Impeachment of Andrew Johnson (1868)

On February 25, 1868, the House Managers of Impeachment, led by Thaddeus Stevens, appeared before the U. S. Senate to present 11 articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. Their case rested on Johnson’s removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from office, but the action really grew out of a political struggle between Johnson and Congress over Reconstruction. The sensational trial brought the national government to a halt for three months. On May 26, 1868, the Senate voted 35 to 19 to convict Johnson, only one vote short of the two-thirds necessary to remove him from office. Johnson was acquitted, but his effectiveness as a leader was destroyed.

When Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the office of president in April 1865 after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, he enjoyed the united support of the Northern leaders and citizenry. Johnson, a Democrat who was the wartime governor of Tennessee, appeared on the 1864 ticket to broaden the appeal of the Republican Party beyond its traditional base. Johnson’s deep hatred of the Southern slaveholding class was widely known. Radical Republicans, a strong wing of the party led by Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, had good reason to assume Johnson agreed with their harsh position on Reconstruction. They believed, as did the majority of more moderate Republicans, that Congress and the executive would work together well to determine the process of incorporating the Southern states back into the Union.

Johnson was no stranger to Congress. He had served on the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War with Benjamin Wade, Zechariah Chandler, and George W. Julian, all Radical Republicans. Ominously, although a staunch Union man who favored emancipation, he had never supported an agenda that included black suffrage and civil rights. His sympathies were for the plain white farmers of the South, and his beliefs were those of a typical Democrat, including the desire for a small national government and the upholding of states’ rights. He loudly proclaimed that he would follow in his predecessor’s footsteps, with a lenient and merciful Reconstruction policy. Unfortunately, Johnson was sorely lacking in Lincoln’s political skills. Called by some the “accidental president,” he was inflexible, stubborn, and, in the end, self-destructive. Understandably, Johnson wanted to control Reconstruction from the White House, but his many vetoes, together with his adamant refusal to compromise with congressional Republicans, brought catastrophic results for the nation.

Johnson’s earliest policy moves alarmed the Republican-dominated Congress. He readmitted Virginia with only a few restrictions and on May 29, 1865, issued a Proclamation of Amnesty, setting in motion liberal policy of pardons for ex-Confederates.

The new president had initiated a heated struggle over the control of Reconstruction that eventually led to his impeachment. Johnson supported the restoration of landed property to ex-Confederates, and early in 1866 he vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau bill. Throughout this period many Republicans grew increasingly alarmed but did not break with the White House, hoping to work out an agreement before the fall elections. Only when the president vetoed the Civil Rights Act of i866 and made known his opposition to the proposed Fourteenth Amendment did congressional Republicans declare an open war and take their case to the voters.

The fall elections of 1866 went badly for Johnson and his supporters. Radical and moderate Republicans were united and now had the power to act on their desire to end Johnson’s obstructionist stance on Reconstruction. Congress intended to halt the widespread removal of Republicans from government positions by Johnson. The first step was to deprive the president of his patronage powers.

Sketch showing the U. S. Senate as a court of impeachment for the trial of Andrew Johnson (Library of Congress)

Early in 1867, the Tenure of Office Act passed. In the same session, Congress also passed legislation to limit Johnson’s influence over the military. Still not finished, Congress, over a presidential veto, initiated the Reconstruction ACT that established military governments throughout the South. Congress and the president were declared enemies. Republicans hoped to force the South to accept universal male suffrage and the Fourteenth Amendment. Johnson, horrified by what he described as a blatant violation of the Constitution, fought hard to stop the legislation and employed the veto. These policies, the president also believed, would severely hinder the South’s recovery. Congress overrode his veto with ease. Johnson’s fierce opposition, however, threatened their future Reconstruction plans. Impeachment talk was becoming common within congressional chambers.

In December 1867 the House of Representatives began the impeachment proceeding against Johnson. For the moment, they were unsuccessful, but the newly elected president of the Senate, Radical Republican Benjamin Wade, was determined to pursue the issue. Over the following year, Wade directed a Congress that set its Reconstruction policy in motion without hesitation. Yet another Reconstruction bill passed over Johnson’s veto. The president’s response was twofold. First, he outwardly complied with their policy, but he made sure that the military governors of the reconstructed South were conservative and effectively blocked the Republican’s agenda. Second, Johnson removed Radical sympathizer Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from office, a defiant challenge to the Tenure of Office Act. Every Republican felt that the president had gone too far. Despite the seriousness of the situation, a comic element surfaced as Congress and the president alternately fired and rehired Stanton.

Congress reinstated Stanton to his cabinet post in February 1868. Johnson brazenly defied that body by again ordering the secretary’s dismissal, replacing Stanton with former Union general Lorenzo Thomas. His bold action brought swift reaction. Within days, the House of Representatives voted for impeachment of President Andrew Johnson for “high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Naturally, the vote was along strict party lines. The first eight articles of impeachment, which were the heart of the case, focused on the president’s alleged violations of the Tenure of Office Act. On February 25, the Senate initiated its proceedings, and the trial began on March 30. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presided over the trial and, to his credit, tried to govern the process in a fair and impartial manner.

The political subtext of the trial was the fight over Reconstruction policy. Johnson’s able defenders, including former associate justice Benjamin R. Curtis, argued correctly that the Tenure of Office Act was clearly unconstitutional. The Republicans, meanwhile, attacked the president’s opposition to their policies for the Southern states. Their primary concern was that Johnson was subverting the Union victory in the war. By May 6, the arguments had concluded, and only the vote remained. As it turned out, none of the articles of impeachment passed, and a motion to adjourn the trial was offered and adopted. Seven Republicans voted against impeachment.

Johnson had survived the trial, and the Republicans searched for explanations. Many congressmen came to believe that the case against Johnson lacked proof that he had undermined the Constitution, since Lincoln had appointed Stanton. Others distrusted the intentions of Benjamin Wade, next in line for the presidency should Johnson’s impeachment be successful. Wade’s extreme position on Reconstruction and his almost obsessive pursuit of Johnson worried many of the moderate Republicans. In the end, the spectacle of the trial and Johnson’s acquittal had serious consequences. The Radicals’ moment had ended. Northerners felt sorry for Johnson and preferred a more modest approach to Reconstruction. Ulysses S. Grant, the choice of the moderate majority of the Republican Party, was the candidate for president in 1868. Johnson’s acquittal, then, signaled the beginning of the Radicals’ quick political decline. Significantly, the fact that Johnson remained in office emboldened ex-Confederate leaders to oppose the Reconstruction of their states that began to be imposed in 1868.

Further reading: Michael Les Benedict, The Impeach-men-t and Trial of Andrew Johnson (New York: Norton, 1973); (Hans L. Trefousse, Impeachment of a President: Andrew Johnson, the Blacks, and Reconstruction (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975).

—John P Bowes