee,[34] the membership of the House Committee on Reconstruction was not initially favorable to impeachment. It had four (Republican) members that had voted for impeachment in December 1867, and five of members (three republicans and two Democrats) that had voted against it.[35] At a February 13, 1868 meeting, a committee vote on a motion to table consideration of a resolution proposed by Stevens to impeach Johnson had effectively signaled that five of the committee's members still stood opposed to impeachment, unchanged in their position since the December 1867 vote. It momentarily appeared that the prospect of impeachment was dead.[17][36][37]
Related developments
On January 13, 1868, the Senate agreed to a resolution by Senator George F. Edmunds to instruct the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to investigate the expediency of (either through the passage of a law or through a change of the Senate rules, or through a combination or both) to provide rules and regulations that would create a procedure through which a federal officer that is under impeachment and pending trial could be suspended from their office by the Senate pending the trial.[38] On January 28, 1868, Senator Emmunds introduced a bill in the Senate to allow for the such a suspension of impeached officers. He argued that the failure of the earlier House vote on impeaching Johnson would remove suspicion that passing such a law had partisan motivations, as the prospect of impeaching Johnson appeared to be inactive at the moment.[39][40]
On February 21, 1868, Johnson, in violation of the Tenure of Office Act that had been passed by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto, attempted to remove Edwin Stanton, the secretary of war who the act was largely designed to protect, from office.[41] Also on January 21, 1868, a one sentence resolution to impeach Johnson, written by John Covode, was referred to the Select Committee on Reconstruction.[42][43][44] In the morning February 22, 1868, by a party-line vote of 7–2,[45][46] the committee voted to refer a slightly amended version of Covode's impeachment resolution to the full House.[32][34][47] At 3pm on February 22, Stevens presented from the House Select Committee on Reconstruction a slightly amended version of Covode's resolution along with a report opining that Johnson should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.[32][34][47][48]
On February 24, the United States House of Representatives voted 126–47 to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors", which were detailed in eleven articles of impeachment (the eleven articles were approved in separate votes held roughly a week after the impeachment resolution was adopted).[34][49][50] The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act by removing Stanton from office.[49] Johnson was narrowly acquitted in his Senate trial, with the Senate voting 35 to 19 votes in favor of conviction, one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority.[51]
Later efforts
For several weeks after the trial adjourned, the impeachment managers, continued a House-authorized investigation into possible corrupt influences on the outcome of the trial. The investigation's final report was published on July 3, 1868, failing to prove the allegations of corrupt influences on the trial that were investigated.[17] On July 7, 1868, Thaddeus Stevens submitted to the House a resolution that would appoint a select committee to prepare additional articles of impeachment, and which laid out five specific additional articles to be considered by the select committee. After debate on this ended, and further consideration was postponed on a motion by Stevens, Thomas Williams proposed a resolution that would have, if passed, seen fourteen specific new articles proposed be adopted. On July 25, 1868, Charles Memorial Hamilton submitted a resolution to again impeach Johnson, instruct impeachment managers to inform the Senate, and have the impeachment managers create articles of impeachment. George S. Boutwell made a successful motion to refer the resolution to the House Committee on the Judiciary.[52] However, with Johnson's term as president already set to expire on March 4, 1869, most congressmen and senators were disinterested in further pursuing impeachment.[17]
List of impeachment resolutions introduced to the House
The following is a list of several resolutions introduced to the House to either launch an outright impeachment or to launch an impeachment inquiry.
"High crimes and misdemeanors" (introduced in response to Johnson's effort to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton in apparent violation of the Tenure of Office Act)
Allegation that information had been provided to the impeachment managers that provided them with probable cause to suspect improper or corrupt means had influenced the Senate vote.
Adopted by the House in a vote of 88–14 on March 16, 1868
James Falconer "Jefferson Jim" Wilson was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a Republican U.S. Congressman from Iowa's 1st congressional district during the American Civil War, and later as a two-term U.S. Senator from Iowa. He was a pioneer in the advancement of federal protection for civil rights.
John Armor Bingham was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assistant Judge Advocate General in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination and a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was also the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
William Lawrence was a Republican lawyer and politician from Ohio. He was most noted for being a US Representative influential in attempting to impeach President Andrew Johnson, creating the United States Department of Justice, helping to create the American Red Cross, and ratifying the Geneva Convention.
James Mitchell Ashley was an American politician and abolitionist. A member of the Republican Party, Ashley served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio during the American Civil War, where he became a leader of the Radical Republicans and pushed for passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, ending slavery in the United States. He also authored the resolution which started the first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson. After the war, he served as Governor of the Montana Territory and president of the Ann Arbor Railroad.
Thomas S. Williams was a Republican United States Representative from Pennsylvania.
The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was initiated on February 24, 1868, when the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, the 17th president of the United States, for "high crimes and misdemeanors". The alleged high crimes and misdemeanors were afterwards specified in eleven articles of impeachment adopted by the House on March 2 and 3, 1868. The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Specifically, that he had acted to remove Edwin Stanton from the position of Secretary of War and to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas as secretary of war ad interim. The Tenure of Office Act had been passed by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto with the primary intent of protecting Stanton from being fired without the Senate's consent. Stanton often sided with the Radical Republican faction and had a good relationship with Johnson.
Samuel Scott Marshall was an American politician and attorney who served a total of seven terms as a U.S. representative from Illinois. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, was held in the United States Senate and concluded with acquittal on three of eleven charges before adjourning sine die without a verdict on the remaining charges. It was the first impeachment trial of a U.S. president and was the sixth federal impeachment trial in U.S. history. The trial began March 5, 1868, and adjourned on May 26.
The first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson was launched by a vote of the United States House of Representatives on January 7, 1867, to investigate the potential impeachment of the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson. It was run by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The second impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson was an impeachment inquiry against United States President Andrew Johnson. It followed a previous inquiry in 1867. The second inquiry, unlike the first, was run by the House Select Committee on Reconstruction. The second inquiry ran from its authorization on January 27, 1868, until the House Select Committee on Reconstruction reported to Congress on February 22, 1868.
The House Select Committee on Reconstruction was a select committee which existed the United States House of Representatives during the 40th and 41st Congresses with a focus related to the Reconstruction Acts. The 39th Congress had had a similar joint committee called the United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction.
In the United States, an impeachment inquiry is an investigation or inquiry which usually occurs before a potential impeachment vote.
The Command of Army Act is a law that was in effect under the 1867–1868 appropriations act for the United States Army. The appropriations act under which the law was in place had been passed by the United States Congress on March 2, 1867, and signed by President Andrew Johnson on March 4, 1867. It was one of several pieces of legislation that the United States Congress passed to curb the powers of Andrew Johnson as president of the United States. The Congress' efforts to curb Johnson's powers was motivated by tensions over reconstruction, with Johnson being regarded as an obstructor of the Republican supermajority-led Congress' designs for reconstruction, especially those sought by the Republican Party's "Radical Republican" faction.
Andrew Johnson became the first president of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives on February 24, 1868 after he acted to dismiss Edwin Stanton as secretary of war in disregard for the Tenure of Office Act.
Eleven articles of impeachment against United States President Andrew Johnson were adopted by the United States House of Representatives on March 2 and 3, 1868 as part of the impeachment of Johnson. An impeachment resolution had previously been adopted by the House on February 24, 1868. Each of the articles were a separate charge which Johnson would be tried for in his subsequent impeachment trial before the United States Senate.
In the United States, a federal impeachment trial is held as the second stage of the United States federal government's bifurcated (two-stage) impeachment process. The preceding stage is the "impeachment" itself, held by a vote in the United States House of Representatives. Federal impeachment trials are held in the United States Senate, with the senators acting as the jurors. At the end of a completed impeachment trial, the U.S. Senate delivers a verdict. A "guilty" verdict has the effect of immediately removing an officeholder from office. After, and only after, a "guilty" verdict, the Senate has the option of additionally barring the official from ever holding federal office again, which can be done by a simple-majority vote.
In the United States, federal impeachment is the process by which the House of Representatives charges the president, vice president, or another civil federal officer for alleged misconduct. The House can impeach an individual with a simple majority of the present members or other criteria adopted by the House according to Article One, Section 2, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution.
References
↑ Poore, Ben Perley (5 March 1887). "Reminiscences of Public Men". Newspapers.com. Grand Island Herald. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
↑ Meacham, Jon; Naftali, Timothy; Baker, Peter; Engel, Jeffrey A. (2018). "Ch. 1, Andrew Johnson (by John Meachem)". Impeachment: an American history (2018 Modern Libraryed.). New York. p.62. ISBN978-1984853783.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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