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
No. 26, was as to any suggestion by the President of the employment of
force for the vacation of any office, (relating of course, to the War
Office.) Mr. Johnson had been charged with seeking the removal of Mr.
Stanton by force, should he resist. Knowing perfectly that the answer
would be in the negative, the Senate refused to permit answer to this
interrogatory, by a vote of 18 to 26, every one of the twenty-six
gentlemen at the close of the trial in effect voting that the President
was guilty as charged, of seeking to remove Mr. Stanton by violence,
after refusing to hear either his denial or witnesses in his behalf on
that point.
No. 27. Defense proposed to prove that the Cabinet had advised the
President that the Tenure-of-Office Act did not prevent the removal of
those members who had been originally appointed by Mr. Lincoln.
This testimony, which, if permitted answer, would, in the minds of
unprejudiced people, have at once set aside the entire impeachment
scheme, was not permitted answer. The vote was 20 to 26--every one of
the twenty-six gentlemen who voted to reject that most important and
conclusive testimony in Mr. Johnson's behalf, at the close of the
examination voting to convict him of a high misdemeanor in office by
violating the Tenure-of-Office Act in removing Mr. Stanton from the
office of Secretary of War--after refusing this offer to prove by his
Cabinet advisers; the witness himself, (Mr. Welles, and his testimony,
if received, was to be followed by that of Mr. Seward and Mr. Stanton,
all of whom had been appointed by Mr. Lincoln and not re-appointed by
Mr. Johnson,) that that act did not apply to or protect them against
removal at the pleasure of the President. So that on eighteen of these
twenty-one disputed interrogatories put in behalf of the Defense, a
majority of the Republicans of the Senate refused in every instance
to hear testimony, after having sworn to give Mr. Johnson a fair and
impartial trial.
But the most flagrant case of unfairness to the defendant in this
examination of witnesses occurred in the treatment of interrogatory No.
3, put by the prosecution, in their introduction of a letter from the
President to General Grant, purporting to enclose letters from different
members of the Cabinet in substantiation of the position of the
President in the controversy then pending between Gen. Grant and
himself. These letters were enclosed with, and specifically referred to
and made a part of the President's communication, and were necessary to
a correct apprehension of the controversy, from the President's or any
other standpoint.
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