We have seen the subject of Andrew Johnson and his personality and Presidency pop up several times in movies and television. There was the film TENNESSEE JOHNSON, wherein Van Heflin is heroically fighting the power-hungry Lionel Barrymore (Thaddeus Stephen) to save the Presidency from being a rubber stamp of Congress. We saw Walter Matthau on one episode of PROFILES IN COURAGE, playing Johnson as a loyal supporter of the North while his state secedes in 1860, thus being the only Southern U. S. Senator to remain loyal to the nation, and trying to convince his fellow Tennesseans to do likewise at risk to his neck. Then, in another episode of PROFILES IN COURAGE about Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas, we saw the pressures Stevens and the Radical Republicans put on Ross and his six fellow Republicans who refused to vote to remove Johnson from office.
There certainly is a lot of drama in the story - oddly a modern film treatment has never been made (possibly because of the recent impeachment trial of President Clinton - the subject is a sore one to many people). However, it is worth looking at a little more closely.
It may surprise many people but there have been successful impeachments and removals of American political figures outside of Johnson and Clinton. Governor William Sulzer of New York was impeached in a blatant frame up in 1913, and removed from office due to the scheming of Boss Charley Murphy of Tammany Hall. Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached in 1876, but he had resigned his office first, and it was decided that Belknap could no longer be impeached - he was no longer threatened by removal! Things were more cut and dried in 1868. The Radical Republicans were aware that President Andrew Johnson was not interested in giving full equality to African-American males as they wanted. It went against his poor white Southern prejudices to think of an African American as a social equal to a white man (I might add that most Radical Republicans were probably not willing to go beyond a certain point about equality - social and economic equality was hardly what a pompous Boston Brahmin type like Charles Sumner had in mind). Johnson was thus stalling the benefits the Radicals wanted. He was also stalling any punishment to the ex-Confederacy on the whole too.
Congress did several things that have not been repeated before or since. Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, got a tenth justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court with Congressional approval (to reduce the block lead by Chief Justice Roger Taney - of "Dred Scott" infamy - from blocking his agenda). After Lincoln died, one of the slots fell open. Johnson tried to appoint someone, and Congress rejected his appointment. Then a second seat fell open. There were now only eight justices. Congress passed a law making the total number of justices only eight! It was not until the Grant Administration that Congress restored the ninth seat.
Johnson's policies were hamstrung, except for Seward's handling of the State Department. This culminated in France leaving Emperor Maximillian to his fate at the hands of Juarez, and in the purchase of Alaska (although Congress disliked the bargain $7.2 million dollar price paid - and blocked Seward's attempts to buy the Danish West Indies as well).
In 1866 Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which said that if Congress approved the appointment of a person to the Cabinet, Congressional approval was needed for his removal. Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton was secretly spying on President Johnson's cabinet meetings for the Radicals. Johnson put up with it for two years, and then tried to remove him without Congressional approval. It was this violation of the law that was the basis of the impeachment.
The House was well handled by Thaddeus Stevens and Benjamin Butler, and they impeached (charged) Johnson with acting illegally. It then went into the Senate, where (as we know) the Democrats and the seven Republicans voted for acquittal.
The Tenure of Office Act was on the books until 1886. That year, Grover Cleveland had it examined by the Attorney General, and in a Supreme Court decision it was held to be unconstitutional.
There certainly is a lot of drama in the story - oddly a modern film treatment has never been made (possibly because of the recent impeachment trial of President Clinton - the subject is a sore one to many people). However, it is worth looking at a little more closely.
It may surprise many people but there have been successful impeachments and removals of American political figures outside of Johnson and Clinton. Governor William Sulzer of New York was impeached in a blatant frame up in 1913, and removed from office due to the scheming of Boss Charley Murphy of Tammany Hall. Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached in 1876, but he had resigned his office first, and it was decided that Belknap could no longer be impeached - he was no longer threatened by removal! Things were more cut and dried in 1868. The Radical Republicans were aware that President Andrew Johnson was not interested in giving full equality to African-American males as they wanted. It went against his poor white Southern prejudices to think of an African American as a social equal to a white man (I might add that most Radical Republicans were probably not willing to go beyond a certain point about equality - social and economic equality was hardly what a pompous Boston Brahmin type like Charles Sumner had in mind). Johnson was thus stalling the benefits the Radicals wanted. He was also stalling any punishment to the ex-Confederacy on the whole too.
Congress did several things that have not been repeated before or since. Lincoln, at the height of the Civil War, got a tenth justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court with Congressional approval (to reduce the block lead by Chief Justice Roger Taney - of "Dred Scott" infamy - from blocking his agenda). After Lincoln died, one of the slots fell open. Johnson tried to appoint someone, and Congress rejected his appointment. Then a second seat fell open. There were now only eight justices. Congress passed a law making the total number of justices only eight! It was not until the Grant Administration that Congress restored the ninth seat.
Johnson's policies were hamstrung, except for Seward's handling of the State Department. This culminated in France leaving Emperor Maximillian to his fate at the hands of Juarez, and in the purchase of Alaska (although Congress disliked the bargain $7.2 million dollar price paid - and blocked Seward's attempts to buy the Danish West Indies as well).
In 1866 Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which said that if Congress approved the appointment of a person to the Cabinet, Congressional approval was needed for his removal. Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton was secretly spying on President Johnson's cabinet meetings for the Radicals. Johnson put up with it for two years, and then tried to remove him without Congressional approval. It was this violation of the law that was the basis of the impeachment.
The House was well handled by Thaddeus Stevens and Benjamin Butler, and they impeached (charged) Johnson with acting illegally. It then went into the Senate, where (as we know) the Democrats and the seven Republicans voted for acquittal.
The Tenure of Office Act was on the books until 1886. That year, Grover Cleveland had it examined by the Attorney General, and in a Supreme Court decision it was held to be unconstitutional.
