Watch All Shows Victor Davis Hanson Tony Kinnett Daily Signal Signal Sitdown

Watch All Shows Victor Davis Hanson Tony Kinnett Daily Signal Signal Sitdown

Home – American Heritage News – How Culture War of Andrew Johnson’s Senate Trial Resonated in Clinton, Trump Impeachments

How Culture War of Andrew Johnson’s Senate Trial Resonated in Clinton, Trump Impeachments

As the first presidential impeachment trial was drawing to a close, newspaper titan Horace Greeley’s New York Tribune ran a bold headline: “CONVICTION ALMOST A CERTAINTY.” If by “certainty” the paper meant falling one vote short of the two-thirds needed to remove President Andrew Johnson, the headline proved accurate.

On May 26, 1868, Johnson slipped the political noose with a 35–19 vote, after 10 Republicans—perhaps the “RINOs” of their day—broke ranks to acquit.

The trial featured 25 prosecution witnesses and 16 for the defense. The Senate gallery was so packed that lawmakers introduced a ticketing system for crowd control, a practice used in later impeachment trials.

Author and journalist Mark Twain observed the frenzy: “The multitude of strangers were waiting for impeachment.” He added that many “did not know what impeachment was, exactly,” but imagined it would come “in the form of an avalanche, or a thunder-clap, or that maybe the roof would fall in.”

For decades, historians judged the episode harshly, noting that the Supreme Court later declared the Tenure of Office Act, which Johnson was accused of violating, unconstitutional in 1926. Yet the procedural rules forged during Johnson’s impeachment would go on to serve as a road map for the Senate trials of Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

Republican President Abraham Lincoln arguably made his biggest political miscalculation by selecting Tennessee Democrat and Union loyalist Andrew Johnson as his running........

© The Daily Signal