![]() ![]() President Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives on Februand the Senate tried the case in a trial that lasted from March to May 1868. It was the president, himself, however, who was brought to trial. ![]() Johnson believed the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and wanted it to be legally tried in the courts. 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. 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.īoth Lincoln and Johnson had experienced problems with Stanton, an ally of the Radicals in Congress. 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. As neither side was willing to compromise, a clash of wills ensued. 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. 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.Īndrew Johnson was intent on carrying out this plan when he assumed the presidency. 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). President Andrew Johnson, impeached for violation of the Tenure of Office Actīefore 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. ![]()
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