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. Ross, of Kansas, was the fifth Republican Senator to vote "Not
Guilty." Representing an intensely Radical constituency--entering the
Senate but a few months after the close of a three years enlistment
in the Union Army and not unnaturally imbued with the extreme
partisan views and prejudices against Mr. Johnson then prevailing--his
predilections were sharply against the President, and his vote was
counted upon accordingly. But he had sworn to judge the defendant not by
his political or personal prejudices, but by the facts elicited in the
investigation. In his judgment those facts did not sustain the charge.
Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, was the sixth Republican Senator to vote
against the Impeachment. He had been many years in the Senate. In all
ways a safe legislator and counsellor, he had attained a position
of conspicuous usefulness. But he did not belong to the legislative
autocracy which then assumed to rule the two Houses of Congress. To him
the Impeachment was a question of proof of charges brought, and not of
party politics or policies. He was one of the great lawyers of the body,
and believed that law was the essence of justice and not an engine of
wrong, or an instrumentality for the satisfaction of partisan
vengeance. He had no especial friendship for Mr. Johnson, but to him
the differences between the President and Congress did not comprise an
impeachable offense. A profound lawyer and clear headed politician and
statesman, his known opposition naturally tended to strengthen his
colleagues in that behalf.
Mr. Van Winkle, of West Virginia, was the seventh and last Republican
Senator to vote against the Impeachment. Methodical and deliberate, he
was not hasty in reaching the conclusion he did, but after giving the
subject and the testimony most careful and thorough investigation, he
was forced to the conclusion that the accusation brought by the House
of Representatives had not been sustained, and had the courage of an
American Senator to vote according to his conclusions.
The responses were as follows:
Guilty--Anthony, Cameron, Cattell, Cole, Chandler, Conkling, Conness,
Corbett, Cragin, Drake, Edmunds, Ferry, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, Howard,
Howe, Morgan, Morton, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, Nye,
Patterson of New Hampshire, Pomeroy, Ramsay, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart,
Sumner, Tipton, Thayer, Wade, Williams, Wilson, Willey, Yates.
Not Guilty--Bayard, Buckalew, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden,
Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, Hendricks, Johnson, McCreery, Norton,
Patterson of Tennessee, Ross, Saulsbury, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Vickers.
Not Guilty--19. Guilty--35--one vote less than a Constitutional
majority.
CHAPTER XI. -- THE IMPEACHERS IN A MAZE. A RECESS ORDERED.
THE FINAL VOTE TAKEN.
The defeat of the Eleventh Article was the second official set-back to
the Impeachment movement--the first being the practical abandonment of
the First Article by the change in the order of voting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account