Primary sources are documents and artifacts that come directly from the past. For my primary source paper, I have selected to use the eleven Articles of Impeachment that were passed by Congress in 1868. This primary source is the main source that I use on my topic of President Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trials. The eleven Articles of Impeachment are historical documents that were written with an agenda for a specific purpose and audience. As historians, it is essential that we analyze how the source was constructed, by who, where and when, for what purpose(s), and for which audience.
As historians, it is always important to analyze the author(s) were when examining any primary source. By understanding who author(s) were, then one can understand the purpose or agenda along with the target audience of the document. My source has multiple authors since it is a document created by Congress in 1868. It can be argued that Representative Thaddeus Stevens was the main driving force of this document because he was the one leading the radical Republicans to impeach Andrew Johnson for his violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The authors of this document had strong feeling against the President.
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The authors agenda is made clear in eleven (technically ten) points on the crimes that Andrew Johnson is being charged for. Each point contains a crime that was committed and the justification for charging Johnson for the crime. For example, in Article IV of the document, it claims that Johnson unlawfully conspired with one Lorenzo Thomas to remove Edwin Stanton from his position as Secretary of War. When trying to understand the author’s agenda, it is essential to return back to the idea of asking who wrote the document. As it turns out, the eleven Articles of Impeachment were written by Stevens and the radical Republicans who wanted to remove Johnson from