What I Am Reading: "The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation" by Brenda Wineapple

This book, selected obviously due to the timeliness of its subject matter, featured a familiar cast of Civil War political characters and Gilded Age political characters, with some of them recast into unfamiliar and unexpected roles. I discovered while reading it that I didn't have as firm a grasp on Gilded Age politics as I thought, as most of my prior reading consisted of checking in on the Presidential Elections. This book on Andrew Johnson’s impeachment fleshed out the chaotic political landscape of the time to a much greater extent.

Historiographically speaking, Reconstruction and the Radical Republicans got a bad rap for many years, and it is only somewhat recently that they have clawed their way back into historical favor. This is no doubt only helped by Andrew Johnson's similarities to political figures of the current day, limited and martyred officeholders who stoke division and racial animus. Hopefully the history doesn't need much introduction: embroiled in winning the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln sought the support of War Democrats during the 1864 election, and nominated as his Vice President the belligerent populist Andrew Johnson, lower-class foe of the southern plantation aristocracy. After the end of the war and Lincoln's assassination, Johnson turned out to be a major southern sympathizer, class grievances aside, and pursued a Reconstruction policy of maximum leniency for former Confederates. Radical Republicans, those who sought to bring social change to the south and empower the freedmen, found this out early. Lincoln was assassinated early in 1865, and in the period before Congress convened at the end of that year Johnson let states back into the country without much punishment or reform. The political situation was complicated at the time - Johnson was a former Democrat, but wasn't claimed by the Democratic party at the time, as he and Lincoln had run under the banner of the "Union Party." Many political figures had seen parties rise, fall, and disband within the span of their careers. Everyone viewed him as a placeholder President, and all were eager to proceed to the 1868 election. Democrats didn't necessarily support his Reconstruction plan, as they were wary of the imposition of executive power. Some looked to Lincoln's alleged preference for leniency for the south, though other statements he made indicated a desire to right the long-standing wrongs of slavery by doing more than just freeing the slaves. I think it is a canard to say that Lincoln would have pursued the same Reconstruction policies that Johnson did.

The consequence of Johnson's coddling of the south was violence. African Americans who tried to assert their rights, or simply live their daily lives post-slavery, were murdered in an epidemic of "isolated incidents" and a few larger riots and massacres. Despite the outcries of Republicans, Johnson refused to authorize any military or civilian efforts to curb this violence. He spent more of his time pardoning any Confederate who asked him for it.

Finally, when Congress reconvened in December of 1865, the Radical Republicans took decisive action. Southern delegations were not admitted to Congress, and a Joint Committee on Reconstruction was formed, with longstanding abolitionist firebrand Thaddeus Stevens at the helm. Meanwhile, some Union generals were executing commands such as Sherman's Field Order 15 and Circular #13 (land redistribution to freed slaves). Johnson vetoed Congress' first reconstruction bills to allow the military to control the process, but he was overridden. He sought to have his own sympathetic Generals in charge of the military districts that were formed to administer the states prior to their readmission.

Politically, in anticipation of the 1866 elections, Johnson sought to use the old Union Party to his advantage, and cobble together the conservative Republicans and War Democrats to use as a fulcrum, pivoting the party to embrace Peace Democrats and southerners and defeat the Radical Republicans. His resulting campaign tour, the "Swing Around the Circle," was a disaster, and the Union Party failed to properly cohere. The Radical Republicans gained strength in the election.

One of the inescapable political conclusions of the book is that throughout his entire administration, Johnson caused his own impeachment; not necessarily through the violation of the law, as shall be seen, but through his own policies and lack of political competence. Many Republicans were conservative or moderate; they thought that they had done their duty by ending slavery and were not seeking increased governmental involvement on behalf of African Americans. The Republicans in early 1868, simply wanted to coast into the next administration, where Ulysses S. Grant was a sure winner. Democrats had made a bit of a comeback in the 1867 elections, and Reconstruction and racial equality were not thought to be political winners. However, Johnson's disputations of such legislation as the 14th Amendment and the Reconstruction bills, and his loyalty purges and coddling of former Confederates, united the Republican party behind the opinion that he was attempting to erase the hard-won gains of the Civil War. Even Democrats were unhappy with his opposition to the 14th Amendment, as this simple ratification would have allowed southern states back into the Congress.

Johnson's relationships with his holdover appointees was also interesting - William Seward, major Republican figure, continued as Secretary of State and became a backer of Johnson, because he was politically moderate and Johnson gave him free reign over foreign policy. Johnson's big fight was with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who had become a Radical over the course of the war and desired an aggressive program of Reconstruction, in which the military, still occupying the south, played a large role. Johnson's tangles with Stanton were the proximate cause of his impeachment. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, prohibiting the President from firing cabinet appointees (to make a long story short). After trying to remove Stanton under the provisions of the act and being rebuffed, Johnson simply violated the act to fire Stanton. He appointed Grant as interim Secretary, but Grant, also increasingly Radical, allowed Stanton back into the position. Impeachment, which had guttered throughout Johnson's tenure and was not regarded as a practical option, finally advanced through committee after this direct violation of law.

The actual impeachment and trial only make up about 40 pages of the book. Most of the 11 articles drawn up and rapidly passed by the House dealt with the effort to remove Stanton, but the last catch-all article dealt with Johnson's mismanagement in office and his weak Reconstruction policy. After this success in the House, the effort is largely doomed in the Senate. Congressman Benjamin Butler of Massachusetts, formerly the military governor of New Orleans during the war, was the main prosecutor, while Johnson had an ideologically diverse legal team. The discussions hinged upon the technicalities of the Tenure Of Office Act, and whether Stanton, as a Lincoln appointee, was only protected during Lincoln's turn; and if a President was able to "test a law's constitutionality" by breaking it. In a reversal of the expected formula, the defense argued on behalf of sweeping American values (the dignity of the Presidency and such) while the prosecutors focused on legal niceties. The writing was on the wall early on when Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase decided the question that bedevils any impeachment: is it fundamentally a political question (allowing for mismanagement and ideological reasons for impeachment) or a legal one? Chase, still hoping to be President, oriented the proceedings toward a legal process.

With all Democrats voting to acquit, Johnson's defense needed seven Republicans to join them. They received these seven votes, some for high-minded reasons, and some for low; such as Senator Edmund Ross of Kansas, who made his fortune and political power swindling Native Americans and sought the patronage to continue that career. Delays in the vote gave the defense time to make "arguments" to their swing votes. If Johnson had been removed, Radical Republican Benjamin Wade would have been President, a prospect that turned off some Senators. The 11th omnibus impeachment article was voted on first, and its failure presaged the failure of the others, though the later votes were taken months later after the Republican convention.

The book covers Grant's subsequent Presidential victory, though doesn't spend much time on his more robust Reconstruction. I think Grant is the most underrated of our Presidents. Most of the coverage is of the racial aspect of politics at the time, the anti-racism of those who sought to remove Johnson and the racist motivations of his administration and its defenders. Grant's win in 1868 was comfortable in the electoral college but fairly narrow in the popular vote, and in fact the votes of southern blacks put him over the top. The book ends on a happy note, with Johnson, the only former President to return to the Senate, coming back in 1875 to be met by several African American Congressmen and Senators. Despite the Jim Crow repression that followed Reconstruction, it was nice to see this small level of justice served, at least, during the Grant Administration, the Administration that actually followed through on some of the promise of the Civil War.