The Civil War Presidents: Andrew Johnson (Part 3: Impeachment and Post-Presidency)
At the beginning of his term, Congress was willing to cut Andrew Johnson some slack, mindful of the circumstances under which he had become President. But by late January 1866, Johnson believed that winning a showdown with the Radical Republicans was necessary to bring about his vision of Reconstruction and to win re-election in 1868.
Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull, leader of the Moderate Republicans, introduced the first Civil Rights Bill, to grant citizenship to the freedmen. Trumbull met with Johnson, and believed that Johnson would sign the bill if passed. But Johnson opposed the bill because it was unpopular with white Southerners, a group Johnson counted on for support. He vetoed the Freedman's Bureau bill (a bill that planned to continue the Freedman's Bureau, a federal agency which aided freed slaves) on February 18, 1866, to the delight of white Southerners and the anger of Republicans. On February 22, 1866, Washington's Birthday, Johnson gave an impromptu speech to supporters in which he denigrated Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and accused them of plotting his assassination. Although strongly urged by Moderates to sign the Civil Rights Bill, Johnson vetoed it on March 27.
Within three weeks, Congress overrode the veto, the first time that had been done on a major bill in American history. Congress also proposed the Fourteenth Amendment (the equal protection clause) to the states, which Johnson also opposed. The amendment extended citizenship to every person born in the United States (except Indians on reservations), penalized states that did not give the vote to freedmen, and created new federal civil rights that could be protected by federal courts. It also forbid the repayment of Confederate war debts and disqualified many former Confederates from office, unless the disability was removed by Congress. Both houses passed the Freedmen's Bureau Act a second time, and once again Johnson vetoed it. That veto was overridden. Johnson's home state of Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth Amendment despite the President's opposition.
Efforts to reach a compromise between Johnson and the Republican congress failed. In the mid-term elections of 1866 Johnson campaigned vigorously, including speeches in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus. The tour didn't go well for Johnson. He made controversial comparisons between himself and Christ, and engaging in arguments with hecklers. The Republicans won the midters by a landslide, increasing their two-thirds majority in Congress.
Even after the midterms, Johnson considered himself in a strong position. The Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified by none of the Southern or border states except Tennessee, and had been rejected in Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland. The amendment required ratification by three-quarters of the states to become part of the Constitution. When Congress reconvened in December 1866, it passed a number of bills, often over a presidential veto. Congress admitted Nebraska to the Union over a veto, and the Republicans gained two senators. The new state that promptly ratified the amendment. Johnson's veto of a bill for statehood for Colorado Territory was sustained because enough senators agreed that a district with a population of 30,000 was not yet worthy of statehood.
In January 1867, Congressman Stevens introduced legislation to dissolve the Southern state governments and reconstitute them into five military districts, under martial law. He proposed that the states would begin again by holding constitutional conventions. African-Americans could vote for or become delegates, but former Confederates could not. Congress added to the bill that restoration to the Union would follow the state's ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Johnson and the Southerners attempted a compromise, without the disqualification of former Confederates, and for limited black suffrage. The Republicans insisted on the full language of the amendment, and the deal fell through. Johnson vetoed the First Reconstruction Act as it was passed on March 2, 1867 and Congress overruled him the same day.
Also on March 2, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over the President's veto. This bill required Senate approval for the firing of Cabinet members during the tenure of the president who appointed them.
Johnson wanted to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton because Stanton was working to undermine Johnson's Southern policy. Stanton refused to resign when asked to do. The House Judiciary Committee looked for grounds for Johnson to be impeached. They examined Johnson's bank accounts, and summoned members of the Cabinet to testify. When a federal court released former Confederate president Jefferson Davis on bail on May 13, the committee investigated whether Johnson had impeded the prosecution. It learned that Johnson was as eager to have Davis tried as anyone. A bipartisan majority of the committee voted down impeachment charges.
Later in June, Johnson and Stanton fought over the question of whether the military officers placed in command of the South could override the civil authorities. The President had Attorney General Henry Stanbery issue an opinion backing his position that they could not. When Congress reconvened in July, it passed a Reconstruction Act against Johnson's position. Johnson vetoed the bill and Congress overruled it. The legislation also deprived the President of control over the Army in the South. With Congress in recess until November, Johnson decided to fire Stanton and relieve General Philip Sheridan. On August 5, the President demanded Stanton's resignation, but Stanton refused to quit with Congress out of session. Johnson then suspended him pending the next meeting of Congress as allowed under the Tenure of Office Act. Ulysses Grant agreed to serve as temporary replacement.
Grant, under protest, followed Johnson's order transferring Sheridan. The President also issued a proclamation pardoning most Confederates, exempting those who held office under the Confederacy, or who had served in federal office before the war and had breached their oaths. The 1867 elections generally went Democratic. Voters in Ohio, Connecticut, and Minnesota turned down propositions to grant African-Americans the right to vote. These results momentarily put a stop to Republican calls to impeach Johnson.. But when Congress met in November, the Judiciary Committee passed a resolution of impeachment against Johnson. After much debate about whether anything the President had done was a high crime or misdemeanor, the standard under the Constitution, the resolution was defeated by the House of Representatives on December 7, 1867, by a vote of 57 in favor to 108 opposed.
Johnson notified Congress of Stanton's suspension and Grant's interim appointment. In January 1868, the Senate voted to reinstate Stanton. It decided that Johnson had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson then dismissed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas to replace him. Stanton refused to leave his office, and on February 24, 1868, the House impeached the President for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act, by a vote of 128 to 47. The House subsequently adopted eleven articles of impeachment, most alleging that Johnson had violated the Tenure of Office Act.
On March 5, 1868, the impeachment trial began in the Senate and lasted almost three months.A number of deals were made in return for votes of acquittal. Some senators were reluctant to remove the President because his successor would have been Ohio Senator Wade, a radical who many in the Senate considered to be worse than Johnson for other reasons. On May 16, the Senate voted on the 11th article of impeachment, accusing Johnson of firing Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office of Act. Thirty-five senators voted "guilty" and 19 "not guilty", thus falling short by a single vote of the two-thirds majority required for conviction under the Constitution. Seven Republicans-Senators Grimes, Ross, Trumbull, William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, John B. Henderson, and Peter G. Van Winkle-voted to acquit the President.
The Senate then adjourned for the Republican National Convention. Ulysses Grant was nominated for president. The Senate returned on May 26 and voted on the second and third articles, with identical 35-19 results. Faced with those results, Johnson's opponents gave up and dismissed proceedings.
Johnson sought nomination by the 1868 Democratic National Convention in New York in July 1868. He remained very popular among Southern whites, and just before the convention, he issued a pardon ending the possibility of criminal proceedings against any Confederate not already indicted. Johnson's support was mostly from the South, and it grew smaller as the ballots passed. On the 22nd ballot, former New York Governor Horatio Seymour was nominated as the Democratic candidate.
Seymour's operatives sought Johnson's support, but he never endorsed him. In his annual message to Congress in December, Johnson urged the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act and told legislators that had they admitted their Southern colleagues in 1865, all would have been well. On Christmas Day 1868, Johnson issued a final amnesty, this one covering all former Confederates, including Jefferson Davis. He also issued a pardon for Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted of involvement in the Lincoln assassination (he had set Booth's broken leg)
On March 3, the President hosted a large public reception at the White House on his final full day in office. Ulysses Grant was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Johnson, as was customary, and Johnson refused to go to the inauguration at all.
After leaving the presidency, Johnson remained for some weeks in Washington, then returned to Greeneville for the first time in eight years. He was honored with large public celebrations along the way, especially in Tennessee, where cities hostile to him during the war hung out welcome banners.
Johnson was said to be bored in Greeneville. The suicide of his son Robert in 1869 was greatly distressing to him. He launched a Senate bid soon after returning home but the Republicans elected Henry Cooper over Johnson, by a vote of 54-51. In 1872, he ran in a special election for an at-large congressional seat for Tennessee. Johnson ran as an independent, finishing third.
He ran for a Senate seat again in 1875 and was elected on January 26, with a margin of a single vote. Johnson's comeback garnered national attention. At his swearing-in in the Senate on March 5, 1875, he was sworn in with another former vice president, Hannibal Hamlin. Johnson is the only former president to serve in the Senate. He spoke only once in the short session, on March 22 lambasting President Grant for his use of federal troops in support of Louisiana's Reconstruction government. Johnson returned home after the special session concluded. On July 28, while at his daughter Mary's farm near Elizabethton, he suffered a stroke, but refused medical treatment until the next day. He suffered another stroke on the evening of July 30, and died early the following morning at the age of 66. He was buried with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes.
Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull, leader of the Moderate Republicans, introduced the first Civil Rights Bill, to grant citizenship to the freedmen. Trumbull met with Johnson, and believed that Johnson would sign the bill if passed. But Johnson opposed the bill because it was unpopular with white Southerners, a group Johnson counted on for support. He vetoed the Freedman's Bureau bill (a bill that planned to continue the Freedman's Bureau, a federal agency which aided freed slaves) on February 18, 1866, to the delight of white Southerners and the anger of Republicans. On February 22, 1866, Washington's Birthday, Johnson gave an impromptu speech to supporters in which he denigrated Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips, and accused them of plotting his assassination. Although strongly urged by Moderates to sign the Civil Rights Bill, Johnson vetoed it on March 27.
Within three weeks, Congress overrode the veto, the first time that had been done on a major bill in American history. Congress also proposed the Fourteenth Amendment (the equal protection clause) to the states, which Johnson also opposed. The amendment extended citizenship to every person born in the United States (except Indians on reservations), penalized states that did not give the vote to freedmen, and created new federal civil rights that could be protected by federal courts. It also forbid the repayment of Confederate war debts and disqualified many former Confederates from office, unless the disability was removed by Congress. Both houses passed the Freedmen's Bureau Act a second time, and once again Johnson vetoed it. That veto was overridden. Johnson's home state of Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth Amendment despite the President's opposition.
Efforts to reach a compromise between Johnson and the Republican congress failed. In the mid-term elections of 1866 Johnson campaigned vigorously, including speeches in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus. The tour didn't go well for Johnson. He made controversial comparisons between himself and Christ, and engaging in arguments with hecklers. The Republicans won the midters by a landslide, increasing their two-thirds majority in Congress.
Even after the midterms, Johnson considered himself in a strong position. The Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified by none of the Southern or border states except Tennessee, and had been rejected in Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland. The amendment required ratification by three-quarters of the states to become part of the Constitution. When Congress reconvened in December 1866, it passed a number of bills, often over a presidential veto. Congress admitted Nebraska to the Union over a veto, and the Republicans gained two senators. The new state that promptly ratified the amendment. Johnson's veto of a bill for statehood for Colorado Territory was sustained because enough senators agreed that a district with a population of 30,000 was not yet worthy of statehood.
In January 1867, Congressman Stevens introduced legislation to dissolve the Southern state governments and reconstitute them into five military districts, under martial law. He proposed that the states would begin again by holding constitutional conventions. African-Americans could vote for or become delegates, but former Confederates could not. Congress added to the bill that restoration to the Union would follow the state's ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Johnson and the Southerners attempted a compromise, without the disqualification of former Confederates, and for limited black suffrage. The Republicans insisted on the full language of the amendment, and the deal fell through. Johnson vetoed the First Reconstruction Act as it was passed on March 2, 1867 and Congress overruled him the same day.
Also on March 2, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over the President's veto. This bill required Senate approval for the firing of Cabinet members during the tenure of the president who appointed them.
Johnson wanted to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton because Stanton was working to undermine Johnson's Southern policy. Stanton refused to resign when asked to do. The House Judiciary Committee looked for grounds for Johnson to be impeached. They examined Johnson's bank accounts, and summoned members of the Cabinet to testify. When a federal court released former Confederate president Jefferson Davis on bail on May 13, the committee investigated whether Johnson had impeded the prosecution. It learned that Johnson was as eager to have Davis tried as anyone. A bipartisan majority of the committee voted down impeachment charges.
Later in June, Johnson and Stanton fought over the question of whether the military officers placed in command of the South could override the civil authorities. The President had Attorney General Henry Stanbery issue an opinion backing his position that they could not. When Congress reconvened in July, it passed a Reconstruction Act against Johnson's position. Johnson vetoed the bill and Congress overruled it. The legislation also deprived the President of control over the Army in the South. With Congress in recess until November, Johnson decided to fire Stanton and relieve General Philip Sheridan. On August 5, the President demanded Stanton's resignation, but Stanton refused to quit with Congress out of session. Johnson then suspended him pending the next meeting of Congress as allowed under the Tenure of Office Act. Ulysses Grant agreed to serve as temporary replacement.
Grant, under protest, followed Johnson's order transferring Sheridan. The President also issued a proclamation pardoning most Confederates, exempting those who held office under the Confederacy, or who had served in federal office before the war and had breached their oaths. The 1867 elections generally went Democratic. Voters in Ohio, Connecticut, and Minnesota turned down propositions to grant African-Americans the right to vote. These results momentarily put a stop to Republican calls to impeach Johnson.. But when Congress met in November, the Judiciary Committee passed a resolution of impeachment against Johnson. After much debate about whether anything the President had done was a high crime or misdemeanor, the standard under the Constitution, the resolution was defeated by the House of Representatives on December 7, 1867, by a vote of 57 in favor to 108 opposed.
Johnson notified Congress of Stanton's suspension and Grant's interim appointment. In January 1868, the Senate voted to reinstate Stanton. It decided that Johnson had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson then dismissed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas to replace him. Stanton refused to leave his office, and on February 24, 1868, the House impeached the President for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act, by a vote of 128 to 47. The House subsequently adopted eleven articles of impeachment, most alleging that Johnson had violated the Tenure of Office Act.
On March 5, 1868, the impeachment trial began in the Senate and lasted almost three months.A number of deals were made in return for votes of acquittal. Some senators were reluctant to remove the President because his successor would have been Ohio Senator Wade, a radical who many in the Senate considered to be worse than Johnson for other reasons. On May 16, the Senate voted on the 11th article of impeachment, accusing Johnson of firing Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office of Act. Thirty-five senators voted "guilty" and 19 "not guilty", thus falling short by a single vote of the two-thirds majority required for conviction under the Constitution. Seven Republicans-Senators Grimes, Ross, Trumbull, William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, John B. Henderson, and Peter G. Van Winkle-voted to acquit the President.
The Senate then adjourned for the Republican National Convention. Ulysses Grant was nominated for president. The Senate returned on May 26 and voted on the second and third articles, with identical 35-19 results. Faced with those results, Johnson's opponents gave up and dismissed proceedings.
Johnson sought nomination by the 1868 Democratic National Convention in New York in July 1868. He remained very popular among Southern whites, and just before the convention, he issued a pardon ending the possibility of criminal proceedings against any Confederate not already indicted. Johnson's support was mostly from the South, and it grew smaller as the ballots passed. On the 22nd ballot, former New York Governor Horatio Seymour was nominated as the Democratic candidate.
Seymour's operatives sought Johnson's support, but he never endorsed him. In his annual message to Congress in December, Johnson urged the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act and told legislators that had they admitted their Southern colleagues in 1865, all would have been well. On Christmas Day 1868, Johnson issued a final amnesty, this one covering all former Confederates, including Jefferson Davis. He also issued a pardon for Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted of involvement in the Lincoln assassination (he had set Booth's broken leg)
On March 3, the President hosted a large public reception at the White House on his final full day in office. Ulysses Grant was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Johnson, as was customary, and Johnson refused to go to the inauguration at all.
After leaving the presidency, Johnson remained for some weeks in Washington, then returned to Greeneville for the first time in eight years. He was honored with large public celebrations along the way, especially in Tennessee, where cities hostile to him during the war hung out welcome banners.
Johnson was said to be bored in Greeneville. The suicide of his son Robert in 1869 was greatly distressing to him. He launched a Senate bid soon after returning home but the Republicans elected Henry Cooper over Johnson, by a vote of 54-51. In 1872, he ran in a special election for an at-large congressional seat for Tennessee. Johnson ran as an independent, finishing third.
He ran for a Senate seat again in 1875 and was elected on January 26, with a margin of a single vote. Johnson's comeback garnered national attention. At his swearing-in in the Senate on March 5, 1875, he was sworn in with another former vice president, Hannibal Hamlin. Johnson is the only former president to serve in the Senate. He spoke only once in the short session, on March 22 lambasting President Grant for his use of federal troops in support of Louisiana's Reconstruction government. Johnson returned home after the special session concluded. On July 28, while at his daughter Mary's farm near Elizabethton, he suffered a stroke, but refused medical treatment until the next day. He suffered another stroke on the evening of July 30, and died early the following morning at the age of 66. He was buried with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes.