In May, 1868, the Senate came
within a single
vote of taking the unprecedented step of removing a president from
office.
Although the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson was ostensibly about a
violation of the Tenure of Office Act, it was about much more than
that.
Also on trial in 1868 were Johnson's lenient policies towards
Reconstruction
and his vetoes of the Freedmen's Bureau Act and the Civil Rights
Act.
The trial was, above all else, a political trial....(cont.--->) |