Decision Thirteen: Johnson Impeachment

• When Lincoln appointed the Southerner Andrew Johnson to become his Vice President in 1864, he only did so as a gesture to the South to show that he did not despise them

• Lincoln never could have imagined that a Southern politician would become president only a week after Lee's surrender

• When Lincoln was assassinated, the Congress (Republicans) was appalled by the fact that a Southern Democrat (Johnson) was their new president

• Making things worse, Johnson was seen drunk in public on the day of his inauguration

• President Johnson stood in the way of many of the civil rights measures that the Republicans in Congress wanted to implement after the end of the war. He didn't see any need to make sure ex-Confederates complied with the new laws regarding African Americans. What bothered the Republicans the most was that Johnson wanted to be lenient and forgiving of the Confederate leaders.

• For this,  Republicans in Congress wanted to Impeach Johnson

• Although the Congress has the constitutional authority to Impeach a president, they can only do so if the president "commits high crimes or misdemeanors."

• The Congress framed Johnson with a law called the "tenure of office act," but their real beef was the fact that he was a racist Southerner

• Was Johnson, by his political disagreements with the Republicans in Congress, committing a "high crime"?

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