History of the United States II / Unit 1 USH2 0018 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
The Impeachment
The idea
On February twenty-fourth, eighteen sixty-eight, the House impeached Andrew Johnson, the first impeachment of a president in American history; Digital History gives the vote as one hundred twenty-six to forty-seven. Eleven articles followed, most of them charging that removing Stanton had violated the Tenure of Office Act. On May sixteenth the Senate voted thirty-five to nineteen to convict, one vote short of the two-thirds required. Seven Republicans voted to acquit, and two later votes ended the same way.
In practice
A president tried for dismissing a cabinet secretary, and saved by seven members of his opponents' own party.
Where people slip
The familiar version says Johnson was impeached over Reconstruction. The articles charged him with removing Stanton against a statute Congress had passed the year before. The quarrel beneath them was about Reconstruction, but the offence Congress could try him for was the dismissal. Senate.gov says the acquitting minority wished to protect the office of the president.
Your place on the trail
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