“Encyclopedia of the Presidents: Andrew Johnson,” by Zachary Kent.
Children’s Press, Chicago, 1989, 100 pages, Grades 4-6.
Impeachment of a president creates a crisis in the United States. It is the constitutional process by which the Congress of the United States decides whether the president has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.” While these high crimes and misdemeanors are not defined in the Constitution, they are understood to be serious crimes like treason, bribery or abuse of the office of the presidency.
Impeachment is the congressional act of bringing charges of abuse of power by the president. The second step in the process is the actual trial that is held in the Senate. This is where the president will either be found guilty or not guilty. Two presidents, Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton have been impeached. It is useful to consider the first impeachment case of President Andrew Johnson during this time of impeachment proceedings.
Just before the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln is re-elected president in November 1864. Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is centered on a merciful reunification of the Southern states to the Union. His Vice President is Andrew Johnson from the seceded state of Tennessee.
Tragically, Lincoln is assassinated soon after the war ends. This thrusts Johnson into the presidency. Northern politicians such as Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania do not trust Johnson, in part because he is from the South. The war has been brutal and many Northerners want the South to be treated as conquered provinces.
Johnson refuses to veer from Lincoln’s benign ideas and is immediately confronted by a belligerent Congress. As the South rejoins the Union, congressional delegations are elected. Since many were leaders in the Confederacy, the northern congressional leaders furiously deny them their seats. The South also harms the situation with the enactment of the vicious Black Codes. These evil laws deny African-Americans the rights and privileges granted by the United States Constitution and paid for so dearly with blood during the Civil War.
Additionally, Johnson pardons thousands of high ranking southerners, to the undying hatred of the northern delegations. Johnson feels these pardons are necessary because most accomplished southern leaders had joined the Confederacy. Without them, where would southern leadership come from? The northern politicians feel that Johnson’s actions deny the North’s reasons for fighting the Civil War in the first place.
Dysfunction now becomes the definition of the relationship of the Congress and the president. Congress attacks the president’s legislation, which results in Johnson vetoing legislation and signing a series of executive orders. Finally, Congress has had it with Johnson and passes the Tenure of Office Act.
Under this congressional law, which is actually illegal, Johnson may not dismiss a cabinet member without congressional approval. This is a problem because Secretary of War Edwin Stanton betrays Johnson by secretly passing cabinet meeting information to the Congress. With this, Johnson fires Stanton. But legal or not, by firing the Secretary of War Johnson has broken the Tenure of Office Act. The House then impeaches the Tennessean and the case moves to the Senate. Hatred arises. Rumors of bribes circulate. What happens?
How could the relationship between the Congress and the president become so toxic? Should Johnson be impeached? Why do northern congressional leaders feel that Johnson’s policies have denied the immense sufferings of the North and allowed a non-contrite South to resurrect the pre-Civil War South? What justice can be found in this impeachment? Where is right and where is wrong? To find out the answers to these and other questions, go to the library and check out this fine title.
Andrew Johnson is frequently considered a presidential failure. But could anyone have been successful in this boiling cauldron of hatred? In spite of his supposed betrayal of his presidential office, he will be later elected to the Senate. Before his death, he instructs that his body be wrapped in the American flag. In his coffin, Johnson’s head rests on top of the United States Constitution. He had his flaws, but certainly deserved a better historical fate.
