History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868Ross, Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson)
History
History of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, by the House of Representatives, and his trial by the Senate for high crimes and misdemeanors in office, 1868
Ross, Edmund G. (Edmund Gibson)
Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875 -- Impeachment
Mr. Fowler, of Tennessee, was the next Republican to vote "Not Guilty."
He had entered the Senate but two years before, and was therefore one
of the youngest Senators, with the promise of a life of political
usefulness before him. Though from the same State as the President, they
were at political variance, and there was but little in common between
them in other respects. A radical partisan in all measures where radical
action seemed to be called for, he was for the time being sitting in
a judicial capacity and under an oath to do justice to the accused
according to the law and the evidence. As in his judgment the evidence
did not sustain the charge against the President such was his verdict.
Mr. Grimes, of Iowa, was the third anti-impeaching Republican to vote.
He had for many years been a conspicuous and deservedly influential
member of the Senate. For some days prior to the taking of the vote he
had been stricken with what afterwards proved a fatal illness. The
scene presented as he rose to his feet supported on the arms of his
colleagues, was grandly heroic, and one never before witnessed in a
legislative chamber. Though realizing the danger he thus incurred, and
conscious of the political doom that would follow his vote, and having
little sympathy with the policies pursued by the President, he had
permitted himself to be borne to the Senate chamber that he might
contribute to save his country from what he deemed the stain of a
partisan and unsustained impeachment of its Chief Magistrate. Men often
perform, in the excitement and glamour of battle, great deeds of valor
and self sacrifice that live after them and link their names with the
honorable history of great events, but to deliberately face at once
inevitable political as well as physical death in the council hall, and
in the absence of charging squadrons; and shot and shell, and of the
glamor of military heroism, is to illustrate the grandest phase of human
courage and devotion to convictions. That was the part performed by
Mr. Grimes on that occasion. His vote of "Not Guilty" was the last, the
bravest, the grandest, and the most patriotic public act of his life.
Mr. Henderson of Missouri, was the fourth Republican Senator to vote
against the impeachment. A gentleman of rare industry and ability, and
a careful, conscientious legislator, he had been identified with
the legislation of the time and had reached a position of deserved
prominence and influence. But he was learned in the law, and regardful
of his position as a just and discriminating judge. Though then a young
man with a brilliant future before him, he had sworn to do justice to
Andrew Johnson "according to the Constitution and law," and his verdict
of "Not Guilty" was given with the same deliberate emphasis that
characterized all his utterances on the floor of the Senate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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