HISTORY OF THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON

PREFACE.

Little is now known to the general public of the history of the
attempt to remove President Andrew Johnson in 1868, on his
impeachment by the House of Representatives and trial by the
Senate for alleged high crimes and misdemeanors in office, or of
the causes that led to it. Yet it was one of the most important
and critical events, involving possibly the gravest consequences,
in the entire history of the country.

The constitutional power to impeach and remove the President had
lain dormant since the organization of the Government, and
apparently had never been thought of as a means for the
satisfaction of political enmities or for the punishment of
alleged executive misdemeanors, even in the many heated
controversies between the President and Congress that had
theretofore arisen. Nor would any attempt at impeachment have
been made at that time but for the great numerical disparity then
existing between the respective representatives in Congress of
the two political parties of the country.

One-half the members of that Congress, both House and Senate, are
now dead, and with them have also gone substantially the same
proportion of the people at large, but many of the actors therein
who have passed away, lived long enough to see, and were candid
enough to admit, that the failure of the impeachment had brought
no harm to the country, while the general judgment practically of
all has come to be that a grave and threatening danger was
thereby averted.

A new generation is now in control of public affairs and the
destinies of the Nation have fallen to new hands. New issues have
developed and will continue to develop from time to time; and new
dangers will arise, with increasing numbers and changing
conditions, demanding in their turn the same careful scrutiny,
wisdom and patriotism in adjustment. But the principles that
underlie and constitute the basis of our political organism, are
and will remain the same; and will never cease to demand constant
vigilance for their perpetuation as the rock of safety upon which
our federative system is founded.

To those who in the study of the country's past seek a broader
and higher conception of the duties of American citizenship, the
facts pertaining to the controversy between the Executive and
Congress as to the restoration and preservation of the Union, set
out in the following pages, will be interesting and instructive.
No one is better fitted than the author of this volume to discuss
the period of reconstruction in which, as a member of the Federal
senate, he played so potent and patriotic a part, and it is a
pleasure to find that he has discharged his task with so much
ability and care. But it is profoundly hoped that no coming
generation will be called upon to utilize the experiences of the
past in facing in their day, in field or forum, the dangers of
disruption and anarchy, mortal strife and desolation, between
those of one race, and blood, and nationality, that marked the
history of America thirty years ago.

HISTORY OF THE IMPEACHMENT OF ANDREW JOHNSON