Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's LegacyHistorian and Constitution expert David O. Stewart recaps the landmark impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. “The fullest recounting we have of the high politics of that immediate post-Civil War period...Stewart’s graceful style and storytelling ability make for a good read.” —The Washington Post In 1868 Congress impeached President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, the man who had succeeded the murdered Lincoln, bringing the nation to the brink of a second civil war. Enraged to see the freed slaves abandoned to brutal violence at the hands of their former owners, distraught that former rebels threatened to regain control of Southern state governments, and disgusted by Johnson's brawling political style, congressional Republicans seized on a legal technicality as the basis for impeachment -- whether Johnson had the legal right to fire his own secretary of war, Edwin Stanton. The fiery but mortally ill Congressman Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania led the impeachment drive, abetted behind the scenes by the military hero and president-in-waiting, General Ulysses S. Grant. The Senate trial featured the most brilliant lawyers of the day, along with some of the least scrupulous, while leading political fixers maneuvered in dark corners to save Johnson's presidency with political deals, promises of patronage jobs, and even cash bribes. Johnson escaped conviction by a single vote. David Stewart, the author of the highly acclaimed The Summer of 1787, the bestselling account of the writing of the Constitution, challenges the traditional version of this pivotal moment in American history. Rather than seeing Johnson as Abraham Lincoln's political heir, Stewart explains how the Tennessean squandered Lincoln's political legacy of equality and fairness and helped force the freed slaves into a brutal form of agricultural peonage across the South. When the clash between Congress and president threatened to tear the nation apart, the impeachment process substituted legal combat for violent confrontation. Both sides struggled to inject meaning into the baffling requirement that a president be removed only for "high crimes and misdemeanors," while employing devious courtroom gambits, backstairs spies, and soaring rhetoric. When the dust finally settled, the impeachment process had allowed passions to cool sufficiently for the nation to survive the bitter crisis. |
Contents
Preface | 1 |
spring 1865 | 5 |
April 1865 | 14 |
november 1865 | 27 |
December 1865 | 36 |
JanuaryJune 1866 | 46 |
Julynovember 1866 | 59 |
December 1866June 1867 | 74 |
march 30April 8 1868 | 193 |
April 920 1868 | 206 |
April 1868 | 219 |
April 22may 6 1868 | 229 |
may 59 1868 | 240 |
may 612 1868 | 250 |
may 1215 1868 | 260 |
may 1626 1868 | 275 |
Augustnovember 1867 | 87 |
December 1867 | 100 |
December 12 1867 | 114 |
February 1521 1868 | 127 |
February 2224 1868 | 138 |
February 24march 4 1868 | 151 |
march 529 1868 | 167 |
march 1868 | 181 |
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2d sess 40th cong acquittal Andrew Johnson appointment april 11 army Astor house group ben butler ben wade blacks boutwell bribery Butler Papers cabinet Chicago Tribune civil committee congress congressmen constitution conviction court crimes curtis Daily National Intelligencer december democrats edmund cooper election evarts february february 22 fessenden freedmen Globe supp grant grimes henderson house managers impeachment articles Impeachment Money impeachment trial James January John bingham Johnson Papers kansas Legate letter Lincoln Lorenzo Thomas March ment Moore diary/ahr Moore diary/large diary negro newspaper office Act ohio peachment perry fuller Philadelphia Press political pomeroy president Johnson president’s radical reconstruction ross ross’s senate’s seward sherman smythe southern speech stanberry stanton stevens’s Tennessee Tenure of office testimony Thaddeus stevens thomas ewing tion trefousse union veto wade war secretary Washington Daily Washington Daily National wendell whiskey ring white house william woolley wrote York Herald