What was one reason congress gave for wanting to remove president johnson from office?

Summary

In this Presidents and the Constitution eLesson we examine how the conflict between Andrew Johnson and the Congress regarding reconstruction plans after the Civil War led to the nation’s first impeachment of a President. This trial was a test of the constitutional principles of separation of powers and checks and balances. In the end, the Founders’ mechanism of three co-equal branches of government proved strong enough to resolve the crisis.

Narrative

When Andrew Johnson took the oath of office following Lincoln’s death on April 15, 1865, he saw his main task as “restoration” of the states to the Union as quickly and leniently as possible. The Thirteenth Amendment banned slavery nationally as of December of that year, but states were in control of the rights of the freedmen.

Congress was dominated by Republicans, and no states from the former Confederacy were represented. The Republicans believed that Congress—not the President—was in charge of a “reconstruction” process. States would return to the Union only after agreeing to a significant shift away from state power to federal control. Congress passed a number of laws protecting freedmen and restricting the powers of the states. Johnson vetoed them, and Congress overrode the vetoes.

The growing tension between Johnson and Congress was reflected in Johnson’s cabinet. (Most of the cabinet members had been appointed by Lincoln.) One of the most influential cabinet members was Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who strongly opposed Johnson’s lenient approach toward the South. Tired of Stanton’s resistance in his Cabinet, Johnson fired Stanton. This was a violation of the recently enacted Tenure of Office Act, which required the President to seek the Senate’s approval before removing an official whose appointment had required confirmation by the Senate. The power struggle between President and Congress accelerated, and the House of Representatives passed an Impeachment Resolution on February 24, 1868.

The trial before the Senate began on March 30, 1868. The President’s defense team made the following points: 1. The language of the Tenure of Office Act was unclear, leaving doubt about whether it covered Stanton’s situation. Stanton had been appointed by Lincoln, not by Johnson; 2. The Tenure of Office Act interfered with the President’s constitutional power to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” A President cannot carry out the law if he cannot trust his advisers; 3. The proper way to remove a president for political misdeeds was through an election, not impeachment.

The President’s accusers made the following main points: 1. The President had clearly violated the Tenure of Office Act by dismissing Stanton without the consent of the Senate; 2. It is the President’s duty to faithfully execute a law passed by Congress, even if he believes it to be unconstitutional. Otherwise, a President could routinely frustrate the will of the people as expressed by their elected representatives.

The core of the trial was about the Tenure of Office Act, but the issues were much broader than that. Johnson’s accusers argued that not only had he violated the Tenure of Office Act, but also that he represented the return of “Slave Power” to the United States. Johnson’s defenders accused Republicans of using impeachment as a political tool.

Thirty-five Senators voted to convict Johnson, and nineteen voted to acquit. This was one vote short of the two-thirds majority that the Constitution requires to remove a President from office. President Johnson served the remaining ten months of his term as President. He continued to veto bills that he saw as unconstitutional, but he enforced the laws when passed. Congress continued to override the vetoes. When Johnson died of a stroke on July 31, 1875, he was buried as he had requested, wrapped in a U.S. flag, with his head resting on his copy of the U.S. Constitution.

Questions

1. What was the main difference between President Johnson’s approach to “restoration” and the Republicans’ approach to “reconstruction”?
2. Why did President Johnson remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office?
3. What was the Tenure of Office Act?
4. Did Johnson’s impeachment trial prove the effectiveness of the impeachment process as a way to preserve the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches? Why or why not?

Before Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, he had formulated a plan of reconstruction that would be lenient toward the defeated South as it rejoined the Union. He planned to grant a general amnesty to those who pledged an oath of loyalty to the United States and agreed to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery (though high-ranking Confederate officials and military leaders were to be excluded from the general amnesty).

Lincoln's plan also stated that when a tenth of the voters who had taken part in the 1860 election had agreed to the oath within a particular state, then that state could formulate a new government and start sending representatives to Congress.

Andrew Johnson was intent on carrying out this plan when he assumed the presidency. This policy, however, did not sit well with the so-called Radical Republicans in Congress, who wanted to set up military governments and implement more stringent terms for readmission for the seceded states. As neither side was willing to compromise, a clash of wills ensued.

The political backing to begin impeachment proceedings against the president came when Johnson breached the Tenure of Office Act by removing Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, from the cabinet. The Tenure of Office Act, passed over Johnson's veto in 1867, stated that a president could not dismiss appointed officials without the consent of Congress.

Both Lincoln and Johnson had experienced problems with Stanton, an ally of the Radicals in Congress. Stanton's removal, therefore, was not only a political decision made to relieve the discord between the president and his cabinet, but a test of the Tenure of Office Act as well. Johnson believed the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and wanted it to be legally tried in the courts. It was the president, himself, however, who was brought to trial.

President Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives on February 24, 1868 and the Senate tried the case in a trial that lasted from March to May 1868. In the end, the Senate voted to acquit President Andrew Johnson by a margin of 35 guilty to 19 not guilty - one vote short of the two-thirds needed to convict.

In a 1926 case, the Supreme Court declared that the Tenure of Office Act had been invalid.

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