When Andrew Johnson took oath of his presidency in April of 1865, he did so to a nation in shock of an assassinated president (McPherson and Hogue, 2010). The religious sectors saw this assassination on Good Friday coincidental due to the fact that the slaves saw Lincoln as Christ-like due to his passing of the Emancipation Proclamation (McPherson and Hogue, 2010). To say that Johnson took office in time of turmoil would be an extreme understatement. The Civil War was coming to an end and the Confederates were at large, for the most part until May 1865. The details of his political partisanship to the south, racial equality and overall reconstruction of the country have been written by many historians throughout the years. The fall of the Confederacy
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It is echoed by McPherson in the President’s speech to the thirty ninth congress that “No master ever had a control so absolute over the slaves as this bill gives to the military officers over both white and colored persons” (Jonson, 2009). A special session was called before the meeting of the Fortieth Congress that would keep the Reconstruction Act intact and allowed congress to pass the Tenure of Office Act that required any office held in government that was dismissed by the president reconfirmed by the Senate (McPherson and Hogue, 2010). This set into motion a series of policies that were to limit the power Johnson had as the president and to protect the Republican members whom Johnson was setting out to dismiss from office. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him; he was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote (The White House, …show more content…
The former Interim Secretary General Ulysses S. Grant won the republican nod and would defeat Johnson in the next election for President. During Johnson’s final address to the Senate he urged them to repeal the Reconstruction Act. The same sentiment was made by McPherson when he stated that “the constitutional struggle between Johnson and Congress did not end in the presidents ouster of office, it did teach Republicans that the program of Reconstruction they wanted demanded executive action, not just legislation.” This important political period of the Union was not great for Johnson but it did teach the states a lesson when dealing with a determined President in the wakes of a national
It is echoed by McPherson in the President’s speech to the thirty ninth congress that “No master ever had a control so absolute over the slaves as this bill gives to the military officers over both white and colored persons” (Jonson, 2009). A special session was called before the meeting of the Fortieth Congress that would keep the Reconstruction Act intact and allowed congress to pass the Tenure of Office Act that required any office held in government that was dismissed by the president reconfirmed by the Senate (McPherson and Hogue, 2010). This set into motion a series of policies that were to limit the power Johnson had as the president and to protect the Republican members whom Johnson was setting out to dismiss from office. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him; he was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote (The White House, …show more content…
The former Interim Secretary General Ulysses S. Grant won the republican nod and would defeat Johnson in the next election for President. During Johnson’s final address to the Senate he urged them to repeal the Reconstruction Act. The same sentiment was made by McPherson when he stated that “the constitutional struggle between Johnson and Congress did not end in the presidents ouster of office, it did teach Republicans that the program of Reconstruction they wanted demanded executive action, not just legislation.” This important political period of the Union was not great for Johnson but it did teach the states a lesson when dealing with a determined President in the wakes of a national