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
I regretted, this morning, to say that I had agreed to go down to
Annapolis, to spend Monday with Admiral Porter. Gen. Grant has to leave
for Richmond on Monday morning at 6 o'clock. At a conversation with the
General, after an interview wherein I offered to go with him on Monday
morning to Mr. Stanton and say it was our joint opinion that he should
resign, it was found impossible by reason of his going to Richmond and
my going to Annapolis. The General proposed this course. He will tell
you to-morrow and offer to go to Mr. Stanton to say that for the good
of the service of the country he ought to resign--this on Sunday. On
Monday, I will call on you, and if you think it necessary, I will do the
same--call on Mr. Stanton and tell him he should resign. If he will not,
then it will be time to consider ulterior measures. In the meantime, it
also happens that no necessity exists for precipitating measures.
Yours truly, W. T. Sherman.
On Saturday, February 23, 1868, the day following the removal of Mr.
Stanton, Mr. Johnson sent to the Senate the name of Mr. Thomas Ewing,
senior, of Ohio, as his successor. The Senate had adjourned for the day
when the President's Secretary reached the Capitol, between 12 and 1
o'clock, but the nomination was formally communicated on the following
Monday. Of this nomination, Mr. Blaine has written, that "no name could
have given better assurance of good intentions and upright conduct than
that of Mr. Ewing. He was a man of lofty character, of great eminence in
his profession of the law, and with wide and varied experience in public
life. He had held high rank as a Senator in the Augustan period of
the Senate's learning and eloquence, and he had been one of the
ablest members of the distinguished Cabinets organized by the only two
Presidents elected by the Whig Party. He had reached the ripe age
of seventy-eight years, but still in complete possession of all his
splendid faculties. He had voted for Mr. Lincoln at both elections, had
been a warm supporter of the contest for the Union, and was represented
by his own blood on many of the great battlefields of the war."
No notice was taken by the Senate of this nomination.
Here was offered an opportunity for the settlement of the dispute over
the War Office on fair and honorable terms to all parties concerned. But
that was not what the impeachers wanted. They wanted to get Mr. Johnson
out. They thought they had a pretext that they could sustain by
making it a party question, and did not want a settlement on any other
terms--so no attention was given to Mr. Ewing's nomination. It was
ignored and the impeachment movement went on.
CHAPTER VI. -- IMPEACHMENT AGREED TO BY THE HOUSE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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