Additional Topics
The U.S. Congress for the first time exercised its constitutional prerogative to try a president of the United States for impeachable offenses. Johnson survived the Senate impeachment trial by one vote, but his hopes for re-election in 1868 were destroyed. Johnson was succeeded by the corrupt administration of Ulysses S. Grant. After five years of bloody civil war, the Union emerged victorious. Pr…
Johnson lacked the stature that Lincoln had enjoyed as the president who held the Union together. Although Lincoln would probably have approved of Johnson's moderate policies toward Reconstruction, Johnson did not have the prestige necessary to convince Congress or the American people that he was suited to the job. The electorate of the victorious Union, having undergone the bloodiest war in Ameri…
Although the House of Representatives had adopted the resolution to impeach Johnson, Article I, Section 3 of the Constitution mandates that the Senate must conduct the impeachment trial. This provision further states that at least two-thirds of the Senate must vote in favor of impeachment and, because a presidential impeachment was at issue, that Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase of the Supreme Court …
Johnson's lawyers attempted to introduce evidence showing that Johnson's opposition to the Tenure of Office Act was no more than a legitimate desire to test the constitutional validity of the act in the federal courts. The defense offered to produce witnesses who could testify that Johnson's opposition to the act on constitutional grounds had long preceded his quarrel with Secretary of War Stanton…
Although Abraham Lincoln was opposed to slavery before he became president in 1861, he did not initially believe that the federal government should become involved in the issue. Events forced the transformation that led to Lincoln's issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 January 1863. When Lincoln became president, 11 slaveholding states seceded, launching the Civil War. Lincoln began to p…
Impeachment is a formal indictment of an official of the executive or judicial branch of the federal government. The indicted individual then goes on trial. If convicted, he or she is removed from office. Only the highest figures in the executive and judicial branches of government--the president, the vice president, cabinet members, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, associate justices of th…
Citing this material
Please include a link to this page if you have found this material useful for research or writing a related article. Content on this website is from high-quality, licensed material originally published in print form. You can always be sure you're reading unbiased, factual, and accurate information.
Highlight the text below, right-click, and select “copy”. Paste the link into your website, email, or any other HTML document.
User Comments