Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (45 page)

The Constitution devotes:
Article 1, Section 2, states, “The House of Representatives…shall have the sole power of impeachment.” Article 1, Section 3 provides: “The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.” It also states that “Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.”

Under Article 2, Section 2, “the President…shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Section 4 of Article 2 states that “the President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

James Madison criticized:
Farrand, vol. 2, p. 550 (September 8, 1787).

Others have argued:
Clinton Rossiter, ed.,
The Federalist Papers
, New York: Mentor (1999), No. 77, p. 432; ibid., No. 79, p. 442.

With little debate: Cong. Globe
, 27th Cong., 3d sess., pp. 144–46 (January 10, 1843); Robert J. Morgan,
A Whig Embattled, The Presidency Under John Tyler
, Hamden, CT: Archon Books (1974), pp. 53–54.

After a five-week trial:
David Kyvig,
The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Culture Since 1960
, Lawrence: University Press of Kansas (2008), p. 25.

“The President has usurped”: New York Times
, January 19, 1867.

Some Republican newspapers: New York Times
, January 11, 1867 (reprinting editorials from many newspapers).

“There is nothing judicial or fair”:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 20 (January 14, 1867); John Nugent to S. L. M. Barlow, January 10, 1867, in Barlow Papers, Box 64.

The House committee began:
Nugent to S. L. M. Barlow, January 10, 1867, in Barlow Papers, Box 64; E. B. Ward to Ben Butler, January 27, 1867, in Butler Papers, Box 42; Horowitz, p. 130.

Supposedly, Mrs. Cobb:
“Impeachment Investigation,” H. Rep. No. 7, 40th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 2–13 (testimony taken before the House Judiciary Committee, 1867).

It also inquired:
Ibid., pp. 28–29, 45, 60–66.

The government did not know:
Ibid., pp. 159–75, 183–86.

When the Thirty-Ninth Congress expired: Cong. Globe
, 39th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1754–55 (March 2, 1867).

Ashley darkly told the House: New York Times
, March 7, 1867;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 18–19.

“I have had a son killed”:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 90 (May 4, 1867); Moore Diary/AJ, p. 33 (March 1867).

The reaction in the South:
Perman,
Reunion Without Compromise
, pp. 270–71, 286–87.

He reclaimed land:
“Interview with
Cincinnati Commercial
Correspondent,” July 2, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:368; Benedict,
Impeachment
, pp. 44, 90; McFeely, pp. 112–18, 128, 130, 294.

The Republican congressmen:
Thomas and Hyman, pp. 542–44; Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 105 (June 11, 1867); ibid., pp. 110–11 (June 20, 1867);
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 28, 1867; U.S. Department of Justice,
Opinions of the Attorneys General
12:141 (May 24, 1867); ibid., 12:182 (June 12, 1867); Michael Les Benedict, “From Our Archives: A New Look At the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson,”
Political Science Quarterly,
113:493 (1998).

“The whole force”:
Brooks D. Simpson,
Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861–1868
, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1991); Blaine, vol. 2, p. 294; Badeau, p. 65.

He called for a time:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 107 (June 14, 1867);
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 565–67 (July 10, 1867), 592–93 (July 11, 1867), 725, 730–32, 741–47 (July 19, 1867); Blaine, vol. 3, p. 294; “Veto of the Third Military Reconstruction Act,” July 19, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:416, 423.

He called the investigation: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 1st sess., p. 450 (March 29, 1867). In early March, Senator John Sherman of Ohio called the impeachment effort “a complete failure.” John Sherman to William Sherman, March 7, 1867, in
Sherman Letters
, p. 289.

Stevens predicted: New York Herald
, July 8, 1867.

Smythe’s employees kicked back:
Carman and Luthin, pp. 59–60.

Smythe gained the plum position:
Cox and Cox,
Politics, Principle, and Prejudice
, p. 127.

In mid-March, the committee chairman: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 1st sess., pp. 120–23 (March 15, 1867).

Smythe customarily received:
Mark Wahlgren Summers,
The Era of Good Stealings
, New York: Oxford University Press (1993), p. 91.

He succeeded in riding out the storm:
Samuel Barlow to Ward, March 29, 1867, Barlow Papers, Box 64; House Report No. 30, 39th Cong., 2d sess.;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 1st sess., p. 394 (March 27, 1867);
Boston Daily Advertiser
, March 19, 1867;
Daily Cleveland Herald
, March 23, 1867; James B. Steedman to Johnson, March 22, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:174.

8. THE DANGEROUS SPHINX

The President don’t comprehend:
Sherman to Ellen Sherman, October 7, 1867, in Mark DeWolfe Howe, ed.,
The Home Letters of General Sherman
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons (1909), p. 361.

“Grant quarrels with no one”:
Tyler Dennett, ed.,
Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay
, New York, DaCapo Press (2000), p. 176.

“I am disgusted”:
Simpson, p. 149, quoting Sylvanus Cadwallader, “Four Years With Grant,” unpublished manuscript in Illinois Historical Society library, pp. 186–87, 151.

Abraham Lincoln described him:
George Meade,
Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade
, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons (1913), vol. 2, p. 191 (Meade to Mrs. Meade, April 24, 1864); William O. Stoddard, Jr.,
William O. Stoddard: Lincoln’s Third Secretary
, New York: Exposition Press (1955), p. 307.

Ben Wade of Ohio:
Shelby Foote,
The Civil War: A Narrative
, New York: Random House (2006) (reissued), vol. 3, p. 12;
New York Times
, November 8, 1867.

One of his officers:
Dana,
Recollections of the Civil War
, p. 61; James McPherson,
The Battle Cry of Freedom
, New York: Oxford University Press (1988), p. 721.

Grant accepted all three changes:
Smith,
Grant
, p. 26;
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
, New York: Charles L. Webster & Co. (1885), vol. 1, pp. 34–35; Smith,
Grant
, pp. 24–25.

At final exercises:
James B. Fry, “An Acquaintance with Grant,”
North American Review
141:540 (1885).

“For years afterward”: New York Times
, July 24, 1885.

An officer who served under Taylor:
Meade, vol. 2, p. 191 (April 24, 1864).

“I do not know that I felt”:
Grant to John Lowe, June 26, 1846, in
Grant Papers
1:97.

Within six years:
Grant’s recent biographer, Jean Smith, provides a persuasive account both of his resignation from the army and his problems with alcohol. Smith,
Grant,
pp. 83–89.

In a brief exchange:
Church,
Grant,
at 57.

Another wrote home:
Horace Porter,
Campaigning with Grant
, New York: Century (1897), p. 16; T. Harry Williams,
McClellan, Sherman, and Grant
, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press (1962), pp. 82–83 (quoting Charles Francis Adams, Jr.).

General Grant is a great general:
Badeau, pp. 373–74; L. P. Brockett,
Our Great Captains: Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, Farragut,
New York: Charles P. Richardson (1866), p. 175.

“I am becoming impressed”:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, pp. 15 (January 10, 1867), 177 (August 22, 1867), 244 (December 24, 1867).

Grant, who was moved:
Testimony of Ulysses S. Grant before House Impeachment Committee, July 18, 1867, in
Grant Papers
17:216–18; Badeau, pp. 35–36; Grant to Johnson, December 18, 1865, in
Grant Papers
15:434–37. Just after the Southern surrender, Grant wrote his wife from North Carolina that “the suffering that must exist in the South the next year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception. People who talk of further retaliation and punishment, except of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling and wish to stay at home out of danger while the punishment is being inflicted.” Grant to Julia Grant, April 25, 1865, in Badeau, p. 31.

“early in the rebellion”:
Grant to Elihu Washburne, August 30, 1863, in
Grant Papers
9:217–18.

Grant directed his commanders:
Grant to Thomas et al., December 26, 1865, in
Grant Papers
16:69–70.

Noting that Stanton:
Smith, p. 433, quoting Comstock Papers, Library of Congress; John Y. Simon, ed.,
Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant,
Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press (1975), p. 165.

Grant’s senior aide:
Grant to Oliver O. Howard, January 18, 1867, in Badeau, p. 59; Welles Diary, vol. 3, pp. 42–43 (February 15, 1867); Smith,
Grant
, pp. 432–33; Grant to Elihu Washburne, March 4, 1867, in
Grant Papers
17:76–77; Grant to Philip Sheridan, June 24, 1867, ibid., 17:196; Thomas and Hyman, p. 546; Badeau, p. 71.

Wherever Grant went:
Badeau, pp. 62, 69;
Chicago Tribune,
August 8, 1867.

When Johnson offered:
Moore Diary/AHR, pp. 107–8 (August 1, 1867).

Sheridan, in short:
Sefton, p. 140; Badeau, p. 102; “Interview with
Cincinnati Commercial
Correspondent,” July 2, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:369–70; Welles to Johnson, August 4, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:454.

Indeed, those feelings:
Badeau, pp. 62, 95.

Dismissal of Stanton and Sheridan:
Grant to Johnson, August 1, 1867, in
Grant Papers
17:250–52.

“Public considerations”:
Moore Diary/AHR, p. 107; Welles Diary, vol. 3, pp. 149–56 (August 2, 3, 1867); Stanton to Johnson, August 5, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:461; Badeau, p. 90.

“The turning point”:
Moore Diary/AHR, p. 109.

Removing Sheridan:
Grant to Johnson, August 17, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:489–90.

In a bitter letter:
Grant to Johnson, August 26, 1867, in
Grant Papers
17:303.

Grant asked to be excused:
Moore Diary/AHR, pp. 112–13 (August 28, 1867); Johnson to Grant, August 28, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
12:519; “Statement from Andrew Johnson,” October 12, 1867, ibid., 13:166–67.

Now he pardoned:
“Second Amnesty Proclamation,” September 7, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
13:40; Order of August 26, 1867, ibid., 12:514; Johnson to Grant, August 26, 1867, ibid., 12:512–13.

Similar demands came:
William A. Russ, Jr., “Was There Danger of a Second Civil War During Reconstruction?”
Mississippi Valley Historical Review
25:39, 41 (June 1938), quoting
Missouri Democrat
, August 30, 1867; Schurz to Mrs. Schurz, August 31, 1867, in
Intimate Letters of Carl Schurz
, Joseph Schafer, ed., Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin (1928), p. 392; Brodie, p. 331, quoting Francis Lieber to Theodore W. Dwight, August 27, 1867, Lieber Papers, Huntington Library; Trefousse,
Andrew Johnson
, p. 300, quoting Fessenden to McCulloch, September 2, 1867, in McCulloch Papers, Library of Congress, Box 3;
Chicago Tribune
, August 21, 1867;
The Nation
, August 29, 1867; H. Taylor to Butler, August 28, 1867, and W. G. Upham to Butler, September 16, 1867, in Butler Papers, Box 43. Even the
New York Times
, ordinarily not anti-Johnson, began to denounce the president.
New York Times
, September 11, 1867.