Recognizing the Anniversary of America’s First Presidential Impeachment

February 24, 2017 5:00 am
The Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868 (Library of Congress)
The Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868 (Library of Congress)
The Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868 (Library of Congress)
The Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868 (Library of Congress)

It’s a dubious milestone in American History.

We now live in an era when urging the impeachment of the president is commonplace, but the act was almost unthinkable for a century after events that unfolded 150 years ago during Andrew Johnson’s administration.

Bill Clinton was impeached by the House (though he soundly defeated the conviction vote in the Senate, with prosecutors failing to get a majority on either count, much less the needed two-thirds). Since then, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have successively fired up the opposition to call for their ousters.

This is such an aggressive era that Trump himself once urged the impeachment of his now fellow party member Bush. Removing a president from office has seemed a real possibility since 1974, when Richard Nixon resigned rather than face likely impeachment himself.

For 100 years, presidents seemed safe from such a fate.

RCL has covered Johnson’s bizarre inauguration as vice president in 1865, when Abraham Lincoln’s replacement for Hannibal Hamlin gave a drunk, belligerent speech. (The day’s “highlights” included Johnson attempting to swear in new senators, only to give up when he became disoriented.) Roughly a month later, Lincoln was assassinated. Johnson became president, terrifying a nation that had just been introduced to him in the least flattering light possible.

Johnson proved to be a disastrous president, but not for the reasons expected. While sober enough in the White House, his problems actually stemmed from the fact he would fearlessly defend what he believed to be right. This seems a virtue, except he had a troubling mix of beliefs. Particularly looking back from modern times, his willingness to risk death urging his native Tennessee to stay in the Union is admirable. However, while Johnson was an aggressive critic of slavery, he also became a relentless enemy of recently freed slaves.

Johnson was a passionate believer in the Constitution… as he understood it. He believed the Constitution forbid states to leave the Union, which is why he attacked the Confederacy. But he took this belief system so far that he believed technically southern states never did leave the nation, which came as news to many who had just finished a Civil War. Since southern states had never truly seceded, there was no reason to interfere with their existing governments, nor a justification for doing anything about how they treated blacks. As he put it: “These States have not gone out of the Union, therefore reconstruction is not necessary.” (This logic is explained more deeply in David O. Stewart’s Impeached.)

Portait of Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States, by Matthew Brady. His policies of conciliation towards the South after the Civil War and his vetoing of civil rights bills led to bitter confrontation with the Radical Republicans in Congress. They made two attemts to have Johnson impeached, the second of which only failed by one vote in the Senate. He was defeated by Ulysses S Grant in the 1868 presidential election and one of his last acts in office was to grant an unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day 1868. A print from Mathew Brady Historian with a Camera by James D Horan, Bonanza Books, New York, 1955. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Portrait of Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States, by Matthew Brady. (The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images)
Print Collector/Getty Images

 

Johnson aggressively fought legislation to assist freed slaves, vetoing the Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights bills, which were passed by his fellow Republicans. Even as vetoes were inevitably overturned, Johnson found new ways to fight Reconstruction, such as pardoning as many former rebels as possible.

In 1867, Congress passed a measure to give them a justification to get rid of Johnson. The Tenure of Office Act required a president to get permission from Congress to remove cabinet officials, but Johnson decided it was unconstitutional and ignored it. The result was on February 24, 1868, the House of Representatives impeached Johnson by a vote of 126-47. It was a first in American history, and a particularly surreal one since Johnson and those impeaching him were technically in the same party.

On March 4, Johnson went on trial before the Senate. The trial lasted 11 weeks. By all accounts, the process brought out the worst in both sides. Stewart’s book notes that those voting against impeachment faced virtual expulsion from the party, while Johnson’s supporters engaged in outright bribery. Ultimately, Johnson avoided conviction, by the slimmest of margins: he fell one vote short of the two-thirds needed for conviction.

This was hardly a rousing vindication, but Johnson remained in office. The government had been brought to a standstill for months and for what? Congress continued to pass bills, Johnson continued to veto them, and Congress overrode those vetoes. To the surprise of no one, the Republicans declined to nominate Johnson for another term that year, as Ulysses S. Grant took over and was elected President in 1868.

Johnson officially left office on March 4, 1869, exactly one year to the day after his Senate trial started. The hangover from the proceedings lasted much longer: America stayed away from the impeachment process for another 100 years.

—Sean Cunningham for RealClearLife

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.