Why Was Andrew Johnson Impeached ?
Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. His father, Jacob, died when he was three years old, leaving the family in abject poverty. His prompted his mother to take on weaving and spinning to support the family financially. |
When he was 10 years old, Johnson's mother bound him to a tailor shop where he worked as an apprentice in return for food and lodging. However, when he was 16, he ran away with his brother to Greeneville, Tennessee, where he worked as a tailor to make money. At the age of 18, he married Eliza McCardle, and they had 5 children together.
Andrew Jackson was the seventeenth president of the United States. There was a lot of conflict and chaos during Andrew Johnson’s term. After the American Revolutionary War ended, it left the northern and southern regions divided into two factions, and the country in utter political confusion.
Andrew Johnson came to power during this time, after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and had a daunting task of bringing peace and order back in the country. It was not easy for him, but he still made some of the most intelligent decisions that continue to benefit America today. Andrew Johnson had formulated a plan of reconstruction that allowed the people from the Southern states to reclaim their citizenship by swearing an oath to the Federal government.
The Republicans were not in agreement with the Reconstruction Plan nor did most of the population in the Southern approve of it as it gave the blacks the right to vote for the leadership in the country. However, Andrew Johnson was firm with his plan and had every intention to implement it without any compromise.
The political party started planning on his impeachment when Johnson fired the then Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, who was the main figure opposing his plan. It was an unconstitutional move on his part as no President can fire a Congressman without the consent of the other Congress members in the party. At that time, Lincoln was also negotiating with Stanton on the same policy that Southern people should be allowed the right to citizenship.
The only wrong step that Andrew Johnson took was to fire two of the important officials. This made the rest of the members in the House of Representatives vote for his impeachment. In May 1868, the president was impeached by a popular vote of thirty-nine, who said he was guilty, while only nineteen members supported his move. He was put on trial by the Senate the same year and was narrowly acquitted by a single vote.
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