The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson occurred in 1868, when the United States House of Representatives decided to accuse President Andrew Johnson of adopting eleven impeachment articles detailing "high crime and offense," in accordance with Article Two of the Constitution of the United States. The main charge of the House of Representatives against Johnson is a violation of the Office Appointment, which was passed by the US Congress in March 1867, over the presidential veto. In particular, he was removed from the offices of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War - whose Act was largely designed to protect - and attempted to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas (Previously, while Congress was not in session, Johnson had suspended Stanton and appointed General Ulysses S. Grant as secretary of war while advertising ).
The House of Representatives approved the impeachment articles on March 2-3, 1868, and forwarded them to the Senate. The trial in the Senate began three days later, with the Chief Justice of the United States, Salmon P. Chase presiding. On May 16, the Senate failed to punish Johnson in one of the articles, with 35-19 votes in favor of confidence falling by less than two-thirds majority vote by one vote. A ten-day call is called before attempting to punish him in additional articles. The delay did not alter the outcome, however, on 26 May failed to punish the President on two articles, both of them with the same margin; after the trial was postponed.
This is the first impeachment of a President since the creation of the office in 1789. The culmination of a long political struggle between Johnson, a lifelong Democrat and a Republican majority in Congress on the best way to deal with the losing Southern states following the conclusion of the American Civil War, impeachment, and subsequent (and free) trials of Johnson were one of the most dramatic events in the nation's political life during the Reconstruction Era. Together, they have earned a historical reputation as an act of political expertity, not necessity, based on Johnson's rejection of unconstitutional laws, and which are done with little concern for the will of the general public who, despite Johnson's unpopularity, oppose impeachment.
Johnson is one of only three presidents who indicted impeachment articles have been reported to the full House for consideration. In 1974, during the Watergate scandal, the House of Justice Committee approved impeachment clauses against Richard Nixon, who resigned from his post, rather than face certain impeachment and the prospect of being punished in court and removed from office. In 1999, Bill Clinton was dismissed; he, like Johnson, was released from all charges after the Senate hearing.
Video Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
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Presidential Reconstruction
Tensions between the executive and legislative branches were very high before Johnson's rise to the presidency. Following the Union Army victory at Gettysburg and Vicksburg in July 1863, President Lincoln began thinking about the problem of how to bring the South back to Union. He wants to offer an olive branch to the rebel states by pursuing a soft plan for their reintegration. Tone condoned the president's plan, plus the fact that he applied it with a presidential directive without consulting the Congress, angered Radical Republicans, who responded with a more restrictive plan. Their proposal for the reconstruction of the South, the Wade-Davis bill, passed the two Congressional assemblies in July 1864, but was a pocket vetoed by the president and never took effect.
The assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865, just days after the Army surrendered Northern Virginia at Appomattox briefly reduced the tension over who would govern the terms of peace. The radicals, while suspicious of the new president and his policies, believe, on the record, that Andrew Johnson will delay, or at least approve of their hard-line proposals. Despite the Democrats of Tennessee, Johnson has become a fierce critic of Southern separation. Then after several countries left the Union, including his own, he chose to stay in Washington (rather than resign from the US Senate seat), and then, when the Union forces occupied Tennessee, Johnson was appointed military governor. While in that position he has trained his strength with great enthusiasm, often declaring that "treachery must be made unclean and traitor punished." However, Johnson embraced Lincoln's softer policies, thus rejecting Radicals, and setting the stage for a confrontation between the president and Congress. During the first months of his presidency, Johnson issued a general amnesty proclamation for most of the former Confederate members, both government and military officials, and oversaw the formation of a new government in rebellious countries - a government dominated by former Confederate officials. In February 1866, Johnson vetoed the law extending the Freedmen Bureau and expanding its powers; Congress can not rule out veto. Afterwards, Johnson criticized Republican Radical Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner, along with abolitionist Wendell Phillips, as a traitor. Later, Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act and the second Bureau of Freedmen Bill; The Senate and House of Representatives each collect the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto, setting the stage for a confrontation between Congress and the president.
At a standstill with Congress, Johnson offered himself directly to the American public as a "people's tribune". At the end of the summer of 1866, the president embarked on a nationwide "Swing Around the Circle" tour, where he asked his audience for their support in the battle against Congress and urged voters to elect a representative for Congress in a forthcoming part-time election supporting his policy. The tour backfired on Johnson, however, when reports of his undisciplined, chatty speeches and lousy confrontations with hecklers hit the country. Contrary to his expectations, the election of 1866 led to a veto-proof Republican majority in both houses of Congress. As a result, Radicals were able to take over the Reconstruction, passing through a series of Acts Reconstruction - each over the veto-handling requirements of the President for the Southern states to be fully restored to the Union. The first of these acts divides these countries, excluding Johnson, Tennessee, into five military districts, and each state government is under the control of the US military. In addition, these countries are required to enact new constitutions, ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and guarantee voting rights for black men.
Office term of Office
Control of Congress on policy Military reconstruction is suppressed by Johnson's military command as president; However, Johnson inherited, as Secretary of War, appointed Lincoln, Edwin M. Stanton, a faithful Radical Republican, who as long as he stayed in the office would obey the policy of the Congressional Reconstruction. To ensure that Stanton would not be replaced, Congress passed the Ratification of the Office Act in 1867 over Johnson's veto. Such action requires the President to seek the advice and approval of the Senate before dismissing or dismissing his Cabinet member (indirect reference to Stanton) or, indeed, a federal official whose earlier appointment has previously sought his advice and approval.
Since the Tenure of Office Act allowed the President to suspend the official when Congress quit the session, when Johnson failed to get Stanton's resignation, he instead suspended Stanton on August 5, 1867, which gave him the opportunity to appoint General Ulysses S. Grant, then served as Commander- Army, Interim War Secretary. When the Senate adopted a resolution disagreeing with Stanton's dismissal in December 1867, Grant told Johnson he would resign, fearing punitive legal action. Johnson, convinces Grant that he will assume all responsibility in this matter, and asks him to postpone his resignation until a suitable substitute can be found. Contrary to Johnson's belief that Grant had agreed to remain in office, when the Senate voted and returned Stanton in January 1868, Grant immediately resigned, before the president had a chance to appoint a replacement. Johnson was furious with Grant, accusing him of lying during a stormy cabinet meeting. The March March 1868 publication of several angry messages between Johnson and Grant caused a complete pause between the two. As a result of these letters, Grant established his position as a pioneer for the Republican presidential nomination of 1868.
Johnson was concerned about Stanton's restoration to the office, and did a desperate search for someone to replace Stanton who the Senate might receive. He turned first to General William Tecumseh Sherman, who was an enemy of Stanton, but Sherman refused the president. Sherman later suggested to Johnson that radical and moderate Republicans would agree to replace Stanton with Jacob Cox, but found he found the president no longer interested in easing. On February 21, 1868, the president appointed Lorenzo Thomas, a great army general in the Army, as Interim War Secretary, ordering Stanton's dismissal from office, and informed the Senate of his actions. Thomas personally conveyed a notice of dismissal of the president to Stanton, who refused to accept its validity or vacate the venue. Instead, Stanton told House Speaker Schuyler Colfax and the President for a while from Senate Benjamin Wade about his grief, then blockaded himself in his office and ordered Thomas arrested for violating Office Mastery. Thomas remained in custody for several days, until Stanton, realizing that the case against Thomas would give the court a chance to review the constitutionality of the Office Ownership Act, if the allegations were dropped.
Johnson's opponents in Congress are angry with his actions; the president's challenge to the congressional authorities - in relation to the Post Office Administration and post-war reconstruction - in their estimates, has been tolerated for a long time. In quick response, impeachment resolution was introduced in the House by representatives of Thaddeus Stevens and John Bingham. Expressing widespread sentiments between House Republicans, Representative William D. Kelley (on February 22, 1868) stated:
Master, the bloody and unshakable fields of the ten unconstructed countries, unshackled ghosts of the two thousand killed in Texas, weep, if the dead ever arouse vengeance, upon Andrew Johnson's punishment.
Maps Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Impeachment
On February 24, 1868, three days after Johnson's dismissal at Stanton, the House of Representatives voted 126 to 47 (with 17 non-voting members) supporting the resolution to topple the President for high crime and minor crimes. Thaddeus Stevens spoke before the House before the vote. "This is not to be a temporary victory for a political party," he said, "but it has to endure in its consequences until the whole continent will be filled with free and uninterrupted people or will be the home of shrunken and cowardly slaves."
One week later, the House of Representatives adopted eleven articles of impeachment against the President. The articles accused Johnson of:
- Stops Edwin Stanton from office after the Senate chooses to disagree with his dismissal and has ordered him to be reinstated.
- Appoint Thomas War Secretary while advertising despite lack of vacancies in the office, because Stanton's dismissal is invalid.
- Appoint Thomas without any Senate suggestions and approval required.
- Conspiring, with Thomas and "others to the House of Representatives unknown," to prevent Stanton from ruling office illegally.
- Conspiring to unlawfully restrict the loyalty of the Tenure of Office Act.
- Conspiring to "seize, take, and own property from the United States in the War Department."
- Conspiring to "seize, retrieve, and possess US property in the Department of War" with the sole intent of infringing Office Mastery.
- Authorizes Thomas to the office of the Secretary of War for the unlawful purpose of "controlling the disbursement of money allocated to military service and to the Department of War."
- Issuing the orders of Major General William H. Emory with the unlawful intent to violate federal law requiring all military orders to be issued through the General of the Army.
- Make three speeches with the intent of "trying to make disgrace, ridicule, hatred, humiliation and blame, the United States Congress".
- Bringing disgrace and ridicule to the presidency with his previously mentioned words and actions.
Trial
Pretrial
On March 4, 1868, in the midst of extraordinary public attention and press coverage, 11 Impeachment Articles were presented to the Senate, which was re-established the next day as an impeachment court, with Chief Justice Salmon Chase leading, and beginning to develop a set of rules for the trial and its officers. The extent of Chase's authority as the lead official for making unilateral decisions is a point that is often debated during debates and trials. He initially argued that deciding certain procedural questions to himself was his prerogative; but after the Senate challenged some of his decisions, he gave up his decision. On one occasion, when he decided that Johnson should be allowed to present evidence that Thomas's appointment to replace Stanton was intended to provide a test for challenging the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act, the Senate reversed the decision.
When it was time for senators to take the jury vows, Thomas Hendricks questioned Benjamin Wade's impartiality and advised Wade not to vote because of a conflict of interest. Since there was no constitutional provision at the time to fill the void of time in the vice presidential office (reached a century later by the Twenty-Fifth Amendment), the office was vacant since Johnson succeeded in becoming president. Therefore, Wade, as President of the Senate's pro tempore, will, under the Presidential Succession Act subsequently apply and become a president if Johnson is removed from office. Gripped by a radical majority, Hendricks withdrew his objection a day later and left the matter to Wade's conscience; he then chooses confidence.
House Impeachment Committee consists of: John Bingham, George S. Boutwell, Benjamin Butler, John A. Logan, Thaddeus Stevens, James F. Wilson, and Thomas Williams. The president's defense team consists of Henry Stanbery, William M. Evarts, Benjamin R. Curtis, Thomas A. R. Nelson, and William S. Groesbeck. On the advice of the advisor, the president did not appear in the hearing.
The trial was conducted mostly in open sessions, and the Senate room gallery was filled to capacity throughout. The public interest was so great that the Senate issued a ticket for the first time in its history. For each day of the trial, 1,000 color coded tickets are printed, granting a day's permission.
Testimonial
On the first day, Johnson's defense committee requested for 40 days to collect evidence and witnesses because the prosecutor had a longer time to do so, but only 10 days were given. The trial process begins on March 23. Senator Garrett Davis argues that since not all countries are represented in the Senate, trials can not be held and should therefore be postponed. The movement was rejected. After the allegations against the president were made, Henry Stanbery asked for another 30 days to gather evidence and summon witnesses, saying that within the preceding 10 days there was only enough time to prepare for the president's answer. John A. Logan believes that the trial should begin immediately and that Stanberry is just trying to gain time. The request was rejected in voting 41 to 12. However, the Senate elected the next day to provide a further six-day defense to prepare the evidence, which was received.
The trial resumed on 30 March. Benjamin F. Butler opened the prosecution with a three-hour speech reviewing the impeachment court of history, originating from King John of England. For days, Butler spoke out against Johnson's offense on Office Mastery and further charged that the president had issued direct orders to army officers without sending them through General Grant. The defense argues that Johnson did not violate the Office Mastery because President Lincoln did not reestablish Stanton as Secretary of War at the start of his second term in 1865 and is therefore the remaining appointment of the 1860 cabinet, which wiped out his protection. by the Tenure of Office Act. The prosecution summoned several witnesses during the trial until April 9, when they rested their case.
Benjamin R. Curtis draws attention to the fact that after the House approves the Appointment of the Office, the Senate has changed it, which means that he must return it to the Senate-House conference committee to resolve the differences. He followed up by citing the minutes of the meetings, which revealed that while members of the Board did not make any notes about that fact, their only aim was to keep Stanton in the office, and the Senate disagree. The defense then summoned their first witness, Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas. He did not provide adequate information on defense issues and Butler made an effort to use his information for the benefit of the claimant. The next witness was General William T. Sherman, who testified that President Johnson had offered to appoint Sherman to replace Stanton as Secretary of War to ensure that the department was effectively managed. This testimony undermines the prosecution, which expects Sherman to testify that Johnson offered to appoint Sherman for the purpose of blocking the operation, or overthrowing, of the government. Sherman basically insists that Johnson just wants him to run the department and not execute directions to the military that would be against the will of Congress.
Verdict
The Senate is comprised of 54 members representing 27 countries (10 former Confederate nations have not received back to representatives in the Senate) at the time of the hearing. In the end, the senators voted on three impeachment articles. At every turn, the vote is 35-19, with 35 senators choosing to be guilty and 19 not guilty . Since the constitutional threshold for a guilty verdict in an impeachment court is two-thirds of the majority guilty vote - in this case 36 votes - Johnson is released.
Seven Republican senators are concerned that the process has been manipulated to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence. Senator William Pitt Fessenden (Maine), James S. Grimes (Iowa), John B. Henderson (Missouri), Lyman Trumbull (Illinois) G. Ross (Kansas), who voted decisively, opposed their party by choosing against the faith. In addition to the seven above, three more James Dixon (Connecticut), James Doolittle (Wisconsin), and Daniel Norton (Minnesota) and ninth Senator Democrats voted innocent.
The first sound was taken on May 16 for the eleventh article. Before the vote, Samuel Pomeroy, senior senator from Kansas, told junior Senator Kansas Ross that if Ross chose to be released, Ross would be the subject of investigation for bribery. Afterwards, in hopes of persuading at least one senator who chose innocence to change his voice, the Senate delayed for 10 days before continuing voting on another article. During the hiatus, under the leadership of Butler, Parliament passed a resolution to investigate allegations of "improper or corrupt means used to influence the Senate's determination". Despite the radical Republican Party's radical efforts to change the outcome, when votes were cast on May 26 for the second and third articles, the result was the same as the first. After the trial, Butler held a hearing on a widespread report that Republican senators had been bribed to elect Johnson freed. In the trial of Butler, and in subsequent investigations, there is increasing evidence that some free votes were obtained with the promise of patronage and cash cards. Nevertheless, the investigation has never produced an accusation, let alone a belief, against anyone.
In addition, there is evidence that prosecutors are trying to bribe senators who cast votes to be released to divert their voices to conviction. Senator Maine, Fessenden, offered Ministership to Great Britain. Attorney Butler said, "Tell [Kansas Ross Senator] that if he wants money, there's a bushel here to get." Butler's investigation also boomeranged when it was learned that the Kansas Pomeroy Senator, who voted for his belief, had written to General Postmaster Johnson to seek a $ 40,000 bribe for Pomeroy's vote along with three or four others in his caucus. Benjamin Butler himself was told by Ben Wade that Wade would appoint Butler as Foreign Minister when Wade took over the presidency after Johnson's conviction. The notion that Senator Ross was mercilessly persecuted for his courage to support the independence of the Presidency as a branch of the Federal Government is the subject of all chapters in President John F. Kennedy's book, Profile in Courage.
None of the Republican senators who choose to be re-released are served in the elective office. Although they were under intense pressure to turn their voices into confidence during the trial, public opinion subsequently quickly shifted to their point of view. Some senators who chose beliefs, such as John Sherman and even Charles Sumner, then changed their minds.
Petition on abolition of the presidency
During the trial, several residents of Boston and Roxbury, Massachusetts to petition to Congress called for complete elimination of the Presidency. In it, the petitioners argue that there are only two forms of government: absolute monarchy and absolute democracy. They claim that President Johnson has abused the powers of the Presidency, where impeachment is the only correction; The failure of impeachment in Johnson's case proves to the petitioners that the Presidency has grown too strong and the only solution left is the abolition of office. The applicants filed an amendment to the US Constitution which abolished the Presidency and transferred the power of the executive office to a body consisting of members of Congress or "other competent citizens," elected by Congress and supervised by standing committees.
Later reviews about impeachment Johnson
In 1887, the Tenure of Office Act was revoked by Congress, and subsequent decisions by the United States Supreme Court seemed to support Johnson's position that he was entitled to fire Stanton without the approval of Congress. The Supreme Court ruling on a similar part of the law later in 1926 Myers v. The United States affirms the president's ability to remove postmasters without the approval of Congress, and declares in his majority opinion "that the Tenure Office Act of 1867... is invalid."
Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, one of ten Republican Senators whose refusal to vote for a guilty verdict prevented Johnson's removal from office, noted, in a speech he provided describing his voice for release, which Johnson found guilty, the main source of political power of the President. - the freedom to disagree with Congress without consequence - will be destroyed, and the system of checks and balances of the Constitution along with it:
After setting the example of the President's impeachment for what, when the excitement of the hour will subside, will be considered an inadequate cause, as some of those who are now accused of opposing the President are decided by the House of Representatives for only a few months Because, and no future President will be safe in contrast to the majority of the House and two thirds of the Senate at any size considered important by them, especially if the political character. Blinded by partisan zeal, with such an example in front of them, they would not mind to remove any obstacles to achieve their goals, and what then became the checks and balances of the Constitution, carefully designed and of great importance. for eternity? They are all gone.
See also
- Impeachment from Bill Clinton
- The forgery process against Richard Nixon
- List of federal political scandals in the United States
References
Further reading
External links
- Andrew Johnson Impeachment Trial (1868), essays and other sources, www.famous-trials.com, Law School of the University of Missouri-Kansas City
- The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, quotes from 1865-1869 Harper's Weekly article along with other information (a HarpWeek website)
- Interview with William Rehnquist on Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice, Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson , 1992, Booknotes , C-SPAN
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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