...great strength and legal research.
— James Gillespie Blaine
He supported the first bill in Congress to provide voting rights to black citizens of the District of Columbia. [2] He was not a candidate for renomination in 1868, explaining prior to the district convention that with the election of an acceptable Republican president guaranteed and a change in administration inevitable, a change in representation of the First District was also timely. [7] In all, Wilson served in the House from October 8, 1861, to March 4, 1869.
1867 impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson
Wilson voted in support of launching the 1867 impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson. [8] The vote authorizing the impeachment inquiry was largely seen as a means for Republicans to voice their displeasure with Johnson without actually going so far as to impeach him. [9] Many Republicans fully expected that the House Committee on the Judiciary, which would oversee the inquiry, would not recommend impeachment, and that the prospect of impeachment would die quietly in the committee. [10]
At the time of the inquiry, Wilson was the chairman of the House Committee on the Judiciary. [11] During the inquiry, Wilson opposed impeaching Johnson, publicly arguing that there were no proven legal grounds that an impeachment could justifiably be based upon. [12] As a member of the committee, Wilson voted against recommending impeachment. However, on November 25, 1867, the committee voted 5–4 in support of recommending impeachment. Wilson wrote one of the committee's minority reports against impeachment. [11] [13] In his minority report, Wilson argued that, while Johnson, "deserves the censure and condemnation of every well-disposed citizen," the Congress should wait and let Americans remove Johnson from office in the 1868 presidential election. His minority report declared that Johnson, "has disappointed the hopes and expectations of those who placed him in power. He had betrayed their confidence and joined hands with their enemies." However, in arguing against impeachment, it declared, "the day of political impeachments would be a sad one for this country." [11] [14]
When the full House of Representatives subsequently voted on whether to impeach President Johnson, on December 7, 1867, he presented the argument against impeachment after George S. Boutwell made the case in support of impeachment. Wilson argued that while Johnson was the "worst of presidents", his opposition to the positions of the Republican Party was not itself illegal. He argued that, despite Boutwell's assertions that it did, the House did not have lone authority to determine what constitutes an "impeachable offense". Wilson warned the that a broad interpretation of impeachment powers, as Boutwell championed, in theory could allow the House to effectively dictate the policy of presidents. [15] He spent half of his speech arguing that impeachment was only reserved for indictable crimes, and half attacking those who opposed this position. [16] Wilson characterized Boutwell as having effectively argued that the House should be allowed to impeach Johnson for something he could do, rather than some thing he had done. Wilson argued, "this would lead us even beyond the conscience of this house." In his closing remarks, Wilson asked, "if we cannot arraign the president for a specific crime, for what are we to proceed against him?" After Wilson delivered his argument against impeachment were presented, the House voted proceeded to hold a vote in which it strongly voted against impeachment. [15] [17] [16]
1868 impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Seated L-R: Benjamin Butler, Thaddeus Stevens, Thomas Williams, John Bingham;
Standing L-R: Wilson, George S. Boutwell, John A. Logan
On January 27, 1868, Wilson voted in support of launching the second impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson. [18]
Despite his initial misgivings on impeachment, [1] after Johnson attempted to dismiss and replace of Edwin Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office Act, Wilson voted to impeach President Johnson on February 24, 1868, when the House successfully voted to impeach him. [4] [19] Before the vote, Wilson expressed an opinion representative of those expressed during debate by many Republicans that had previously voted against the impeachment resolution brought by the Judiciary Committee at the close of the 1867 impeachment inquiry against Johnson, [14] declaring that,
The considerations which weighed upon my mind and molded my conduct in the case with which the Committee on the Judiciary of this House was charged are not to be found in the present case. [14]
Wilson opined that in the previous impeachment vote, Johnson had not committed any action that was a crime under either common law or statute. Wilson declared that Johnson had mistakenly been emboldened after he was not impeached in December 1867 and had proceeded to commit an act that constituted clear impeachable conduct, [14] declaring,
He mistook our judgment for cowardice, and worked on until he has presented to us, as a sequence, a high misdemeanor known to the law and defined by statute. [14]
Wilson was afterwards appointed as a member of the seven-member committee that was tasked with writing articles of impeachment. [20] When the House voted on specific articles of impeachment in early March, Wilson voted for all but one of the eleven articles, being one of twelve members of the Republican Party to vote against the tenth article of impeachment (which had been written by Benjamin Butler independent from the seven-member committee). [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] Wilson was elected one of the seven House managers (prosecutors) for impeachment trial of President Johnson. During the trial, Wilson sparred with Maine senator William P. Fessenden, who claimed that he broke from "his usual discretion." [4]
Government director of the Pacific Railroad
President Ulysses S. Grant offered Wilson the post of Secretary of State, but Wilson declined it, serving instead as government director of the Pacific Railroad for eight years.
U.S. Senate
In 1882, the Iowa General Assembly elected Wilson to the U.S. Senate. His first initiative as a U.S. Senator was to propose an unsuccessful constitutional amendment to more explicitly authorize the federal government to adopt laws that protect civil rights from violations by private citizens, to nullify the Supreme Court's ruling two months earlier in the Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883). [25] The General Assembly re-elected him in 1888 to a second six-year term. [26] In the Senate, Wilson served as chairman of the Committee of Mines and Mining (in the Forty-eighth Congress), Committee on Expenditures of Public Money (in the Forty-eighth Congress), Committee on Revision of the Laws of the United States (in the Forty-ninth through Fifty-second Congresses), and the Committee on Education and Labor (in the Fifty-second Congress).
In the Senate, Wilson was known as a staunch supporter of the Prohibition cause, being a member of the Sons of Temperance. [4] He was particularly outspoken on the issue, advocating in 1883 to commit the GOP state convention in Iowa to the issue.
In 1890, Wilson was one of three Senators mentioned as potential nominees to fill the vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court created by the death of Justice Samuel F. Miller of Iowa. [27] President Benjamin Harrison instead picked Michigan judge Henry Billings Brown, who would later write the Supreme Court's opinion upholding "separate but equal" racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896).
Death
Wilson died in Fairfield shortly after his second Senate term ended. In its obituary, the New York Times attributed his death to "paralysis of the brain", and stated that his death had been expected. [2] He was interred in Fairfield-Evergreen Cemetery. [28]
See also
- US Senator James F. Wilson House in Fairfield is listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Related Research Articles
George Sewall Boutwell was an American politician, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as Secretary of the Treasury under U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant, the 20th Governor of Massachusetts, a Senator and Representative from Massachusetts and the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Abraham Lincoln. He was a leader in the impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson, and served as a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial.
James Wilson Grimes was an American politician, serving as the third Governor of Iowa and a United States Senator from Iowa.
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.
John Brooks Henderson was an American attorney and politician who represented Missouri in the United States Senate from 1862 to 1869.
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.
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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.
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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, 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
- 1 2 3 David Hudson, Marvin Bergman, & Loren Horton, "The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa," pp. 560–563 (Iowa City: U of Iowa Press 2008).
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Death of the Slave's Friend", New York Times, 1895-04-24 at p. 16.
- 1 2 Wilson, J. The Political Graveyard. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ross, Earle D. James F. Wilson, Legalistic Free-Soiler. The Annals of Iowa. Retrieved March 9, 2022.
- ↑ "Senator James Faulkner Wilson". Iowa General Assembly. Retrieved May 20, 2024.
- 1 2 Olynthus B. Clark, "The Politics of Iowa During the Civil War and Reconstruction," p. 32-33, 125 (Iowa City: Clio Press 1911).
- ↑ Waterloo Courier, 1868-04-30 at p. 2 (reprinting excerpts of Wilson's letter to O.W. Slagle).
- ↑ "TO PASS A RESOLUTION TO IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT. (P. 320-2, … -- House Vote #418 -- Jan 7, 1867". GovTrack.us. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
- ↑ "Building the Case for Impeachment, December 1866 to June 1867 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ↑ Wineapple, Brenda (2019). The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and The Dream of a Just Nation (First ed.). New York. p. 176. ISBN 9780812998368.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - 1 2 3 "Impeachment Rejected, November to December 1867 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- ↑ "Impeachment Again - Complexion of the Judiciary Committee - Opinions and Assertations of Judge Lawrence - Interesting Statements" . Newspapers.com. The Charleston Mercury. October 22, 1867. Retrieved July 26, 2022.
- ↑ "The Case for Impeachment, December 1867 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Hinds, Asher C. (March 4, 1907). "HINDS' PRECEDENTS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES INCLUDING REFERENCES TO PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, THE LAWS, AND DECISIONS OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE" (PDF). United States Congress. pp. 830, 847. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- 1 2 "The Case for Impeachment, December 1867 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. United States House of Representatives. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
- 1 2 Benedict, Michael Les (1973). "3. The Politics of Impeachment". The impeachment and trial of Andrew Johnson ([1st] ed.). New York: Norton. ISBN 0-393-05473-X.
- ↑ "TO PASS THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT RESOLUTION. -- House Vote #119 -- Dec 7, 1867". GovTrack.us.
- ↑ "Journal of the United States House of Representatives (40th Congress, second session) pages 259–262". voteview.com. United States House of Representatives. 1868. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ↑ "Journal of the United States House of Representatives (40th Congress, Second Session) pages 392 and 393". voteview.com. United States House of Representatives.
- 1 2 "The House Impeaches Andrew Johnson". Washington, D.C.: Office of the Historian and the Clerk of the House's Office of Art and Archives. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
- ↑ "40th Congress (1867-1869) > Representatives". voteview.com. Retrieved March 16, 2022.
- ↑ "Journal of the United States House of Representatives (40th Congress, Second Session) pages 465 and 466". voteview.com. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
- ↑ "Journal of the United States House of Representatives (40th Congress, Second Session) pages 463 and 464". voteview.com. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
- ↑ "Journal of the House of Representatives, March 2, 1868" (PDF). www.cop.senate.gov. United States Congress. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 30, 2020. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
- ↑ Editorial, "An Unnecessary Move", New York Times, 1883-12-14 at p. 4.
- ↑ "Senator Wilson Re-elected", New York Times, 1889-01-26 at p. 4.
- ↑ "The Vacant Justiceship", New York Times, 1890-10-25 at p. 1.
- ↑ Where No Man Has Gone Before
- United States Congress. "James F. Wilson (id: W000594)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress .
- James F. Wilson at The Political Graveyard
External links
James Falconer Wilson | |
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| United States Senator from Iowa | |
| In office March 4, 1883 – March 3, 1895 |
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