Feb. 22, 1868. |
February. |
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[619]
step in opposition to the will of Congress than he had hitherto ventured to take.
On that day he issued an order to Mr. Stanton, removing him from the office of Secretary of War, and another to Lorenzo Thomas, the Adjutant-General, appointing him Secretary of War, ad interim. These orders were officially communicated to the Senate, whereupon that body passed a resolution that the President had no authority under the Constitution and laws to remove the Secretary of War.
In the mean time, Thomas had appeared at the War Department and demanded the position to which the President had assigned him, when Mr. Stanton, his superior, refused to yield it, and ordered him to return to his proper office.
The President being satisfied that he would not be permitted to use military force in the matter, did not attempt to eject Mr. Stanton by force, and so that officer retained his place.
This action of the President was so manifestly in violation of law, that on the following day
the House of Representatives, by a vote of 126 to 47,1 “Resolved that Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors.”
2 On the 29th,
a committee of the House, appointed for the purpose,3 presented articles of impeachment, nine in number, and these, with slight alterations, were accepted on the 2d of March.4 The House then proceeded to the appointment of Managers, to conduct the business before the
1 This was an almost strictly party vote. Only two Republicans (Cary of Ohio, and Stewart of New York) voted in the negative, while all the Democrats voted against the resolution.
2 We have seen (page 617) that the subject of the impeachment of the President was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. That Committee submitted reports,
Nov. 25, 1867. |
3 The committee consisted of Messrs. Boutwell, Stevens (who made the motion for impeachment), Bingham, Wilson, Logan, Julian and Ward. Messrs. Stevens and Bingham were appointed a committee to announce to. the Senate the action of the House. This they did on the 25th of February, when the Senate, by unanimous. vote, referred the subject to a select committee of seven to consider it.
4 The following is a brief summary of the charges in the Articles of Impeachment :--Article 1. Unlawfully ordering the removal of Mr, Stanton as Secretary of War, in violation of the provisions of the Tenure-of-Office. Act. Article 2. Unlawfully appointing General Lorenzo Thomas as Secretary of War, ad. interim. Article 8. Substantially the same as Article 2, with the additional averment that there was at the time of the appointment of General Thomas, no vacancy in the office of Secretary of War. Article 4. Conferring with one Lorenzo Thomas, and other persons to the House of Representatives unknown, to prevent, by intimidation and threats, Mr. Stanton, the legally appointed Secretary of War, from holding that office. Article 5. Conspiring: with General Thomas and others to hinder the execution of the Tenure-of-Office Act, and in pursuance of this, conspiracy, attempting to prevent Mr. Stanton from acting as Secretary of War. Article 6. Conspiring with General Thomas and others to take forcible possession of the property in the War Department. Article 7. Repeated the charge of conspiring to hinder the execution of the Tenure-of-Office Act, and prevent Mr. Stanton: from executing the office of Secretary of War. Article 9. Charged that the President called before him the commander of the forces in the Department of Washington and declared to him that a law, passed on the 80th of June, 1867, directing that “all orders and instructions relating to military operations, issued by the President or Secretary of War, shall be issued through the General of the Army, and in case of his inability-through the next in rank,” was unconstitutional, and not binding upon the commander of the Department of Washington; the intent being to induce that commander to violate the law, and to obey orders issued directly from the President.
On the 3d of March, the managers presented two additional articles, which were adopted by the House. The first charged that the President had, by inflammatory speeches, during his journey from Washington to. Chicago, already mentioned (page 615), attempted, with a design to set aside the authority of Congress, to bring it into disgrace, and to excite the odium and resentment of the people against Congress and the laws it enacted. The second charged that in August, 1866, the President, in a public speech at Washington City, declared that Congress was not a body authorized by the Constitution to exercise legislative powers; and then went on to specify his offenses in endeavoring by unlawful means, to prevent the execution of laws passed by Congress. These formed the 10th and 11th Articles of Impeachment.
Scanned printed text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.