Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson Begins: March 13, 1868

For the first time in U.S. history, the impeachment trial of an American president gets underway in the U.S. Senate. President Andrew Johnson, reviled by the Republican-dominated Congress for his views on Reconstruction, stood accused of having violated the controversial Tenure of Office Act, passed by Congress over his veto in 1867.

At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Johnson, a U.S. senator from Tennessee, was the only senator from a seceding state who remained loyal to the Union. Johnson's political career was built on his defense of the interests of poor white Southerners against the landed classes; of his decision to oppose secession, he said, "Damn the negroes; I am fighting those traitorous aristocrats, their masters." For his loyalty, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee in 1862, and in 1864 Johnson was elected vice president of the United States.

Sworn in as president after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, President Johnson enacted a lenient Reconstruction policy for the defeated South, including almost total amnesty to ex-Confederates, a program of rapid restoration of U.S.-state status for the seceded states, and the approval of new, local Southern governments, which were able to legislate "black codes" that preserved the system of slavery in all but name. The Republican-dominated Congress greatly opposed Johnson's Reconstruction program and passed the "Radical Reconstruction" by repeatedly overriding the president's vetoes. Under the Radical Reconstruction, local Southern governments gave way to federal military rule, and African-American men in the South were granted the constitutional right to vote.

Legally, Lincoln had treated the conflict with the South as an insurrection, not a war. (Proclamation that an insurrection existed dated April 15, 1861.)

Lincoln first faced the issue of "reconstruction" in 1862, after Union armies had gained control of several Southern States and the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued. He initiated a system of provisional military governors, instructing them to establish governments loyal to the Union. Considering restoration of the Union to be a Presidential function, in 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation setting forth a plan by which an occupied state could become reinstated in the Union: At least ten percent of those who had voted in the State in the 1860 election would be required to take an oath of allegiance to the United States. After that, the state could organized its own government and resume its old place as a full and equal partner in the Union. Lincoln viewed the seceding southern states as "out of their proper relation" to the Union, the object being to restore them to proper relationship.

Moderate Congressmen of both the Republican and Democratic parties took the view that the very existence of the Confederacy had been officially illegitimate. Hence, at the war's end there had been no peace treaty - the Confederacy just dissolved. The Southern states would just revert to the Union unconditionally.

Before the war's end, new governments were formed in Arkansas, Louisiana and Tennessee under this plan. With the exception of Tennessee, these governments had been created largely by the military governors and lacked support of the people. Congress refused to seat the elected representatives of these new governments.

Johnson continued Lincoln's policies. On Apr. 2, 1866, Pres. Johnson proclaimed the insurrection ended in all the former Confederate States except Texas. (Texas followed in August.) This was his recognition of the legitimacy of the governments formed under his Reconstruction proclamation.

Some in Congress took another view that the southern states had been in rebellion by separating from the Union and establishing an independent government and that they should be treated as a conquered territory. Following this line of reasoning, some, such as Charles Sumner, asserted the "state suicide" theory that the south had destroyed its original standing as States and would have to start all over again to seek admission as a State in the Union. As the admission of new States was solely a Congressional power under the Constitution, the President had no authority to "restore" the Union.

On December 4, 1865, the Thirty-ninth Congress was called to order. To represent them in Congress, Southerners had elected Alexander H. Stephens, who had been vice-president of the Confederacy, along with six former members of the Confederate cabinet and nine ex-generals and colonels of the Confederate army. They also sent fifty-eight former members of the Confederate legislative body. President Johnson believed that the States had been restored and that the Constitution required that the duly elected delegates be seated. Congress refused to seat any of them, citing the constitutional provision that "each House shall be the Judge of the Election, Returns, and Qualifications of its own Members."

Johnson also vetoed The Civil Rights Bill of 1866, although his veto was overridden by Congress in June of 1866. The bill established for the first time the status of "citizen of the United States," (formerly citizenship had been within a given State,) and provided that the federal government could intervene within a State to ensure the citizens "of every race and color," save Indians not taxed, were given the same legal rights as all other people.

Congress responded by attaching an amendment as a rider to the Reconstruction Act passed in March of 1867 - that no State should be restored to the Union and entitled to congressional representation without ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment. The Reconstruction Act, itself, declared current Southern state governments illegal and divided the South into military districts, granting army commanders responsibility for protecting the rights of blacks and Southern Unionists.

Then, under the Army Act of 1867, Congress prevented the President as Commander-In-Chief from issuing orders directly to these commanders in the field by requiring him to send orders through the general of the army, Ulysses S. Grant.

Johnson vetoed these Acts (and the subsequent supplemental Reconstruction Act) and Congress overrode the vetoes. On March 23, 1867 Congress passed the supplemental Reconstruction Act. This legislation directed federal military commanders to set up a voter registration procedure and get a convention for writing a State constitution underway.

Subsequently, the South was divided into five military districts. President Johnson selected five commanders and instructed these appointees not to interfere with the Southern governments, but to act through them and cooperate with them. They were also to accept any oath of loyalty to the United States at face value.

A second supplementary Act passed by Congress took full control of the military in the South. The existing state governments were declared "not legal." Commanders were directed to remove any civil officer who failed to comply with the Reconstruction Acts. Inquiries into the validity of loyalty oaths were determined to be proper. Registration boards were granted broad powers to determine voter qualifications.

There was quite a tug of war between Congress and President Johnson.

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