History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his Trial by the Senate, for High Crimes and Misdemeanors in Office, 1868, by Edmund Gibson Ross

Published: Santa Fe, N.M., New Mexican printing co., 1896

Burt Franklin Research & Source Works Series #94

CONTENTS:

PREFACE

CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM OF RECONSTRUCTION. MR. LINCOLN'S PLAN.

CHAPTER II. THE BALTIMORE CONVENTION. LINCOLN AND JOHNSON NOT NOMINATED AS REPUBLICANS.

CHAPTER III. MR. JOHNSON'S ACCESSION TO THE PRESIDENCY. THE RECONSTRUCTION ERA.

CHAPTER IV. FIRST ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT. THE ASHLEY INDICTMENT.

CHAPTER V. THE TENURE-OF-OFFICE ACT. ITS HISTORY AND PURPOSE--THE PRESIDENTS VETO MESSAGE.

CHAPTER VI. IMPEACHMENT AGREED TO BY THE HOUSE.

CHAPTER VII. IMPEACHMENT REPORTED TO THE SENATE. THE PRESIDENT'S ANSWER.

CHAPTER VIII. ORGANIZATION OF THE COURT ARGUMENT OF COUNSEL.

CHAPTER IX. EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES AND THEIR TESTIMONY.

CHAPTER X. A CONFERENCE HELD AND THE FIRST VOTE TAKEN.

CHAPTER XI. THE IMPEACHERS IN A MAZE--A RECESS ORDERED. THE FINAL VOTE TAKEN.

CHAPTER XII. WAS IT A PARTISAN PROSECUTION?

CHAPTER XIII. THE CONSTITUTIONAL POWER OF IMPEACHMENT.

SUPPLEMENT

Little is now known to the general public of the history of the attempt to remove President Andrew Johnson in 1868, on his impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial by the Senate for alleged high crimes and misdemeanors in office, or of the causes that led to it. Yet it was one of the most important and critical events, involving possibly the gravest consequences, in the entire history of the country.

The constitutional power to impeach and remove the President had lain dormant since the organization of the Government, and apparently had never been thought of as a means for the satisfaction of political enmities or for the punishment of alleged executive misdemeanors, even in the many heated controversies between the President and Congress that had theretofore arisen. Nor would any attempt at impeachment have been made at that time but for the great numerical disparity then existing between the respective representatives in Congress of the two political parties of the country.

One-half the members of that Congress, both House and Senate, are now dead, and with them have also gone substantially the same proportion of the people at large, but many of the actors therein who have passed away, lived long enough to see, and were candid enough to admit, that the failure of the impeachment had brought no harm to the country, while the general judgment practically of all has come to be that a grave and threatening danger was thereby averted.

A new generation is now in control of public affairs and the destinies of the Nation have fallen to new hands. New issues have developed and will continue to develop from time to time; and new dangers will arise, with increasing numbers and changing conditions, demanding in their turn the same careful scrutiny, wisdom and patriotism in adjustment. But the principles that underlie and constitute the basis of our political organism, are and will remain the same; and will never cease to demand constant vigilance for their perpetuation as the rock of safety upon which our federative system is founded.

To those who in the study of the country's past seek a broader and higher conception of the duties of American citizenship, the facts pertaining to the controversy between the Executive and Congress as to the restoration and preservation of the Union, set out in the following pages, will be interesting and instructive. No one is better fitted than the author of this volume to discuss the period of reconstruction in which, as a member of the Federal senate, he played so potent and patriotic a part, and it is a pleasure to find that he has discharged his task with so much ability and care. But it is profoundly hoped that no coming generation will be called upon to utilize the experiences of the past in facing in their day, in field or forum, the dangers of disruption and anarchy, mortal strife and desolation, between those of one race, and blood, and nationality, that marked the history of America thirty years ago.

DAVID B. HILL.