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Similarities Between Andrew Johnson's Impeachment And Acquittal

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Recommended: Social and political development during the reconstruction era in America

Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment and Acquittal Andrew Johnson was elected as vice president mainly because he ran on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. The goal was to show unity among the two opposing parties, Lincoln being of the Republican party and Johnson being of the Democratic party. America had just come through the bloodiest war ever to have been fought on American soil. There was still great division in the hearts of the American people. However, the war was over and it was time for the rebuilding of America. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln greatly complicated an already delicate situation. Johnson, who was of the opposition party, was now President. He still had very much the mindset of a Democrat and a Southerner. The Republicans would …show more content…

After “Congress passed two laws to protect the economic and civil rights of the freedpeople” , Johnson quickly vetoed both. Republicans in turn overruled the President and ‘passed the Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights bills” in both houses. From this a special committee formulated the 14th Amendment and submitted it to Congress. This amendment, among other things, required states to either enfranchise black men or lose a proportionate number of congressional seats and electoral votes. This amendment to the Constitution has been a key provision in “defining and enforcing civil rights.” Johnson, however, continued his fight against the Republican party by replacing high ranking Republicans holding positions in Southern military districts with Democrats. He continued to encourage obstruction of “registration of voters and election of convention delegates” in the southern states. The Republicans passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867 restricting the President from replacing those in certain offices without Senate approval. In 1868, Johnson ignored this Act and removed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton because of his support of the Reconstruction policy. The House

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257 Words | 2 Pages

In February, 1868 President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives, the Senate tried the case in a trial, which lasted from March to May 1868. During the Civil War the far-reaching Republicans wanted to give the African-Americans more freedom and rights that the conservative Republicans, both were on the side of the North. He was impeached for violating the “Tenure of Office Act”, which had been passed over Johnsons veto. It prohibited the president from dismissing certain federal official without the Senate approval, and for denouncing Congress as unfit to legislate. In 1867, President Johnson made an effort to test the constitutionality of the act by swapping Stanton with General Ulysses S. Grant.

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Johnson was vice president during Lincoln’s presidency, so after the death of Lincoln, Johnson was in line to become president. This differing view believes that his qualifications were justified because he had an experienced background in politics prior to his presidency. After the Civil War, he did not effect the issues of slavery with their freedom or rights and the Reconstruction of the South. This contrary view understands how Johnson did violate the Tenure of Office Act but they believe it to be okay because he only violated it once. As stated in the Articles of Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, he “did unlawfully, and in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States, issue and order in writing for the removal of Edwin M. Stanton from the office of Secretary for the Department of War” (citation).

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Andrew Johnson was doomed from the beginning of his political career when Lincoln asked for his vice-presidency. Johnson was an untrusted Southern Democrat that was not worth his weight in gold. After the assassination of Lincoln, the Radical Republicans had hoped his hatred for the planter aristocrats would help their cause in the form of the Wade-Davis bill. His rooted beliefs to help the less fortunate vanished when he realized his power over the southern aristocrats and passed the "10%" Reconstruction Plan instead. He pardoned the southern congress men, accused of treason, and continued to veto bills that would promote the freedmen.

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The Reconstruction era of 1865 was an attempted unify the states of the United States of America after the Civil War. This proved to be terribly difficult and contentious process. The three main issues the federal government had to deal with included how to deal with states as they re-joined the Union, how Southern whites should be treated, and how to deal with the freed slaves. Furthermore, President Lincoln’s reconstruction plan included that states never truly seceded from the Union as this was not legally possible, and therefore they should not necessarily be punished. The plan had two major provisions: Pardons of Southerners who participated in the war if the took an oath of allegiance to the United States and Readmission of a state if 10% of white voters in that state took

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990 Words | 4 Pages

Johnson was a democrat and a previous slave owner, which didn’t make him an avid supporter of Lincoln’s plan of Southern Reconstruction. What Lincoln had previously intended on doing was have criminal amnesty to Confederates who pledged allegiance to the Union and allowed states to hold a constitutional convention along with setting up their state government. Though Johnson kept some of the plan intact, he called for there to be no limits on voter allegiance for the Southern states. This sparked opposition from the Radical Republicans, a group of congressmen who believed black southerners should be guaranteed equality with whites. They deduced that Johnson shouldn’t set legislative policy for reconstruction as it wouldn’t lead to a country of tolerance that they worked to achieve.

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Andrew Johnson, the 17th President of the United States, was brought up on impeachment charges in 1868 for multiple reasons. One of the reasons was that he vetoed 20 congressional bills. He also Failed to consult congress at the start of reconstruction. But the biggest charge was that he violated the Tenure act because he removed Edwin M. Stanton from the cabinet without the permission of Senate. Johnson's action was seen as an abuse of power and an attempt to undermine the authority of Congress.

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952 Words | 4 Pages

Before the impeachment, there had been tension between President Andrew Johnson and republicans in Congress over the implementation of the Reconstruction Act. In 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson for his “high crimes and misdemeanors”. Explicitly, the House claimed that President Johnson had violated the Tenure of Office Act by replacing the Secretary of War Edwin Stanton with Ulysses Grant. In the Senate trial, Johnson escaped conviction by just one vote. Tulis argues that Congress had difficulty finding a strictly legal violation, although Johnson’s misconduct has violated his presidential duty multiple times by abusing his power and ignoring the legislature.

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When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 15, 1865 his vice president, Andrew Johnson, was sworn into office, the first time ever a president had to take office because of the previous president being murdered. Andrew Johnson was a democrat, so he had major challenges when he took office. It didn’t help either that he was from Tennessee, a state that seceeded fromt the Union during the Civil War. In an effort to try and make friends in Congress with the Republicans Johnson agreed to deny representitives from southern states that seceeded from the Union to sit in Congress. This came to back fire on him because he was from Tennessee but because he elected to help the North during the Civil War the southern state representitives didn’t support him at all.

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Johnson was impeached in 1868, near the end of his term, for violating a congressional law. Nixon faced impeachment in 1974, in his second term, for his role in the Watergate scandal. Clinton was impeached in 1998, in his second term, for his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

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670 Words | 3 Pages

With Caesar gone, Rome was on the tip of absolute havoc. Angry citizens resulted in cycles of civil wars in Rome and caused a ravage in the Roman Empire (Selwood). With Lincoln resting in peace, the assassination paved the way for Vice-President Andrew Johnson to fill Lincoln’s position. Although another civil war didn’t break out, Johnson, a white supremacist, rewrote over what Lincoln had planned to have implemented (Strauss). Johnson carried out the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, but his lack of proposals towards helping minorities still haunts us today (Strauss).

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Another important person was Edwin Stanton, he was the Secretary of State and he was one of the main reasons that the Johnson got impeached. On February 21, 1868, Johnson had decided that Stanton wasn’t good enough for him so he decided to fire him and replace him with General Thomas. This didn’t go over well with Congress and they had been discussing impeaching Johnson for a short time already. So they decided to produce a formal impeachment.

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990 Words | 4 Pages

Introduction “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose. ”(“LBJ Quotes.”). Johnson was a man who didn 't focus on the past but spent his life to make the future better. He didn 't want power for himself but to empower the people that were poor and discriminated. Lyndon B. Johnson was a great leader and person who grew through all his struggles, and left a lasting positive impact on civil rights in this country.

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President Lyndon B. Johnson once used the phrase, “we shall overcome”, in response to a violent racial uproar in Salma Alabama. This deadly uproar was in response to the African American struggle for equal rights in the 1960s. I found Johnson’s speech to be one of great significance because it is a declaration that still pertains to America, today. Johnson’s request of the American people to come together, and stand for our neighbors when freedom is denied to them, is a request that still holds true today. While we have come a long way since the violent racial discrimination of the 1960s, it is still in existence today, and many are still denied freedom.

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Once Johnson was no longer in charge congress put into place the Civil Rights Act, an act that declared everyone who was born in the United states to be granted a citizen no matter their race or previous conditions. This meant all former slaves could become true legal citizens. Similarly, the 14th amendment made it so that each state was to give equal protection of the laws to everyone because it too declared all citizens were equal. This amendment also would not allow for confederate political leaders to hold positions and it would not forgive any debts of the confederacy. Following the civil rights act and the 14th amendment the 15th amendment and then another civil rights act were also put into effect.

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During his presidency, Congress ratified the 13th-Amendment that abolished slavery in 1865. In addition, President Johnson made contributions to the black people by vetoing bills that increased protection offered by Freedman Bureau. His vetoes also nullified the Black Codes and guaranteed full citizenship and equal rights to black people. This brought up the Civil Rights Act of 1866, an act that granted citizenships and same rights that both black and white enjoyed. As a result, the Civil Rights Act set up the basis for the 14th amendments that was also later ratified in 1866.

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