Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (49 page)

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Authors: David O. Stewart

Tags: #Government, #Presidents & Heads of State, #Executive Branch, #General, #United States, #Political Science, #Biography & Autobiography, #19th Century, #History

BOOK: Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy
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I hope you will quietly: New York Herald
, February 24 and 25, 1868; Logan Family Papers, February 22, 1868. Many years later, while a judge in California, former Gen. N. P. Chipman confirmed that after receiving Logan’s note, he “organized the members of the Grand Army Posts and held them in readiness to rally at a signal in defense of Secretary Stanton or the Congress.” N. P. Chipman to Mary Logan, June 5, 1907, Logan Family Papers.

That evening, a reporter:
Mary Logan,
Reminiscences of the Civil War and Reconstruction
, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press (1970), p. 154;
Illinois Daily State Journal
, February 22, 1868; James Pickett Jones,
John A. Logan, Stalwart Republican from Illinois
, Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press (1982), pp. 21–22; Townsend, p. 129;
New York Herald
, February 22 and 24, 1868;
The Independent
, February 27, 1868.

During the evening the President: New York Herald
, February 26, 1868.

Early in the crisis:
Thayer, pp. 438, 441;
New York Herald
, February 24, 1868;
Baltimore Sun
, February 22, 1868.

Soon the newspapers: New York Times
, February 26, 1868;
New York Herald
, February 25, 1868.

During an hour’s recess: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1336 (February 22, 1868). This narrative draws on the contemporaneous reports, published on February 23, 1868, in the
New York Times
, the
New York Herald
, and the
Chicago Tribune
.

He settled back: Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868;
New York Times
February 23, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, February 23, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, February 24, 1868. Ten days later, another newspaper proclaimed that the impeachment effort, for Stevens, was “the fountain of youth” that allowed him to “muster and bluster about the House with the vigor and energy of fifty.”
Cincinnati Commercial
, March 5, 1868.

He struck a threatening note: Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868. Navy Secretary Welles thought that Democratic leaders “secretly desire the conviction and deposition of the President.” Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 319, (March 23, 1868).
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1336–37 (February 22, 1868).

Third, that the Tenure of Office Act: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1338–39 (February 22, 1868) (Rep. Brooks).

A Tennessean won the prize: Globe
Supp., p. 1342 (Rep. Bingham) (February 22, 1868); p. 1348 (Rep. Kelley) (February 22, 1868); p. 1391 (Rep. Clarke) (February 24, 1868).
Globe
App., p. 189 (Rep. Newcomb) (February 22, 1868);
Globe
App., p. 160 (Rep. Plants);
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1396 (Rep. Shanks); ibid. (Rep. Stokes).

The Republicans were “blind with rage”: Globe
App., p. 249 (Rep. Demas Barnes);
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1397 (Rep. Eldridge), p. 1353 (Rep. Phelps), p. 1349 (Rep. Beck) (February 22, 1868);
Globe
App., p. 164 (Rep. Kerr) (February 24, 1868), p. 195 (Rep. Golladay).

Would troops march:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 289 (February 22, 1868).

Assuring Johnson:
Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers
, testimony of Gen. William Emory (February 26, 1868);
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., Supp., pp. 79–80;
New York Times
, February 24, 1868.

Senator Ben Wade of Ohio: Chicago Tribune
, February 23, 1868;
Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868;
New York Herald
, February 23 & 24, 1868.

Johnson insisted that his course:
Cowan, p. 11;
New York Herald
, February 22, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, February 23, 1868;
Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868; Moore Diary, February 22, 1868, p. 98.

The Senate never did take up:
Moore Diary, February 22, 1868, p. 98;
Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, February 24, 1868; Ward to Barlow, February 27, 1868, in Barlow Papers, Box 68. The
Chicago Tribune
reported on March 8 that the Senate Military Committee resolved not to act on the Ewing appointment until the impeachment proceedings were completed. Silvia Tsoldos, “The Political Career of Thomas Ewing, Sr.,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Delaware (1977), p. 298.

One newspaper gushed:
Lately Thomas,
Sam Ward, “King of the Lobby,”
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. (1965), p. 342;
Chicago Inter-Ocean
, February 20, 1875. A correspondent described Ward as “pudgy as a neatly cooked dumpling.”
San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin
, January 28, 1875;
Chicago Tribune
, May 29, 1868.

One newspaper acknowledged: New York Times
, October 11, 1868.

Though this was surely good advice: New York Times
, May 20, 1884;
New York Tribune
, May 20, 1884;
New York World
, May 20, 1884; Maude Howe Elliott,
Uncle Sam Ward and His Circle
, New York: The Macmillan Co. (1938), p. 489. Johnson quickly leaned toward retaining as his lawyers both Attorney General Henry Stanberry of Ohio and Jeremiah Black of Pennsylvania.
New York Times
, February 25, 1868. Black had served as attorney general in the last Democratic administration, that of James Buchanan, while Stanberry had been a Whig (precursor to the Republican Party). Stanberry also was a former law partner of Thomas Ewing, Sr., who served in the Cabinets of two Whig administrations and was one of Johnson’s few trusted advisers.

Cherokee Chief John Ross:
Craig Miner and William E. Unrau,
The End of Indian Kansas,
Lawrence: University of Kansas Press (2d ed., 1990), pp. 64–65; Annie Louise Abel,
The American Indian and the End of the Confederacy, 1863–1866
, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press (1993; originally 1925), pp. 70–71, 82–97, 280; John Ross to Johnson, June 28 1866, in
Johnson Papers
10:634.

To prove his dedication:
Miner and Unrau, pp. 64–65; Report of Kansas Legislature Joint Committee to Investigate Senatorial Elections, February 24, 1872, excerpted in Daniel W. Wilder,
Annals of Kansas
, Topeka: Geo. W. Martin, Kansas Publishing House (1872), pp. 572–74;
Report of the Joint Committee of Investigation, Appointed by the Kansas Legislature of 1872
, Topeka, KS: S. S. Prouty, Public Printer (1872), pp. 195, 162, 243 253 (testimony that Perry Fuller paid as much as $40,000 to secure the election of Edmund G. Ross to the Senate); H. B. Denman to Thomas Ewing, Jr., January 12, 1868, Thomas Ewing Family Papers, Box 74;
Chicago Tribune
, September 1, 1868;
Rea v. Missouri
, 84 U.S. 532 (1873); Fuller to Johnson, December 30, 1867, in
Johnson Papers
13:382–83; Daniel Voorhees to Johnson, January 24, 1868, ibid., pp. 494–95; Fuller to Johnson, January 25, 1868, ibid., pp. 495–96.

Adjutant General Thomas: New York Times
, February 24, 1868; Moore Diary/AJ, February 23, 1868, p. 99; Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers
, testimony of Lorenzo Thomas (February 26, 1868), p. 13.

From ten in the morning: New York Herald
, February 25, 1868;
New York Times
, February 25, 1868.

They were choosing: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1400 (February 24, 1868).

When the tally was announced: New York Herald
, February 25, 1868.

Stevens, Boutwell, and Bingham: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1402 (February 24, 1868).

Not for several more days:
Thomas and Hyman, pp. 595–96, citing the sergeant’s reminiscences in the
New York Commercial Advertiser
of March 24, 1903.

“Make your calculations”:
Ward to Barlow, February 25, 1868, in Barlow Papers, Box 68.

13. THE WATERLOO STRUGGLE

 

If he was impeached:
Fessenden, vol. 2, p. 184 (March 31, 1868, letter to his cousin).

The president, he intoned:
J. W. Binckley, “The Leader of the House,”
Galaxy
1:496 (July 1866);
The Independent
, February 27, 1868;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1399 (February 24, 1868).

The falling snow: Chicago Tribune
, February 26, 1868; Briggs, p. 44; Ellis, pp. 92–93.

Wade appointed a committee: New York Times
, February 26, 1868;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1405–6 (February 25, 1868).

Then Stevens lay down: Chicago Tribune
, February 26, 1868;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1421 (February 25, 1868);
Boston Advertiser
, February 26, 1868.

The committee members braved: Chicago Tribune
, February 25, 1868.

Asked if he still despised: Baltimore Sun
, February 26, 1868;
New York Times
, February 26, 1868;
New York Times
, February 26, 1868.

[T]here was not a moment:
Francis A. Richardson, “Recollections of a Washington Newspaper Correspondent,”
Records of the Columbia Historical Society
, Washington, D.C., 1903, pp. 24, 37.

The facts, though:
Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers
. Transcripts of testimony by General Emory and his second, Colonel George Wallace, appeared in the
New York Herald
on March 1, and the
New York Times
on March 2, 1868;
New York Times
, February 25, 1868.

Looking thin and haggard:
Beauregard, p. 126, quoting diary of Rep. George Julian, March 1, 1868, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis (March 1, 1868); Julian, p. 314. George Boutwell remembered that Stevens’s “health was much impaired, but his intellectual faculties were free from any cloud.” Boutwell,
Reminiscences
, vol. 2, p. 120.

Reviving those claims: New York Times
, February 28, 1868, and February 27, 1868.

No one thought: New York Times
, February 26 and 27, 1868.

When Thomas called for his mail: New York Times
, February 27, 1868; Townsend, p. 130; Thomas and Hyman, pp. 597–98.

As the Radical
Philadelphia Press:
Philadelphia Press
, March 2, 1868;
New York Times
, February 28, 1868; Gerry, p. 863.

The case was destined: New York Times
, February 28 and 29, 1868.

As
The Nation
observed: The Nation
6:166 (February 27, 1868).

Having many overlapping: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1542–44 (February 29, 1868).

That Emory’s testimony:
During the debate, one New York Democrat found that the impeachment article based on General Emory’s testimony “is considered by all candid minds as amounting to nothing and the charges utterly frivolous.” Jerome Mushkat, “The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: A Contemporary View,”
New York History
48:278 (1967) (Rep. Pruyn’s diary, February 29, 1868).

Boutwell betrayed no embarrassment:
Storey to his father, March 3, 1868, in Howe,
Portrait of an Independent
, p. 77.

A Democrat denounced: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 1554 (Rep. Burr) (February 29, 1868); pp. 1554–55 (Rep. Morgan) (February 29, 1868); p. 1563 (Rep. Loughridge) (February 29, 1868); p. 1549 (Rep. Lawrence); pp. 1557–58 (Rep. Mullins); pp. 1553–54 (Rep. Stevens of New Hampshire); p. 1545 (Rep. Bromwell); p. 1544 (Rep. Burr) (February 29, 1868); p. 1563 (Rep. Kerr).

The House then approved: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1612–18 (March 2, 1868);
Chicago Tribune
, March 3, 1868. The seventh draft impeachment article was dropped.
New York Times
, March 2, 1868.

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