Editing Andrew Johnson (section)

=== Impeachment ===
{{Main|Impeachment of Andrew Johnson|Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson}}
{{further|Efforts to impeach Andrew Johnson|Timeline of the impeachment of Andrew Johnson|Articles of impeachment adopted against Andrew Johnson|1868 impeachment managers investigation}}
{{see also|First impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson|Second impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson}}

[[File:The situation.jpg|thumb|"The Situation", a ''[[Harper's Weekly]]'' editorial cartoon, shows Secretary of War Stanton aiming a cannon labeled "Congress" to defeat Johnson. The rammer is "Tenure of Office Bill" and cannonballs on the floor are "Justice".]]

Secretary of War [[Edwin Stanton]] was an able and hard-working man, but difficult to deal with.{{Sfn|Stewart|pp=62–64}} Johnson both admired and was exasperated by his War Secretary, who, in combination with [[General of the Army (United States)|General of the Army]] Grant, worked to undermine the president's Southern policy from within his own administration. Johnson considered firing Stanton, but respected him for his wartime service as secretary. Stanton, for his part, feared allowing Johnson to appoint his successor and refused to resign, despite his public disagreements with his president.{{Sfn|Stewart|pp=64–66}}

The new Congress met for a few weeks in March 1867, then adjourned, leaving the House Committee on the Judiciary behind, tasked in the [[first impeachment inquiry against Andrew Johnson|first impeachment inquiry against Johnson]] with reporting back to the full House whether there were grounds for Johnson to be impeached. This committee duly met, examined the President's bank accounts, and summoned members of the Cabinet to testify. When a federal court released former Confederate president Davis on bail on May 13 (he had been captured shortly after the war), the committee investigated whether the President had impeded the prosecution. It learned that Johnson was eager to have Davis tried. A bipartisan majority of the committee voted down impeachment charges; the committee adjourned on June 3.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|pp=126–127}}

Later in June, Johnson and Stanton battled 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. Johnson sought to pin down Stanton either as for, and thus endorsing Johnson's position, or against, showing himself to be opposed to his president and the rest of the Cabinet. Stanton evaded the point in meetings and written communications. When Congress reconvened in July, it passed a Reconstruction Act against Johnson's position, waited for his veto, overrode it, and went home. In addition to clarifying the powers of the generals, 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 one of the military commanders, General [[Philip Sheridan]], who had dismissed the governor of Texas and installed a replacement with little popular support. Johnson was initially deterred by a strong objection from Grant, but on August 5, the President demanded Stanton's resignation; the secretary refused to quit with Congress out of session.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|pp=128–135}} Johnson then suspended him pending the next meeting of Congress as permitted under the Tenure of Office Act; Grant agreed to serve as temporary replacement while continuing to lead the Army.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|pp=135–137}}

Grant, under protest, followed Johnson's order transferring Sheridan and another of the district commanders, [[Daniel Sickles]], who had angered Johnson by firmly following Congress's plan. 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 but had breached their oaths. Although Republicans expressed anger with his actions, the 1867 elections generally went Democratic. No seats in Congress were directly elected in the polling, but the Democrats took control of the [[Ohio General Assembly]], allowing them to defeat for reelection one of Johnson's strongest opponents, Senator [[Benjamin Wade]]. Voters in Ohio, Connecticut, and Minnesota turned down propositions to grant African Americans the vote.{{Sfn|Stewart|pp=95–97}}

The adverse results momentarily put a stop to Republican calls to impeach Johnson, who was elated by the elections.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|p=146}} Nevertheless, once Congress met in November, the Judiciary Committee reversed itself and 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.{{Sfn|Stewart|pp=109–111}}

Johnson notified Congress of Stanton's suspension and Grant's interim appointment. In January 1868, the Senate disapproved of his action, and reinstated Stanton, contending the President had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Grant stepped aside over Johnson's objection, causing a complete break between them. 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 [[Articles of impeachment adopted against Andrew Johnson|eleven articles of impeachment]], for the most part alleging that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act, and had questioned the legitimacy of Congress.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=313–316}}

[[File:The Senate as a Court of Impeachment for the Trial of Andrew Johnson (1).jpg|thumb|left|Illustration of Johnson's impeachment trial in the [[United States Senate]], by [[Theodore R. Davis]], published in ''Harper's Weekly'']]
[[File:George T. Brown, sergeant-at-arms, serving the summons on President Johnson - sketched by T.R. Davis. LCCN92520335 (1) (3x4).jpg|thumb|left|Illustration of [[Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate]] George T. Brown delivering a [[summons]] for the impeachment trial to Johnson at the White House on March 7, 1868]]
[[File:Andrew Johnson consulting with his counsel (Harper's Weekly March 14, 1868).jpg|thumb|Illustration of Johnson consulting with his counsel for the trial]]

On March 5, 1868, the impeachment trial began in the Senate and lasted almost three months; Congressmen [[George S. Boutwell]], Benjamin Butler and Thaddeus Stevens acted as managers for the House, or prosecutors, and [[William M. Evarts]], [[Benjamin R. Curtis]] and former Attorney General Stanbery were Johnson's counsel; Chief Justice Chase served as presiding judge.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=316, 336}}

The defense relied on the provision of the Tenure of Office Act that made it applicable only to appointees of the current administration. Since Lincoln had appointed Stanton, the defense maintained Johnson had not violated the act, and also argued that the President had the right to test the constitutionality of an act of Congress.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=319}} Johnson's counsel insisted that he make no appearance at the trial, nor publicly comment about the proceedings, and except for a pair of interviews in April, he complied.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|p=81}}

Johnson maneuvered to gain an acquittal; for example, he pledged to Iowa Senator [[James W. Grimes]] that he would not interfere with Congress's Reconstruction efforts. Grimes reported to a group of Moderates, many of whom voted for acquittal, that he believed the President would keep his word. Johnson also promised to install the respected [[John Schofield]] as War Secretary.{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|pp=138–139}} Kansas Senator [[Edmund G. Ross]] received assurances that the new, Radical-influenced constitutions ratified in South Carolina and Arkansas would be transmitted to the Congress without delay, an action which would give him and other senators political cover to vote for acquittal.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=323–324}}

One reason senators were reluctant to remove the President was that his successor would have been Ohio Senator Wade, the [[President pro tempore of the United States Senate|president ''pro tempore'']] of the Senate. Wade, a [[lame duck (politics)|lame duck]] who left office in early 1869, was a Radical who supported such measures as women's suffrage, placing him beyond the pale politically in much of the nation.{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|p=139}}{{Sfn|Stewart|p=307}} Additionally, a President Wade was seen as an obstacle to Grant's ambitions.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=330}}

With the dealmaking, Johnson was confident of the result in advance of the verdict, and in the days leading up to the ballot, newspapers reported that Stevens and his Radicals had given up. 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 once the Senate had overturned his suspension. 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. Ten Republicans—Senators Grimes, Ross, Trumbull, [[James Dixon]], [[James Rood Doolittle]], [[Daniel Sheldon Norton]], [[William Pitt Fessenden]], [[Joseph S. Fowler]], [[John B. Henderson]], and [[Peter G. Van Winkle]]—voted to acquit the President. With Stevens bitterly disappointed at the result, the Senate then adjourned for the [[1868 Republican National Convention|Republican National Convention]]; 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.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=323–328}}{{Sfn|Stewart|pp=340–341}}<ref>{{cite web| title=''Senate Journal''. 40th Cong., 2nd sess., 16{{\}}May 26, 1868, 943–51| url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llsj&fileName=061/llsj061.db&recNum=942&itemLink=r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(sj061225)):%230610942&linkText=1| work=A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875| publisher=[[Library of Congress]]| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=June 7, 2019}}</ref> Stanton "relinquished" his office on May 26, and the Senate subsequently confirmed Schofield.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|p=195}} When Johnson renominated Stanbery to return to his position as attorney general after his service as a defense manager, the Senate refused to confirm him.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=336}}

Allegations were made at the time and again later that bribery dictated the outcome of the trial. Even when it was in progress, Representative Butler began an investigation, held contentious hearings, and issued a report, unendorsed by any other congressman. Butler focused on a New York–based "Astor House Group", supposedly led by [[political boss]] and editor [[Thurlow Weed]]. This organization was said to have raised large sums of money from whiskey interests through Cincinnati lawyer [[Charles Woolley (lawyer)|Charles Woolley]] to bribe senators to acquit Johnson. Butler went so far as to imprison Woolley in the Capitol building <!-- a committee room and then an artist's studio --> when he refused to answer questions, but failed to prove bribery.{{Sfn|Stewart|pp=240–247, 284–292}}