Andrew Johnson took over as President of the United States when President Lincoln was assassinated. And because Lincoln had been killed so early in his 2nd term, President Johnson ended up serving nearly a full term. But, as many of you know, he came within an eyelash of being removed from office.
When Johnson became President, he also became the head of the existing Cabinet, which included Edwin Stanton, Lincoln’s Secretary of War. It didn’t take long for the two to discover their differences, as both had opposing ideas about how the post-Civil-War Reconstruction should be carried out. And so Johnson sought to remove him from his position.
However, the Tenure of Office Act stood in his way. This bill had been vetoed by President Johnson, but Congress had overridden the veto in March of 1867. The Tenure of Office Act denied the President the power to remove a Cabinet member, appointed by a previous President and approved by Congress, without Congressional permission. Got it? Johnson said the law hamstrung the President and was unconstitutional. And frankly, Congress (who didn’t get along with the President anyway) had passed the measure simply to protect Lincoln’s cabinet.
President Johnson thumbed his nose at the ruling and sacked Secretary Stanton in August of 1867 anyways. Stanton refused to leave. When Johnson tried to appoint a new Secretary at the beginning of the next Congressional session, the House took action and impeached him on February 24, 1868 with a 3-count charge.
The President was acquitted of the 1st count on May 16th, but the three-month trial would come down to a nail-biting vote on the final two counts on this day in history…May 26, 1868. The Senate needed 36 votes to convict and, when the counts were tallied, 35 votes had been received. Andrew Johnson was acquitted on all counts, each by the same 35-19 vote.
Subsequent Supreme Court rulings would show that President Johnson’s position on the Tenure of Office Act was correct. Congress had plenty of reasons to dislike Andrew Johnson, and history has come up with many as well. But the firing of Secretary of War Stanton probably shouldn’t be one of them.