Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

The president and Congress have a history of conflict. An early example of this was Andrew Johnson’s actions soon after taking office. He vetoed two bills, both of which benefitted blacks. Congress responded to this by overriding his veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Congressmen also passed the 14th Amendment and three Reconstruction acts. Johnson and the Radical Republicans strongly disagreed about the path that Reconstruction in the South should take. In November of 1867, the House Committee on the Judiciary voted to send articles of impeachment to the House, but the report was rejected. However, in February of 1868 Johnson dismissed Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War. This violated the Tenure of Office Act, which would have required

Andrew was elected town alderman for Greeneville, Tennessee in 1829 . A couple years later, a new constitution was going to be passed. The constitution was proposed to the public for voting, and Andrew spoke widely for its adoption: the successful campaign provided him with statewide exposure. On January 4, his fellow aldermen elected him mayor of Greeneville. In 1835, after winning a debate, he took a seat in the Tennessee House of Representative legislature. Ever since then, he had never lost a race and held that seat for 30 years but he changed his side to a democrat and soon became a strong upholder of the Democratic Party. Andrew saw election to Congress as the next step in his career. He won the election and became a congressman. Andrew

Congress brought impeachment charges against Johnson in early 1868. It was the first impeachment of a U.S. president. Congress said Johnson violated the Tenure of Office Act and was obstructing the will of the people through an abusive use of veto power

“Congress met in 1868 and refused to agree in the removal of Edwin Stanton by vote. However, President Andrew Johnson refused to accept the Senate’s decision. He believed The Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional. Hopeful in gaining judicial review of the Act’s constitutionality, President Johnson appointed General Lorenzo Thomas, General of the Army, to the post of secretary of war. Shortly thereafter, impeachment proceedings began.” (THE TENURE OF OFFICE ACT OF 1867)

Due to Johnson’s lenient policies towards the South, he failed to achieve the nomination of his party for the presidential election of 1868. Congress clearly won the battle by overriding his vetoes of key acts in their effort to change the fabric of Southern

After Lincoln’s death, Andrew Johnson became president and was at odds with Congress because he often opposed their decisions. They were angered by his actions to the point where they attempted to impeach him. Congress favored the Freedmen’s Bureau bill and the Civil rights bill of 1866. By passing the bills instead of vetoing them like Johnson did, Lincoln would have been brought into Congress’s favor. Johnson also opposed the 14th amendment because it gave the idea that since slavery was then illegal, African americans could be considered citizens. The amendment overturned the decision made in the Dred Scott case. Lincoln on the other hand, supported citizenship for African

As the Democrat-Republicans changed, so did the nation as different classes of people were granted suffrage rights, first in the new voters influenced the Democrat-Republican party to eventually give them more attention as the old “aristocracy.” In the election of 1828, the Democratic-Republican party split into two factions, the first faction was Democrats and the second faction was National Republicans. From the Democrats emerged the first “common man” president in Andrew Jackson claimed to be ruling from the will of “the People,” and from this philosophy he took it upon himself to protect the country from the political and economic abuses of the past. To do this, Jackson vetoed several bills that he believed would harm the nation or violate his principles in the name of the “common man,” but he may have vetoed some bills for vindictive reasons. The Maysville Road veto was made because it was an extension of the National Road but “ exclusively within the state of kentucky,” so it was a state issue. In reality Jackson was trying to hurt the political reputation of one of his political rivals, Henry Clay of Kentucky. Jackson also vetoed the National Bank recharter in 1832 (Doc. 6.), mainly because of his personal distrust of

1. What kind of struggles did President Andrew Johnson have to face during his presidency? Andrew Johnston faced difficulties during his time in office, ranging from problems with himself, to problems with the nation. He showed up to his inauguration and was sworn into office while intoxicated, slurring words and ranting on various topics. This left a horrendous first impression for his time in office, and to make matters worse, he would become president just six short weeks later after Lincoln’s assassination.

Secondly, he lacked the overall idea when following Lincoln's plan for reconstruction. He allowed the passing of the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendments to some degrees, but he did little to actually uphold them; as previously stated he even tried to overturn some. Proceeded to allow the Planter class to regain power in the fall elections of 1865, which led to the formations of the "Black Codes". He even allowed the states of Mississippi and Alabama to not fully adopt the 13th Amendment. Such lack of actions almost undid the whole point of the civil war. Thirdly, cancelled the "Forty acres and a mule" land grants that were issued by the military during its occupation of the southern territory. Essentially giving the land back to the planter class; leaving the majority of population to work as share croppers just to survive. The culminations of these event led to a Congressional

Oliver Catanzaro 9/2/17 AP Government and Politics U.S. Should these Past Presidents have been impeached? The act of a President getting impeached is a severe constitutional procedure where they are brought up in charges before the end of their term and voted for impeachment by the House of Representatives where the senate act as a jury. Because a reasonable amount of wrongdoings need to happen for a president to get impeached, it does not happen often. So far in the U.S, only 2 presidents have been impeached from office, Andrew Johnson and William Clinton.

After Lincoln was assassinated, vise president Andrew Johnson stepped into office with a goal to change some of the things he believed in. In the article Andrew Johnson it states, “Next they passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that

Andrew Jackson was an orphan and a veteran at the age of fifteen, he taught school a little and then read law in North Carolina. In 1787, he accepted an offer to serve as a public prosecutor in North Carolina. In 1788, he built a legal practice, entered in trading venturers, and began to acquire land and slaves. During his presidential campaigns, his opponents charged at him with bigamy and wife-stealing. His rise to politics was a quick succession, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention in 1795, then Tennessee's first congressman, then a senator. He resigned his senate post after one year and taking a job closer to home, as a judge of Tennessee's superior court. In 1802, he challenged Governor John Sevier for election as

Whatever the merits of that argument, such action is clearly unnecessary. There is no need or justification for us to take this important action in such haste” (Rothenberg and Sanders 2000). In another case, Democrat Rush Holt defeated Republican Michael Pappas in the 1998 contest of New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District, but Pappas still cast his vote on the impeachment. Holt believed that Pappas should withdraw his impeachment vote because “it’s a matter of historic significance and he doesn’t have to answer to anybody” (Rothenberg and Sanders 2000). Against Holt’s and many others’ views, Pappas, along with the other thirty-nine representatives in their final term, participated in the impeachment trial while facing no electoral accountability (Rothenberg and Sanders 2000). While the Democrats still could have received some votes from the departing Republican representatives, the chances that enough Republican representatives would vote non-guilty to create a Democratic majority were very slim.

When President Abraham Lincoln assassination occurs on 1865, vice president Andrew Johnson gained office. Lincoln was a moderate Republican, who wanted to rebuild the nation without punishing the South, and wanted to give African American the right to vote or suffrage. Before his assassination, he had a plan for reconstruction in where he would pardon the south and allow them to reintegrate the Union. It would only have been possible if 10% of the voters took an oath of loyalty, but due to his dead, the 10% plan couldn't be carried out. President Johnson was a Democrat that believes that citizenship and voting rights were to be determined by each state individually; he also agreed with Lincoln that states never legally left the Union. In fact,

With Sarah by his side he had many campaign victories. Being a supporter of Andrew Jackson’s democratic policies at age twenty-nine he was elected to the U.S. Congress. From 1825-39 James was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and was serving as its speaker (Evisum Inc). After serving as speaker he became Governor of Tennessee in 1839-1841. In 1844 Democrats were having a difficult time getting 2/3 of the vote to nominate a presidential candidate, Polk who was running for the position of vice president, became nominated for the presidential candidate (Kelly). The focus on the campaign was to annex Texas which Polk was for the idea versus Clay who opposed the idea. Clay opposing the idea led Polk to victory.